These excellent examples of partnerships with the public sector also draw attention to philanthropy’s general reluctance to support the role of the public sector in community and systems change. I first wrote about this in the 1990s. At that time, I pointed out very few community-based partnerships could take even their best outcomes of demonstrations to scale because the public sector was not viable. The denigration of the public sector began in Reagan Administration in various forms, including inadequate funding and privatization and continues to this day. Unfortunately, too often philanthropy has been a co-conspirator in weakening the public sector by funding anti-public sector policies through think tanks and universities or by refusing to address it while supporting community change partnerships.
COMMENTS
BY Arthur T. Himmelman
ON February 20, 2020 11:43 AM
These excellent examples of partnerships with the public sector also draw attention to philanthropy’s general reluctance to support the role of the public sector in community and systems change. I first wrote about this in the 1990s. At that time, I pointed out very few community-based partnerships could take even their best outcomes of demonstrations to scale because the public sector was not viable. The denigration of the public sector began in Reagan Administration in various forms, including inadequate funding and privatization and continues to this day. Unfortunately, too often philanthropy has been a co-conspirator in weakening the public sector by funding anti-public sector policies through think tanks and universities or by refusing to address it while supporting community change partnerships.