Abigail Disney urges donors to be braver about their giving and shouldering more risk

MIAMI BEACH, Florida (AP) — Activist and philanthropist Abigail Disney urged donors and the leaders of major foundations and nonprofits to be braver with their giving, especially at a time when more are fearful about speaking their minds.

“The people who speak up against their own self-interest are becoming very, very important,” Disney said Tuesday at the opening panel of The Elevate Prize Foundation’s Make Good Famous Summit in Miami Beach, Florida. “The people in philanthropy are the people who need to be speaking up … What we are experiencing is nothing compared to the risk that people of color, Indigenous people, immigrants are experiencing every single day in this country.”

Disney told The Associated Press in an interview before the panel that she planned to be more outspoken because “everyone has been so quiet since the election.” Many question why major donors and foundations have not reacted faster to the Trump administration’s cuts to foreign aid and federal funding to nonprofits, though some organizations, like the Marguerite Casey Foundation, have opted to scale up donations dramatically.

“When people see each other act, it becomes easier for them to act,” said Disney, who joked that she inspired Bill Gates to spend all of the Gates Foundation’s assets and shut down the nonprofit by 2045. Disney, whose grandfather Roy Disney co-founded The Walt Disney Co., announced in December that her Daphne Foundation would spend its assets and soon shut down.

Disney represented only one segment of philanthropists convened by The Elevate Prize Foundation to pledge action. “We are gathering at a time of real consequence,” said Joe Deitch, the foundation’s founder and chairman. “The challenges we face on the planet and as a people are daunting. We’re witnessing a level of political and social division that often feels insurmountable.”

The foundation took its own action by awarding international human rights organization Equality Now $1 million in unrestricted funds for its work, which will help the group expand its work.

Tommy Marcus, also known as Quentin Quarantino on Instagram where his 1.1 million followers have donated more than $30 million to charities he supports, said action makes him feel optimistic.

“I get hope from knowing — for the wonderful things that I really care about and I just feel obligated to do something about — that there’s just so many good people who will say, ‘You know, Tommy, I wasn’t thinking about this, but here’s $30’,” he said. “I think the future of fundraising, the future of charity, is in community.”

Marcus said in an interview that he found such support “flattering and a little scary,” and that he takes the responsibility of that support very seriously. And he plans to continue to use his platform to draw attention to causes his followers can support.

“Unfortunately, there’s plenty of reasons to be a bit demotivated and deflated,” he said. “At the same time, I take inspiration from my community and the unique things that we band together for or the way we just help an individual do something.”

Tynesha McHarris, co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund, said that this is a frightening time and there will be setbacks as they fight Trump administration policies that she says target Black women, but there will also be opportunities.

“We are in this moment in time where we have to respond against one of the most lethal threats globally, that is trying to come for everything that is possible,” she said. “I get to be alongside a cadre of people that stand in their way. That is a gift. Take it. Even if it makes your hands sweat or your stomach hurt. It is a gift to be amongst a community and a country and a coalition who would rather choose freedom over fascism, freedom over fear.”

Disney told the panel she would like to eliminate the words “tireless” and “fearless” from the English language,

“No one is tireless or fearless,” she said. “Courage is working through fear, in spite of fear. I’ve never had a moment in my life when I wasn’t fearful. The trick is to hold on to your values through fear.”

_____

Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and non-profits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.