Description

The Religion and Theology Program seeks to deepen public knowledge of religion and to draw on the wisdom of faith traditions to advance shared understanding. Partnering with scholars of religion, faith leaders, journalists, artists, museum curators, and communities of faith, our work strengthens understanding of religious diversity, promotes more curious and civil public conversations, and stimulates faith-rooted efforts to envision and build a more just, compassionate, and democratic world.     Stemming from this mission, one goal of the program is to strengthen networks of knowledge communities, field leaders, and philanthropic organizations, including through the broadening of the program’s philanthropic partnerships and support for new communities of philanthropic practice.    In conjunction with this goal, Program Director Jonathan VanAntwerpen participates regularly in multiple philanthropic networks, including a Faith and Philanthropy Network. Initially launched by staff members at the Fetzer Institute, Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations, the working group that anchors this network has grown to include members representing several other foundations – including Kalliopeia, Nathan Cummings, Wayfarer, and others – and it continues to expand.    One outgrowth of this working group has been the launch of an exploratory pooled fund, envisioned in part as a space for members of the Faith and Philanthropy working group to act together (creating deeper connections and coalition), to learn together and create shared narratives, and to strengthen the field of faith-rooted work with a view to stimulating larger future investments from both institutional philanthropy and individual donors. Through a grant approved earlier this year, the Luce Foundation’s Religion and Theology Program helped support the launch of the pooled fund, joining contributors from a range of other philanthropic foundations, including Fetzer, Ford, OSF, Gates, and Trinity Church Wall Street Philanthropies.    In addition, through a pair of earlier grants – approved in 2021 and 2022 – the Religion and Theology Program supported a collaborative philanthropic initiative on faith and democracy, launched and organized by Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement. The initiative supported both pooled funding and the regular gathering of a learning community involving field leaders and representatives of participating philanthropic organizations.    The grant being recommended here, to support the launch of Proteus Fund’s Solidarity Collaborative, takes a similar approach to philanthropic collaboration, though with a different and somewhat sharper focus — one that will include attention to faith and religion in the context of support for jointly developed solidarity projects led by leading social justice organizations in the United States. The new Solidarity Collaborative will build upon Proteus Fund’s established model of donor collaboratives , as well as on earlier work developed through the Open Society Foundations. Details on plans for the new collaborative – including convening and training for leaders, a solidarity grants program, funder meetings and briefings, and additional programmatic activities – are included in the proposal.