Description

In January 2018, the Council on Foundations, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) organized a half-day symposium entitled “This American Moment: Bridging Religious Divides” at the Religious Freedom Center of the Newseum Institute in Washington DC. The symposium gathered scholars, activists, policy makers and foundation leaders for an exploration of philanthropy’s role in responding productively to the challenges of religious pluralism. The event drew in part on IFYC’s well-established agenda to educate future interfaith leaders and to define and develop a field of interfaith studies and interreligious action. At the same time, it brought new potential partners to the table, and sought to seed future dialogues about the role of, and attention to, religion in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector. 
 
The result of one such dialogue, the special grant being recommended here would bring IFYC and other partners into collaboration with the Lake Institute of Faith in Giving, part of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. The Lake Institute is directed by David King, a historian of religion and philanthropy who will co-lead the project with IFYC Senior Vice President Tony Banout. Working in concert, IFYC and the Lake Institute will review how philanthropic organizations, broadly construed, have related to faith communities and sought to “bridge religious divides” to address pressing civic concerns. The work of the project will involve  a scan of the current landscape and a review of historical patterns, as well as interviews and focus groups with key leaders. This collaborative research will form the basis of a white paper intended for wider circulation, leading into public presentations and other joint dissemination activities. 
 
The project will also serve to analyze and extend a network of scholars, philanthropic actors, and other practitioners who remain relatively loosely connected at present, engaging and seeking to build upon a range of conversations, convenings, and earlier explorations, including the Sojourners Faith and Philanthropy gathering, the efforts of Dan Cardinali and his colleagues at Independent Sector, and a daylong meeting on religion and philanthropy held earlier this year at the Luce Foundation. As the project’s leaders write in their proposal, “In working to understand what is going on through reviewing the literature and compiling the pressing questions of this sector, we believe we will begin to help build a field that has often operated more like a collection of disparate actors with little common knowledge.”