Is the Safety Net Broken?
SHOCK WAVES REVERBERATED THROUGH philanthropy circles this past June when the renowned Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles announced it was shutting down. Well-known benefactor Wallis Annenberg, who, as the name suggests, had financed the exhibition space since its debut in 2009, had pulled the plug, deciding to redirect her family foundation’s considerable resources toward Covid-19 and social-justice issues. Word soon spread that quixotic billionaire Larry Ellison was following suit, closing his London-based foundation to refocus his charitable efforts on Covid-19.
Once a metric for visual clarity, 2020 has taken on new meaning as a meme for the relentless disaster and fright besetting us this year. Engulfed by pandemic-fueled soul searching and turmoil, donors large and small have stepped up to pour billions of dollars into coronavirus relief efforts and social-justice initiatives. Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Square and Twitter, shot to the top of a global ranking of individual donors when he committed $1 billion to Covid-19-related assistance. “There has been an outpouring of support for these two issues,” says Jacob Harold, executive vice president of Candid, which tracks philanthropic giving.
More than $17 billion was directed to coronavirus causes from March through October, according to the Center for
