Tackling the Root Causes of Homelessness with Susan Thomas
11/21/24 • 51 min
What can donors do to address the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness? Susan Thomas, president of the Melville Charitable Trust, joins Phil and Grace to discuss the systems and barriers in place in the U.S. that result in well over a half million unhoused Americans. Susan draws on her own personal and familial story as well as decades of experience, arguing that homelessness and structural racism are intrinsically linked, both historically and today.
Additional Resources
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
Listen to “Heather McGhee on the Zero Sum Lie” on the Giving Done Right podcast
What can donors do to address the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness? Susan Thomas, president of the Melville Charitable Trust, joins Phil and Grace to discuss the systems and barriers in place in the U.S. that result in well over a half million unhoused Americans. Susan draws on her own personal and familial story as well as decades of experience, arguing that homelessness and structural racism are intrinsically linked, both historically and today.
Additional Resources
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee
Listen to “Heather McGhee on the Zero Sum Lie” on the Giving Done Right podcast
Previous Episode
Avoid the Myths and Give Smarter with Elisha Smith Arrillaga and Kevin Bolduc
Phil and Grace invite their CEP colleagues Elisha Smith Arrillaga and Kevin Bolduc to the recording studio for a candid and lively conversation that covers nonprofit-donor relationships, big gifts, trust in philanthropy, and the challenges facing nonprofits right now. The four bring their considerable collective experience and CEP’s data-based insights to bear on crucial questions like how donors can best support the causes they believe in, what everyday donors can learn from MacKenzie Scott’s approach to giving, how to think about trust in donor-nonprofit relationships, how to be an effective nonprofit board member, and more. For donors looking to embrace nuance and up their giving ‘game,’ this episode is a must-listen.
Additional Resources
State of Nonprofits 2024: What Funders Need to Know
CEP’s research on the impact of MacKenzie Scott’s giving: “Giving Big: The Impacts of Large, Unrestricted Gifts on Nonprofits” and “Emerging Impacts: The Effects of MacKenzie Scott’s Large, Unrestricted Gifts”
More CEP research
Trust-Based Philanthropy Project
Candid’s insights on nonprofit leadership demographics
Resources on board effectiveness from BoardSource
CEP’s Grantee Perception Report and other assessments
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Additional Resources
Voices Underground Project
The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul From the Revolution to the Civil War by Andrew Delbanco
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
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