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Indianapolis Star
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Indy Council votes against ousting leadership, approves payment for harassment investigation
The rifts among Indianapolis City-County Council Democrats deepened Monday as east side Democrat Jesse Brown introduced an unsuccessful proposal to remove Council President Vop Osili and Vice President Ali Brown from their leadership roles for their handling of the investigation into sexual harassment claims within the administration of Mayor Joe Hogsett. Before the meeting, Democrat Crista Carlino, who has already called for President Osili and Vice President Brown to resign before walking back those comments, said she was leaving the council's dominant Democratic caucus Monday "after a continued lack of leadership and accountability, abuse of power, and unfair application of our Caucus rules for membership." The 25-person council includes 19 Democrats and six Republicans. Democrats voted to remove Jesse Brown from the caucus earlier this year over his outspoken stances, he has said. While Jesse Brown's proposal to force a full council vote on the leaders' removal failed Monday, Carlino and Republicans Hart and Bain supported the attempt, signaling broader concerns dogging the council's top two Democrats. Jesse Brown said Osili's decision to forcibly remove a victim of alleged sexual harassment from the June council meeting was the tipping point in a series of leadership moves he disagreed with. Osili apologized for the incident two days later and has called for reforms to city policies to protect employees who report sexual harassment. "I don't have a smoking gun," Jesse Brown said, "but I have enough smoke that I have a lot of concerns that have not been answered." Staunch divisions among council members weren't enough to derail the approval Monday night of a final payment to the law firm that investigated allegations of sexual harassment within the Hogsett administration. In last month's council meeting, councilors postponed the remaining two-thirds of the $450,000 owed to Chicago law firm Fisher Phillips after many members and residents objected to a final report's omission of late-night and personal text messages that Hogsett sent to young women he worked with — the same two women alleging that the mayor's former top aide, Thomas Cook, sexually harassed and abused them. Indy politics: Joe Hogsett wants to move past harassment scandal. Many aren't sure he can But at the July 7 meeting, councilors approved the payment with an 18-6 vote, with Democrat Jesse Brown and five Republicans — Derek Cahill, Michael-Paul Hart, Brian Mowery, Michael Dilk and Joshua Bain — voting no. Those who objected said it was wrong to pay the law firm without requiring a follow-up hearing in which councilors could question Fisher Phillips lawyers about their decisions. "We want to know we're getting what we paid for, what we were contractually obligated to receive, such as the body of work that went into this," Mowery said. "Having not seen any of that ... we'd like to have an opportunity to now ask questions of the law firm."
Indianapolis Star
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
Democratic Indy council member calls for council leadership change, Hogsett's resignation
The Indianapolis City-County Council member who leads the committee investigating allegations of sexual harassment within Mayor Joe Hogsett's administration became the fourth councilor to call for the mayor to resign over the scandal on Tuesday night. She also demanded that the council's top two Democrats step down from their leadership roles over their involvement with the investigation. Democratic Councilor Crista Carlino, the chair of the investigative committee that councilors created in September 2024 to investigate the allegations, implied that Council President Vop Osili and Council Vice President Ali Brown mishandled the "marching orders" given to an outside law firm hired to examine the misconduct. She also criticized their leadership displayed during a June 9 council meeting, where Osili ordered sheriff's deputies to forcibly remove alleged victim Lauren Roberts for exceeding the time limit for public comment. Carlino said the firm's 54-page report focused too narrowly on Thomas Cook, the top Hogsett aide who was accused of harassing and pushing for unwanted sexual encounters with several women subordinates, while overlooking alleged misconduct by others including the mayor. IndyStar revealed that the report excluded late night and personal texts Hogsett sent to two of Cook's alleged victims that made them uncomfortable. "Joe Hogsett must resign," Carlino said during a June 17 meeting focused on whether to pay the additional $300,000 that councilors owe to law firm Fisher Phillips. "The leadership of this council needs to step down as well so that we can move forward with fidelity in implementing change and establishing a culture of trust and respect for all city workers and our constituents in the city of Indianapolis." Osili did not attend Tuesday night's committee meeting but sent IndyStar a statement rejecting claims that he somehow limited the scope of the law firm's investigation. "In no way did I have any personal influence on the scope of the contract with the law firm that investigated misconduct in the Hogsett administration," Osili said in a written statement. "To suggest that I did is not only false, it is an attack against my integrity and the values that I hold in every aspect of my life." Brown, the council vice president, also denied that she was involved in narrowing the scope of the investigation. She said that she had no involvement with the investigative committee by choice. She told IndyStar that she has been mostly silent about the investigation throughout the last year as she navigates severe trauma stemming from a sexual assault she experienced while a college student at Ball State University in January 2004. She disclosed that assault to her council colleagues, including Carlino, last year. 'I told them I really want to see this done right and I am having terrible flashbacks,' Brown said. 'I know I couldn't do a good job if I'm hurting this bad. I want to make sure the judgment is not clouded. Trauma isn't a sign of weakness, but it's also about knowing what your limitations are. (Carlino's accusation) feels like a betrayal. It just hurts." Four councilors have now called for Hogsett to resign: Democrats Carlino, Andy Nielsen and Jesse Brown, as well as Republican Joshua Bain. A fifth council member, Jessica McCormick, hinted Tuesday night that she may soon add to calls for the mayor to step down. "I think accountability comes at the top," McCormick said, "and we need to make sure that those that are allowing the behavior to continue and to have gone on need to be held accountable." While Hogsett has acknowledged that his texts to younger women may have made them uncomfortable, he told IndyStar in a June 10 interview that they were part of the "casual conversation style" he has developed with political aides and advisers. He said he has "no intent to resign" before the end of his third term. The council's Administration and Finance Committee ultimately voted 7-5 to recommend approval of the $300,000 payment, which the full council will vote on in a future meeting. Even Carlino voted in favor of the payment, saying that Fisher Phillips fulfilled its duties and accountability should rest with city leaders. Democrats Rena Allen, Maggie Lewis, Nick Roberts, Frank Mascari, Andy Nielsen and Dan Boots also voted in favor of the payment. Despite the approval, councilors said they have questions for Fisher Phillips that they want answered, potentially in a follow-up hearing. The five councilors who voted not to approve the payment to Fisher Phillips — Democrat John Barth and Republicans Michael Dilk, Paul Annee, Derek Cahill and Brian Mowery — said the council should demand those answers before sending over the final $300,000 in a roughly $450,000 investigation. Carlino said her inquiries to Fisher Phillips about a possible follow-up hearing have so far been rebuffed. "I've been ... threatened with the fact that there could be a potential defamation case since some of my colleagues came out speaking against the investigation," Carlino said. "I've been told that they probably will not appear in person, but I remain committed to gathering all the questions not only from my colleagues but from members of the public and those survivors to get our questions answered in writing." Carlino's announcement comes eight days after sheriff's deputies pushed Roberts out of the council chambers while she was trying to criticize the council's investigation of alleged sexual harassment against her and two other women. The council invited her and other victims to speak in person Tuesday night, but none showed — two live out of state, and Roberts said she no longer feels safe at the City-County Building. Instead, the councilors and dozens of Roberts' supporters who want Hogsett to resign listened to a legal advocate from the National Women's Defense League read Roberts' and Caroline Ellert's statements aloud. Councilors also relived the chaos of the June 9 meeting, as a nearly 18-minute audio recording Roberts captured that night was played aloud. At a point in the audio where Roberts breaks down sobbing in an elevator, Carlino shut her eyes while other councilors listened with bowed heads. Roberts, who says she was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder after her experience working with Cook and the Hogsett campaign from November 2014 to June 2015, said the days since the June 9 meeting have been "some of the darkest days of my recovery." Two days after removing Roberts from the June 9 meeting, Osili said he regretted his decision and should have acted to deescalate the situation. "I am no longer willing to put my safety at risk," Roberts wrote in her statement to councilors June 17, "to help you do your jobs."
Indianapolis Star
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Indianapolis Star
'I failed Ms. Roberts': Council President Osili regrets forcible removal of harassment accuser
Indianapolis City-County Council President Vop Osili apologized two days after he ordered a sheriff's deputy to forcibly remove a woman from the June 9 council meeting when she refused to obey a time limit while speaking about alleged mistreatment by Mayor Joe Hogsett and his former right-hand man. Multiple councilors have criticized Osili for kicking out Lauren Roberts, a former Hogsett employee who has criticized the mayor's handling of her allegations that top aide Thomas Cook sexually harassed her in 2015. As Roberts read a statement asking why the city-commissioned report investigating those claims did not include evidence about texts from Hogsett that made her uncomfortable, Osili interrupted her and told her she had only two minutes, the standard time limit for public comment. Roberts, who said she had crowdfunded and taken off from work to travel to the meeting from her home in Denver, responded that she would take her time. She told Osili he was welcome to have law enforcement haul her out. When Roberts' time was up and she kept speaking, Osili told deputies to "remove anyone who is talking at this point." Officers pushed Roberts and her multiple supporters out of the room while she resisted and yelled at them to stop touching her. Osili said in his June 11 statement that he regretted his decision to remove Roberts and should have acted to deescalate the situation. "While I believe and practice upholding the longstanding council rules that limit public comment to two minutes per speaker," Osili said, "I regret the trauma to Ms. Roberts and her supporters. An already difficult moment for a survivor was made even harder. "As it is my responsibility to ensure the council conducts its business with decorum and civility, I should have called a recess, created space for calm, and shown a sensitivity in that emotionally charged moment. In that, I failed Ms. Roberts, my fellow councilors, and those who attended the meeting that evening." Outside the City-County Council Building, Roberts read aloud to media what she had hoped to tell councilors on Monday night. She later posted on social media that "what happened tonight is why some survivors (kill) ourselves." In his written statement, Osili commended the courage of Roberts and Caroline Ellert, a second Cook accuser who was one of three women to share her allegations with IndyStar last year. "As a result, the council will be enacting meaningful changes in how the issue of harassment and misconduct is relayed, addressed and accounted for in the future," Osili said in his statement. "While we did not create this problem, our members will ensure that harassment has no place in our city and county government." The council's Democratic caucus will soon introduce a proposal for reforms in city policy including appointing an independent inspector general to investigate potential violations and an independent human resources board to replace the city's current HR department. The council will discuss the remaining $300,000 it owes to Fisher Phillips, the law firm that investigated the alleged harassment, at a meeting of the Administration and Finance Committee. Councilors voted Monday to delay the bulk of the $450,000 bill after IndyStar revealed that the firm's 54-page report excluded Hogsett's late-night messages to Roberts and Ellert, which they had shared with investigators. Saying he felt "terrible" about Roberts' removal Monday, Councilor Frank Mascari, chair of the Administration and Finance Committee, said he will allow alleged victims to speak for 20 minutes or more at the June 17 meeting at 5:30 p.m. Osili said he supports that move and "will be listening and learning." In a June 10 interview with IndyStar, Hogsett acknowledged that Roberts was discomfited by personal texts he sent her mentioning her boyfriend and calling her "feisty," and Ellert by his questions about her poetry preferences. He added that in the 24-hour endeavor that is a modern political campaign, "it has become easier to develop a casual conversation style with those who you happen to work very closely with." "It was not my intent to cause anybody any discomfort or make them feel uncomfortable. ... But I do in retrospect understand how that may have been something that I change (moving forward)," Hogsett told IndyStar. Hogsett said he has no intention to resign despite three councilors' calls for him to do so, two of which have come in the past two weeks since the law firm's report was released May 29. On Monday, Osili called Hogsett's texts to the women more than 30 years younger than the mayor "odd" and "strange," but said they weren't serious enough to warrant Hogsett's resignation. Roberts, however, said Monday that Osili and other councilors are implicated in the alleged wrongdoing until they call for Hogsett to resign. She criticized the mayor and other city leaders for allowing Cook to step down from his role in late 2020, more than two months after an HR recommendation to fire him and three years after Roberts first raised concerns. "Your constituents cannot afford for you to spend another moment wringing your hands or claiming that your role is limited to policymaking," Roberts read in her statement intended for councilors. "Your positions are not neutral."
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Woman accusing Hogsett aide of sexual harassment dragged out of Indianapolis council meeting
One of three women who has alleged she was sexually harassed and abused by a former top aide to Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett was forcefully removed from the June 9 Indianapolis City-County Council meeting by sheriff's deputies as she tried to relay her concerns to council members. Lauren Roberts said she took time off work and crowdfunded to raise money for a flight from her home in Denver to Indianapolis, where she lived while working for Hogsett's mayoral campaign in 2014 and 2015, so she could speak to council members. After minutes of interruptions and a spat with Council President Vop Osili about a two-minute time limit, Osili ordered sheriff's deputies to escort Roberts out of the council chambers when she refused to stop talking. Yelling at a deputy to stop touching her, Roberts was dragged forcefully out of the council meeting while dozens of her supporters chanted, "Shame!" The encounter overshadowed a meeting where the council ultimately voted not to approve the final payment to the law firm responsible for investigating the Hogsett administration's handling of the alleged abuse. Many councilors are questioning why the final report omitted mentions of late-night texts and messages that the mayor sent Roberts and another woman whose complaints launched the investigation. Roberts is one of two women who alleges she was sexually harassed or assaulted by top Hogsett aide Thomas Cook and received messages from the mayor that she said made her uncomfortable. Video captured at the meeting by reporters also depicts two sheriff's deputies pushing back Roberts' supporters, including Democratic strategist Elise Shrock, who can be heard telling a deputy to stop touching her breasts as he tries to remove her and others from the meeting who surrounded Roberts to protect her. One deputy told Roberts to "walk like a lady" before grabbing her to remove her from the room, footage shows. "Do you have a daughter?" Roberts asked a deputy as he approached her. Moments later, four deputies surrounded Roberts and pushed her out of the chambers. Several councilors said after the incident they were disturbed by Roberts' removal and took issue with Osili's strict adherence to the time limit for public comments, considering the severity of Roberts' allegations. "I've never seen anybody taken out like that," said longtime Democrat Frank Mascari, who was first elected in 2011. "I really feel terrible she was taken out that way." Democrat Jared Evans said he was "disgusted at what just transpired." "This is a local issue that people are protesting," Evans said. "Why they are speaking is because they have not had an outlet with which to speak to this council." Speaking after the meeting, Osili defended his decision to ask Roberts to leave, saying she told councilors she intended to take her time in spite of the stated time limit. Her stance went against long-standing council rules, Osili said. "When someone indicates or says that they will talk for as long as they like, it's not something that this council can stand with," Osili said. Just before the meeting, council Democrats released a statement criticizing Hogsett's leadership and calling for several reforms, including dissolving the city's human resources department and appointing an inspector-general. But the Democratic caucus of 18 members stopped short of saying Hogsett should resign, a belief voiced by two councilors — Democrat Andrew Nielsen and Democratic socialist Jesse Brown — and dozens of people who attended the June 9 council meeting. "Public trust is a sacred obligation continuously earned through principled moral leadership and responsible governance," the statement from the council's Democratic caucus said. "The mayor's past and recent conduct has compromised that trust and weakened the moral authority of the office. His actions are inconsistent with the ethical expectations we hold for ourselves and one another as stewards of this great city's future." 'We won't allow facts to be buried': Hogsett investigative report omissions raise concerns, Republicans call for additional details An outside law firm's investigative report, presented to the City-County Council's investigative committee May 29, found that Hogsett's administration acted within the law during investigations of Cook's alleged misconduct. Three women told IndyStar that Cook sexually harassed them while he was their supervisor, and one said that Cook sexually assaulted her. The report compiled by the Chicago-based law firm Fisher Phillips raised concerns about why Cook was allowed to stay on as the mayor's chief of staff for 68 days following a 2020 city investigation that found Cook had violated city policy. Days later, an IndyStar story raised questions about factual contradictions in the law firm's probe and the omission of suggestive late-night texts that Hogsett sent two of Cook's alleged victims, Caroline Ellert and Roberts. All but one councilor — Democrat Ron Gibson, who released a statement before the meeting backing the law firm's report and the mayor's leadership — ultimately voted Monday night to postpone a vote on the additional $300,000 owed to Fisher Phillips for the $450,000 investigation. "Fisher Phillips did exactly what they were hired to do: they reviewed all evidence provided within the scope of the investigative committee's authority and authored a report that included all the information they deemed relevant given their significant expertise," Gibson said in a statement. "That report was clear: Mayor Hogsett followed all applicable law and policy whenever an issue was reported to him." The council's Administrative and Finance Committee will hear public comment on the report in its next hearing on June 17 at 5:30 p.m. A few council members vowed to listen to the women's testimony during that upcoming committee meeting. "I promise, whoever the victims are, they can speak 10, 15, 20 minutes," Mascari said. The council Democrats said they would soon introduce a proposal that would, among other changes, establish an independent human resources board to replace the city's current human resources division and make the Office of Equal Opportunity an independent agency. They also called to update all anti-harassment, anti-discrimination, retaliation and non-fraternization policies. Dozens of people came to the meeting to call for Hogsett's resignation, saying his leadership and interactions with young women employees show that he presides over a problematic workplace culture. Maggie Adams-McBride, a former Hogsett administration employee who recently resigned after she said her harassment complaint against a mayoral appointee was mishandled, called on the mayor to resign, and for voters to hold Osili accountable at the ballot box for silencing Roberts. Wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Bye Hogsett" drawn with black marker, near east side resident Brianna Dines said she's believed the mayor should resign since IndyStar first reported the allegations against Cook in July 2024. Megan Alderman, a north side resident who also believes Hogsett should resign, said the mayor's texts asking if Roberts' boyfriend knew how "feisty" she is sent a chill down her spine. The messages remind her of past instances of sexual harassment she says she has experienced. "There was something so inappropriate, something so deeply wrong," Alderman said. Lawrence City Councilor Kristie Krone, who campaigned for Hogsett in 2023 before learning of the allegations against Cook, said the mayor should have pushed out his top aide as soon as an internal 2020 investigation discovered his alleged misconduct. Now, she said, Hogsett should resign so the city can work to restore its ethical standards. "It's not just politics. It's not just stupid stuff that goes on at work that you talk about at the water cooler," Krone said. "You are the leader of our city and you work for us. He's got to understand that the decisions that he makes (reflect on) who we are as a city." Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@ Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09 This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Woman alleging sexual harassment by Hogsett aide dragged out of council meeting
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
It's the end of philanthropy as we know it—and that could reshape America
A 'behemoth of benefaction' is how my colleague Geoff Colvin describes Bill Gates' philanthropic organization, the Gates Foundation. And indeed, it's the largest private foundation in the world, built upon the staggering wealth Gates created at Microsoft, along with some $40 billion pitched in by his friend and fellow philanthropist, the investor Warren Buffett. Having spent an average of $5 billion a year for 25 years, Gates today promised the foundation will spend another $10 billion a year until 2045, the largest philanthropic commitment in modern history—at which point it will shut down its operations. Those mind-boggling sums look small, however, in comparison with the annual largesse of another group: Americans as a whole. American individuals, corporations, and foundations reported a total of $557 billion in charitable donations in 2023, according to data compiled by the Giving USA Foundation—with $417 billion of that coming from individuals via donations or bequests. 'The U.S. is a very generous nation,' the organization's chair, Wendy McGrady, told me (and indeed, the World Giving Index has consistently listed it as one of the most generous countries). 'We have a very philanthropically minded citizenry.' That $557 billion, she pointed out, only includes reported monetary gifts to registered nonprofits (which, to be sure, is a category that encompasses some entities that are not strictly charities, such as universities and ideologically driven organizations). 'It doesn't include things like counter boxes, crowdfunding, giving to neighbors, or for funeral expenses, for example,' McGrady added. Nor does it include volunteering. This scale of generosity might sound reassuring, especially as the Trump administration dismantles the United States' international aid infrastructure and chops domestic spending on programs for vulnerable people. But there's no way that donations can make up for such major cutbacks, warned Una Osili, a scholar of philanthropy and social innovation. 'Philanthropy can play a role,' she said, 'but obviously cannot fill the gap of the government aid.' Since many nongovernmental organizations rely on government funding or work alongside government programs, the federal cuts are wreaking havoc in the sector. 'With any change this drastic, there is the immediate short-term question, how do these organizations continue their lifesaving humanitarian work?' Osili, the associate dean for research and international programs at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, told me. 'There's also this medium- to long-term effect, and not just here in the U.S., but overseas: What does this development paradigm look like, with less government aid? Is this just a smaller sector, a different type of sector?' And as with any moment of change, there may also be opportunity for improvement, Osili said. 'Is there a chance to reshape how we approach this work, with a lot of the debates that were taking place prior to this particular cycle?' she asked. 'You know, how can the sector be more effective, more efficient?' The world of philanthropy has been undergoing a slew of major changes, all while nongovernmental organizations are staring down the same economic uncertainty that companies and individuals are increasingly nervous about. 'Giving, just like the economy, does not like recessions,' McGrady said. Indeed, individual giving has still not recovered from the Great Recession. Even though overall giving has grown slightly, some 20 million households dropped out of charitable giving between 2010 and 2016, reported the Generosity Commission, a nonpartisan group of NGO leaders, in a 2024 report: 'In short, the numbers of dollars and hours have gone up, but the number of donors has gone down.' They attributed this drop to 'middle-class precarity' as well as 'a rise in social isolation and a decline in social trust.' Then, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated polarization and distrust in institutions. Meanwhile, at the top end of philanthropy, Gates is not the only corporate titan turned megadonor to signal that his generosity will, eventually, come to an end: Warren Buffett has said he will transfer 99% of his $170 billion estate to philanthropic causes before his death, at which point his donations will stop. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have pledged to give away most of their company stock while they're still living. 'Spend down' foundations that plan to 'sunset' their giving are becoming increasingly common. It's a departure from the model that the captains of industry of yore—the Carnegies, Rockefellers, and Fords, for example—favored, of foundations meant to stand in perpetuity, delivering value for generation after generation. Today's ultrawealthy philanthropists, especially those who have led successful businesses or whose fortunes came from tech, tend to be less interested in museum wings or cultural institutions named after them. Having come from the business world, where speed and scale are the priorities, they tend to be eager to get things done in the present, Osili explained. Gates' plans to blitz through $200 billion dollars and knock out several deadly diseases over the next two decades is arguably the case in point. As business leaders, 'many of them have, of course, been involved in solving problems, and they've achieved their success by actually seeing the results quickly,' Osili said. 'So there's some prioritization of results that one can measure and track in the present time.' What kind of results are they looking for? Some prominent philanthropists have aligned themselves with particular causes—Gates with reducing global child mortality, for instance, or Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan to education and science. But the causes that the ultrawealthy are donating to can be opaque, as more opt to give via donor-advised funds, charitable LLCs, family foundations, and advocacy organizations, or to pour their funds into impact investing. Without the public reporting requirements of tax-exempt organizations, these allow donors to keep the specifics of their transactions private. Nobody knows this better than Maria Di Mento, a senior reporter at The Chronicle of Philanthropy who has for 20 years chased down publicly available information about high-level giving to compile the 'Philanthropy 50' list of the nation's biggest donors. The causes that these philanthropists give to tend to remain consistent year after year, she said, though there was a temporary uptick in giving to social justice causes during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. 'We're in a slightly different era now,' she said. 'It's not like it has gone away, but it doesn't seem to be top of mind as it was then.' Large-scale, Gates Foundation–style philanthropy has drawn the most attention in recent years—both positive and negative, with critics from both the left and the right deriding 'billionaire philanthropy.' But with the Great Wealth Transfer well underway, and new fortunes being built across the world, the culture of philanthropy is bound to change. Whether the next generation of philanthropists can accomplish the grand feats of their predecessors is a question upon which millions of lives now depend. Two quite different schools of thought have risen in philanthropy in recent years, which seem at first to contradict each other. One, known as effective altruism, zeroes in on data to identify the most effective ways to leverage donations for positive impact, with a strong focus on measurable results. (The movement took a major hit when one of its most visible proponents, the cryptocurrency exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested and convicted for multibillion-dollar financial fraud.) The other philosophy, favored by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and the organization GiveDirectly, holds that unrestricted giving—with no strings attached or requirements to prove results—allows people and in-the-trenches organizations the autonomy to spend the money as they see fit, based on their own experience and knowledge. But these approaches aren't as distant from each other as they might seem, Osili explained—and in fact a combination of a data-driven approach with some trust in aid recipients may be the best way forward for philanthropists. 'There's a debate about whether these two can coexist, and the answer I would give is actually, yes,' she said. 'The idea is: Do the due diligence upfront … but then once you have made the investment, try to think about centering the organization and the work they're doing, rather than the donor.' McGrady agreed: 'You've got to have metrics; you've got to have impact numbers,' she said. 'But you've also got to have an understanding that this work is nuanced, and the outcomes are not always quantifiable.' It remains to be seen how the American public will react at the ballot box to the dramatic cuts to foreign aid and domestic programs that the Trump administration is carrying out—and it's possible that some of the funding will be restored, sooner or later. In an interview with Fortune about his plans for the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates suggested that there's a disconnect between perception and reality when it comes to government spending on international aid: 'Many people think aid budgets are much higher than [they are],' he said. 'And when you say to them, 'What do [you] think it should be?' They'll be like, 'I think it should be 2%, not 5%.' And we're like, 'Well, we have good news for you. Even before the cuts, it was less than 1%. So, you know—stick up for child survival!'' Americans are still sticking up for a range of causes they believe in. As McGrady points out, Americans have historically been generous—whether giving at their church to earthquake relief efforts in a far-off land, or donating to a nearby center for transgender youth—and while this year's figures are not yet available, there's no reason to think they have changed dramatically. The nation's philanthropic giving has stayed mostly stable—at about 2% of GDP—for the 69 years Giving USA has been tracking it. Even as the pandemic created economic and social precarity and increased distrust in institutions, Osili pointed out, it also showed the power of thoughtfully applied philanthropy—from efforts to get tablets for kids attending school remotely to vaccination drives—and for some in the sector, that was energizing. 'This is not just the billionaire philanthropists; it was people setting up community fridges,' she said. 'We saw why we have a 'third sector'—not just markets and government, but the innovation, the speed, the agility, the flexibility that a private donor has.' There's ideological common ground to be found in philanthropy, Osili said. 'What is interesting from our data is when you look at all of the institutions together, private philanthropy is trusted more than any other institutional type,' she noted. Local organizations, in particular, seem to be a rare place of mutual understanding, she added. 'Because you may be a Republican, you may be a strong Democrat, but you both care about a park for your children to play in, right?' That offers some reason for optimism, McGrady believes. Even a massive gift like Bill Gates' $10 billion a year to reduce childhood mortality and eradicate deadly diseases can't plug the gaping hole left by the pullbacks in government spending. (In January, before the cuts, the U.S. was projected to spend $58.4 billion on international assistance programs in the 2025 fiscal year, for example.) So maybe, she suggested, it's time for the rest of us to dig a little deeper for the causes we care about most. 'Could this be the year that Americans rise up and say, 'Philanthropy is the difference maker, and we're going to give more this year'?' she asked. 'We can't do it with just foundations, and we know individuals are still the primary drivers of philanthropy in this country—so it's going to have to be all of us, not just the wealthy.' This story was originally featured on
