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As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

As Pressures Mount, Trump Faces the Most Precarious Moment of His Presidency

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Empathy-based philanthropy as activism

Empathy-based philanthropy as activism

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F. Willis Johnson
By F. Willis JohnsonOct 18, 2023
F. Willis Johnson
Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson, Jr., serves as vice president of partnerships and programming with the Bridge Alliance. A third-generation educator, Rev. Dr. F. Willis Johnson is a spiritual entrepreneur, Senior Minister of Living Tree Church and adjunct faculty at Methodist Theological School of Ohio. Johnson formerly served as senior minister of Wellspring Church in Ferguson, Missouri, a predominately African-American intergenerational urban parachute church plant. Rev. Dr. Johnson is respected for his leadership and strategies around social and racial justice issues. Recognized as a scholar-practitioner, Johnson authored Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community, and is a sought after thought-leader who empowers individuals and communities towards prophetic response—healing, justice and reconciliation. With some 19 years of professional ministry experience in Indiana, North Carolina, and Missouri, Johnson’s skills extend far beyond the pulpit. Trained in education and nonprofit management, he has served in volunteer and paid leadership positions for multiple nonprofit organizations. He counsels bishops, General Board agencies, annual conferences, and local churches across the country. Johnson in 2017 was the Vosburgh Visiting Professor of Ministry and Social Engagement at Drew University’s Theological School.
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Johnson is a United Methodist pastor, the author of "Holding Up Your Corner: Talking About Race in Your Community" (Abingdon Press, 2017) and vice president of the Bridge Alliance, which houses The Fulcrum.

In reflection on a forthcoming manuscript, I revisited “From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth,” authored by Darren Walker. I felt affirmed to further the work of empathic transformation models for social and democratic uplift through emergent strategies. One such strategy in experimentation with community and private foundations is empathy-based philanthropy.

Empathy-based philanthropy focuses on understanding and connecting with the needs, emotions, and experiences of those supported. It prioritizes benevolence, active listening, and engaging with individuals or communities in need to create lasting change.

The strategic use of philanthropy as activism addresses systemic issues by fostering collaboration and empowering disadvantaged individuals. Philanthropy, if used effectively, can nurture civic engagement and communal responsibility, promoting inclusive democratic societies. Embracing empathy-driven philanthropy can lead to social cohesion, particularly benefiting vulnerable populations and BIPOC+ communities. By engaging with our local communities and exemplifying democratic values through compassion, generosity, and understanding, we can become agents of change toward collective uplift.

Generally, philanthropy, at its best, is a proactive exercise of giving in support and welfare to others, often grounded in moral or spiritual convictions. Activism conveys a genuinely selfless commitment to ensuring the happiness and well-being of others without any expectation of personal gain. Empathy-based philanthropy brings together the two and inherently aligns with many historic theological tenets and cultural principles that encourage acts of generosity and benevolence.

From a theological standpoint, empathy-based philanthropy transcends and represents a divine commission urging individuals to fulfill their societal roles as ethically responsible beings. Faithful adherence to divine directive leads many towards humility and forging meaningful relationships with their peers through mutual love, care, understanding, and empathic connections.

In his acclaimed work, "Democracy in America," renowned philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville offers astute observations on the role of philanthropy in molding society. He posited that philanthropy nurtures civic engagement by fostering a strong sense of communal responsibility among citizens. By advocating mutual assistance and cooperation among community members, Tocqueville emphasized the role of philanthropy in elevating us towards more inclusive democratic societies featuring equitable living conditions.

The amalgamation of Tocqueville's insights and the theories mentioned gives rise to the notion that philanthropy encompasses empathic expressions of civic and social responsibility, effectively shaping democratic uplift and equity. These ideas highlight the profound impact of community-focused nurturing and compassion in promoting social cohesion.

Moreover, these ideas hold particular significance for vulnerable populations and communities as active empathy and philanthropy contribute phenomenally towards enabling marginalized individuals and groups to access opportunities to thrive in an unequal world. Encouraging cross-cultural understanding and building bridges across traditionally divided communities can gradually dismantle long-standing biases and pave the way for empowered societies.

Social enterprises practicing this strategy demonstrate how harnessing empathy and philanthropic deeds are instrumental in transforming lives, knitting diverse communities together, and fostering mutual support structures. Such collective efforts can eventually establish an equitable society characterized by respect for diversity and a profound commitment to eradicating systemic injustices.

As we strive for a more equitable world, let us embrace the practice of empathy-based philanthropy by engaging attentively with our local communities while exemplifying the moral principles that underpin democratic values. By doing so, we can become agents of change who honor our interdependence by employing compassion, generosity, and understanding as powerful tools toward collective uplift.


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Baltazar Enríquez: Perspectives from Little Village Community Council President

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Baltazar Enríquez: Perspectives from Little Village Community Council President

Baltzar Enríquez was born in Michoacán, Mexico, and moved to Chicago at the age of three. Little Village, often called “The Mexico of the Midwest,” became his new home, a community he has grown to love and serve. In 2008, Enríquez joined the Little Village Community Council, a nonprofit organization originally founded in 1957. Upon becoming a member, he noticed the lack of participation and limited community programs available for residents. In 2020, he was named president of the council and began expanding, introducing initiatives such as Equal Education for Latinos, among other resources for the Little Village community. Enríquez reflected on his years of involvement and how he has navigated leading the council amid the current political climate.

Question: What inspired you most to get involved in the council?

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Freezing Child Care Funding Throws the Baby Out with the Bathwater
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Photo by Andrew Ebrahim on Unsplash

Freezing Child Care Funding Throws the Baby Out with the Bathwater

In the South, there is an idiom that says, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” It means not discarding something valuable while trying to eliminate something harmful. The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) proposed response to unsubstantiated child care fraud allegations in Minnesota risks doing exactly that.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has frozen child care and family assistance grants in five states, and reports indicate that this action may be extended nationwide. Fraud at any level is wrong and should be thoroughly investigated, and once proven to be true, addressed. However, freezing child care payments and family assistance grants based on the views of a single social media “influencer” is an overcorrection that threatens the stability of child care programs and leaves families without care options through no fault of their own.

Across the nation, Americans rely heavily on child care. According to the Center for American Progress, nearly 70 percent of children under age six had all available parents in the workforce in 2023, underscoring how essential child care is to family and economic stability.

Child care funding, therefore, is not optional. It is a necessity that must remain stable and predictable.

Without consistent funding, child care operations are forced to significantly reduce capacity, and some are forced to close altogether. In 2025, a longtime family child care owner made the difficult decision to close her business after state budget cuts eliminated critical child care funding. While this example reflects a state-level funding failure, the impact is the same. When funding becomes unreliable, as is the case with the current funding freeze, child care business owners, employees, parents, and children all suffer.

The economic consequences extend well beyond families. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, when parents cannot find or afford child care, they are pushed out of the workforce, and businesses lose skilled employees. Child care gaps disrupt staffing across industries and cost states an estimated $1 billion annually in lost economic activity.

Child care is no longer just a family issue. It is an economic issue. It is one of the few sectors that directly affects every other industry. At a time when women are being encouraged to have more children, a strong support system must also exist, and that includes consistent, reliable child care funding.

Misuse of government funds is not a new concept. During the COVID-19 pandemic, more than $200 billion in federal relief funding across programs was reportedly misused. Fraud occurs in every industry, and no system is immune to it.

If allegations of child care fraud are substantiated, safeguards should absolutely be implemented to prevent future misuse; however, freezing child care funding would further delay payments to a sector already plagued by late reimbursements, disrupt services for children and families, and destabilize small businesses that operate on thin margins.

The solution is straightforward. Strengthen oversight to mitigate risk, without punishing the entire field. We must acknowledge that the vast majority of child care programs operate in good faith and in compliance with the law, providing care to millions of children nationwide. According to a 2020 report by the United States Government Accountability Office, only seven states since 2013 have had errors in more than 10 percent of their child care fund payments.

Yes, accountability matters, but solutions must be precise and measured. Sweeping actions based on unsubstantiated claims destabilize the entire child care system. When child care collapses, families lose care, caregivers lose income, small businesses close, and the economy suffers.

We can strengthen safeguards without dismantling the system that families and the economy depend on. We can address misuse if and where it exists. But we cannot afford to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Eboni Delaney is the Director of Policy and Movement Building at the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC), and a Public Voices Fellow of the OpEd Project in Partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.

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It’s The Democracy, Stupid!

Why democracy reform keeps failing—and why the economy suffers as a result. A rethink of representation and political power.

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It’s The Democracy, Stupid!

The economic pain that now defines everyday life for so many people is often treated as a separate problem, something to be solved with better policy, smarter technocrats, or a new round of targeted fixes. Wages stagnate, housing becomes unreachable, healthcare bankrupts families, monopolies tighten their grip, and public services decay. But these outcomes are not accidents, nor are they the result of abstract market forces acting in isolation. They are the predictable consequence of a democratic order that has come apart at the seams. Our deepest crisis is not economic. It is democratic. The economy is merely where that crisis becomes visible and painful.

When democracy weakens, power concentrates. When power concentrates, it seeks insulation from accountability. Over time, wealth and political authority fuse into a self-reinforcing system that governs in the name of the people while quietly serving private interests. This is how regulatory agencies become captured, how tax codes grow incomprehensible except to those who pay to shape them, how antitrust laws exist on paper but rarely in practice, and how labor protections erode while corporate protections harden. None of this requires overt corruption. It operates legally, procedurally, and efficiently. Influence is purchased not through bribes but through campaign donations, access, revolving doors, and the sheer asymmetry of time, expertise, and money.

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Washington Loves Blaming Latin America for Drugs — While Ignoring the American Appetite That Fuels the Trade
Screenshot from a video moments before US forces struck a boat in international waters off Venezuela, September 2.
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Washington Loves Blaming Latin America for Drugs — While Ignoring the American Appetite That Fuels the Trade

For decades, the United States has perfected a familiar political ritual: condemn Latin American governments for the flow of narcotics northward, demand crackdowns, and frame the crisis as something done to America rather than something America helps create. It is a narrative that travels well in press conferences and campaign rallies. It is also a distortion — one that obscures the central truth of the hemispheric drug trade: the U.S. market exists because Americans keep buying.

Yet Washington continues to treat Latin America as the culprit rather than the supplier responding to a demand created on U.S. soil. The result is a policy posture that is both ineffective and deeply hypocritical.

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