“As you read these pages, please consider these words to be an open invitation—an extended hand and an opportunity to learn, to grow, to get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” writes Ford Foundation President Darren Walker in his new book, From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth. According to Walker, embracing discomfort is a precondition for making meaningful changes to the world of philanthropy, and to our society as a whole.
Host Lissa Jones and Walker engage in a wide ranging conversation about the need to reform capitalism (and whether it can or should be reformed), wealth inequality and its connections to systemic racism, his early education, and his vision for a new kind of philanthropy that is oriented toward justice rather than charity.
Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, a $13 billion international social justice philanthropy. He chaired the philanthropy committee that brought a resolution to the city of Detroit’s historic bankruptcy. He has also served as VP of the Rockefeller Foundation, and COO of Abyssinian Development Corporation, Harlem’s largest community development organization.
Educated exclusively in public schools, Darren was a member of the first Head Start class in 1965 and received BA, BS, and JD degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He has been included on numerous leadership lists: Time’s annual 100 Most Influential People, Rolling Stone’s 25 People Shaping the Future, Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Ebony‘s Power 100, and Out magazine’s Power 50.
This interview was recorded remotely via Zoom.