Edgar Villanueva - Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance

Praise for Decolonizing Wealth

By anchoring the solutions to Americas ills in the wisdom and knowledge of its original people, Edgar challenges all of us to analyze how our nations history of racism and disenfranchisement has infected its financial and giving institutions.

Heather McGhee, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos

Decolonizing Wealth offers a refreshing and inspired look at how wealth can better serve the needs of communities of color and atone for the ways in which it has traditionally been used to inflict harm and division.

Kevin Jennings, President, Tenement Museum

Edgar has gone out on a limb to help lead us to a place of healing. He bravely calls out the power dynamics within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, particularly the white supremacy institutionally embedded into the system of nonprofit supplicant and philanthropic largesse.

Kathy Ko Chin, President and CEO, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum

Finally, a Native perspective on how to heal internal systemic challenges. Decolonizing Wealth not only is an unflinching examination of todays philanthropic institutions and the foundations upon which they were built but also offers critical wisdom applicable to many sectors.

Sarah Eagle Heart (Lakota), CEO, Native Americans in Philanthropy

Edgar reinserts purpose and humanity into a philanthropic industry that has too often been driven by wealth accumulation, grant cycles, portfolios, and metrics.

John H. Jackson, President and CEO, Schott Foundation for Public Education

If you want to know how funders can redeem our souls, this book is a critical step in the right direction. Edgar is a courageous voice shaping a new era of activist grantmaking, one centered on achieving, not just studying opportunity and racial equity.

Eric K. Ward, philanthropist and Executive Director, Western States Center

Edgars voice will help shape the future of a philanthropy that systemically reverses the toxic inequalities that threaten the very fabric of our human existence. It gives me hope for the soul of our sector.

Pia Infante, CoExecutive Director, The Whitman Institute

Charity and philanthropy rarely offer meaningful challenges to systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism. Decolonizing Wealth is an important contribution to the grassroots struggles to transform society and shift the way we think about our relationship with money.

Jordan Flaherty, author of No More Heroes

For charities and donors trying to shift the giving paradigm and channel resources in ways that are truly equitable, Edgars ideas for solutionsbased on Indigenous culture and traditionscouldnt come at a better time.

Nan Aron, President, Alliance for Justice

Decolonizing Wealth offers an arrow to pierce the status quo. While the heart of the revolution for justice is not dependent on philanthropic support, there can be a powerfully effective role for mindful philanthropy to respectfully contribute to the reimagining and actualization of a more just world for future generations.

Tia Oros Peters (Shiwi), Executive Director, Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples

Nothing is more important to decolonize than moneywithout it, change is slower and harder and comes too late for too many people. Edgar Villanueva is a fresh voice in the money scene, one we should all heed.

Rinku Sen, author and strategist

Edgar has broken through the tired jargon of philanthropy-speak and written a fresh, honest, painful, and hopeful book, grounded in his own truths and Native traditions. He offers some radical thinking about what it would take to create a world in which power and accountability shifted and communities controlled the resources vital to their strength and futures.

Gara LaMarche, President, Democracy Alliance; former President, Atlantic Philanthropies; and former Vice President and Director of US Programs, Open Society Foundations

DECOLONIZING WEALTH

Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance

Edgar Villanueva

Foreword by Jennifer and Peter Buffett

Decolonizing Wealth

Copyright 2018 by Edgar Villanueva
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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9789-0
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9790-6
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9791-3
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-9788-3

2018-1

Book producer: Linda Jupiter Productions. Text designer: Mayapriya Long, Bookwrights. Cover designer: Irene Morris. Copyeditor: Lunaea Weatherstone. Proofreader: Mary Kanable. Indexer: Paula C. Durbin-Westby.

To the memory of my granddaddy, Johnson Lee Jacobs, Sr.,
who created a path to spirituality for many
and taught me the story of redemption.
I hope Im making you proud.

If we are going to heal, let it be glorious.
Beyonc

F ortunate, privileged, blessedwe had always known we were all of these things, but 2006 took things to another level.

That was the year that Warren Buffett, Peters father, bestowed on us a gift that would eventually total billions of dollars, to fund charitable work of our choosing. Despite Peters famous last name, this sum of money was far beyond anything either of us had ever fathomed, much less controlled.

It was a responsibility with a weight we had never known. It meant we were suddenly expected to have all the answers. It meant we were invited into conversations with heads of state, investment managers, corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and other big philanthropists, the global ruling elite, an overwhelmingly white and male crowd. These were the people who held forth on innovation, solutions, and progress. These were the people entrusted with leadership, whom investors think of as strategic, from whom the world expects great things.