Former U.S. President Bill Clinton opened this year's Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York on Tuesday, urging participants to pledge to “step into the void created by retreating governments” following cuts to foreign assistance by the United States and other countries.
“We know that we can't completely fill the hole that retreating governments are leaving behind,” Clinton said, adding that philanthropy and other sectors would need to develop new ideas and find resources to preserve progress already made on key issues.
He made the appeal after opening the conference by challenging President Donald Trump and his administration on several fronts.
“I suppose I could take my entire allotted time to discuss the self-evident wisdom of building an Arc de Triomphe in Washington to hold all our drones,” Clinton joked. “Some of this stuff it's hard to make up.”
After the laughter died down, Clinton more seriously explained his disagreement with the notion that “cooperation is not important, that winning is important in the short run.”
The Clinton Global Initiative has brought together political, business and philanthropic leaders for more than two decades to address global challenges.
Donna McKay, president and CEO of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, unveiled one of the new initiatives at Tuesday's conference.
New funding ideas for research and democracy
BCRF Ventures, the foundation's first venture philanthropy fund, is a $100 million initiative launched Tuesday with an $11 million donation from philanthropists Karen and Rob Hale to finance its creation and initial investments and encourage additional donors to contribute.
“It makes sense that at this point in time when there are extraordinary advances happening that BCRF throw everything that we can at research and science,” McKay told The Associated Press in an interview.
“What this venture philanthropy program will do is try to fast-track advances and get them to patients as quickly as possible,” she said.
The new initiative will not replace BCRF's traditional grants to breast cancer researchers. The foundation expanded that grantmaking last year amid federal funding cuts for medical research.
The venture philanthropy fund aims to use returns from successful companies it supports to invest in additional companies.
“The success of one breakthrough has the potential to finance the next and the next,” McKay said.
Stacey Abrams, a former Georgia state representative and leader of the vote mobilization and education nonprofit 10 Steps Campaign, announced a coalition of democracy-focused nonprofits that will launch the Democracy Index Fund.
The fund will pool resources to support pro-democracy organizations, while the Democracy Hedge Fund will seek to generate revenue while also providing support to such organizations.
“Authoritarians have a playbook. They also have a budget,” Abrams said while announcing the new funds. “And now, so should we.”
‘This is a moment to give out money. Lots of it. Right now.’
Carmen Rojas, president and CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, outlined an approach that she described as common sense but is still considered radical by many in philanthropic circles.
“This is an invitation that I give to donors, to foundations in the room, to anybody who has a rich cousin, this is a moment to give out money,” she said. “Lots of it. Right now.”
Rojas said the current level of need is extraordinary and should be met with equally extraordinary action.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation announced in June that it planned to increase its annual giving to at least $500 million over the next decade to ease some of the pressure on communities it serves following federal funding cuts. In 2025, the foundation drew from its endowment to distribute $135 million.
“There was greater risk in inaction,” Rojas said, explaining a step many nonprofits would avoid because it could put future investment earnings at risk.
“The greatest risk we face is sitting on a set of resources that communities across this country desperately need to protect their neighbors, to be able to build relationships with one another, to have their needs met,” she said.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Rojas said her foundation's strategy had encouraged others to adopt a similar approach.
She also wants foundations to reconsider the requirement that they distribute 5% of their assets annually to retain their tax-exempt status, arguing that the requirement should be viewed as a floor rather than a ceiling.
Ford Foundation President Heather Gerken urged conference participants to continue imagining what they want to achieve.
“As much as we are in the trenches and fighting the fight, we need to look out over the horizon,” she said.
“The reason we are here is that we have had a democracy that has not served everyone. And so we need to figure out how to dream a new democracy into existence.”