A coalition of business, philanthropy, and civil society leaders have announced an initiative aimed at strengthening the future of giving, volunteering, and civic engagement in America.

Over the next two years, the Generosity Commission will conduct research and advance a national dialogue to help highlight and shape the ways in which philanthropy, volunteerism, and community are being redefined. With the goal of not only understanding current trends but also pointing to the future of philanthropy and civic engagement, the partners will study trends in giving and their impact on community-based organizations, whether those trends are accelerated or interrupted by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the ways in which volunteering is being redefined by the emergence of mutual aid networks, and the correlations, if any, between civic engagement and social "connectedness" and between societal cohesion and democratic functioning. The National Conversation component, to be launched in 2022, will help promote generosity by enabling people to learn from one another and packaging and disseminating research findings and the Generosity Commission's insights and recommendations.

Spearheaded in late 2020 by the leaders of the Giving Institute and Giving USA Foundation out of a concern over downward trends in "everyday" giving by the middle class following the Great Recession, the commission includes Aspen Institute vice president Jane Wales, who serves as chair; Skoll Foundation president and COO Marla Blow; Candid CEO Ann Mei Chang; Lever for Change CEO and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation managing director Cecilia A. Conrad; GivingTuesday CEO Asha Curran; Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo president and CEO Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker; PolicyLink president and CEO Michael McAfee; Hispanic Federation founding president Luis Miranda, Jr.; and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation director of philanthropic partnerships Rob Rosen.

"Today we face new questions about the nature of our democracy, our social contract, and civic identity; the roles of the government, private, and nonprofit sectors in our society; and how to ensure that all Americans are included in the process of decision making and problem solving in our diverse society," said Wales. "The Generosity Commission will work to answer these immensely important questions by capturing the ways in which Americans are engaged in collectively reimagining and reigniting our culture of generosity in the U.S. at an hour of need. Only then will we capture the ways in which generosity is viewed and expressed."