Q&A: Author calls for donors to 'decolonize' their wealth

Edgar Villanueva is on a mission to change philanthropy.

Villanueva, a 44-year-old racial justice activist, became a household name in the donor world in 2018. He said he was moved by the attention gained by his book, which argues that institutionalized philanthropy in America perpetuates practices that marginalize minority communities.

He says he reached that conclusion after many years of working in philanthropies from Washington state to North Carolina, where he is an enrolled member of the Native American Lumbee tribe. In recent years, he has pushed for philanthropies to incorporate more diversity and inclusion on the inside and invest more into minority communities on the outside.

To that end, Villanueva launched the nonprofit Decolonizing Wealth Project in 2018. The group runs a fund supporting minority-led initiatives for social justice causes and has received contributions from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

The second edition of Villanueva's book, “Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance," was released last week. The Associated Press spoke recently with him about his calls for change and other things. The interview was edited for clarity and length.

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Q: You’ve argued that institutionalized philanthropy is infected with a “colonizing virus.” What do you mean?

A: The philanthropic industry as it exists currently, with $1 trillion in assets, came about through a history of inequality. There have been accumulated advantages and benefits for people with wealth, and specifically for white people in the U.S., to be in the position of being able to generate and build wealth in the first place. So folks who had those generational resources passed it down, and those with accumulated benefits have been in the best...