Practicing Pluralism—A Conversation with Brian Hooks of Stand Together
Coalition-building, civic confidence, and the long game of pluralism in a disputatious republic (784 words / 3-minute read).
When I am asked if there is a philanthropic institution that stands out as an exemplar of the “responsible pluralism” that I have contended more funders need to practice, my answer often surprises people. It is Stand Together, the philanthropic network founded by Charles Koch and led today by Brian Hooks.
At a moment when philanthropy is under pressure from multiple directions, Stand Together offers a revealing case study in how pluralism can be practiced rather than simply proclaimed.
I say this based on nearly a decade of working with Stand Together as a co-funder and informal partner and advisor across several initiatives. I have seen first hand how the organization has succeeded at things that most institutions struggle to achieve.
On the one hand, the team at Stand Together has stayed true to the principles of classical liberalism that are woven deep into their mission, much to the consternation of opponents on the progressive left and “post-liberal” right.
On the other hand, they are willing to work constructively on any given issue with potential coalition partners who might disagree with them on nine other things, but agree with them on that one. Charles Koch himself is apt to quote Frederick Douglass in saying he would “unite with anyone to do right.”
Moreover, in another unnatural act for most large scale philanthropies, I have directly experienced how Stand Together actively seeks out and incorporates candid feedback on their plans and endeavors — even, indeed especially, when it is hard to hear. Because they are playing the long game, their feathers are not readily ruffled.
You can gain a clearer sense of how Stand Together manages to pull off this balancing act in my conversation with Chairman and CEO Brian Hooks in this month’s Art of Association podcast. You can listen on Apple, Spotify, Amazon or Pocket Casts.
In this episode, Brian and I talk about the work of the organization he leads and the principles and ethos that animate it. We also discuss two initiatives they are launching to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
This week marks the release of an “America at 250” edition of the book he and Charles Koch first published six years ago: Believe in People: Bottom Up Solutions for a Top Down World, featuring a new preface by the authors and a foreword from Martin Luther King III.
In addition, Stand Together and more than 50 philanthropic partners are marking the nation’s semiquincentennial by launching the Be the People campaign. It is a ten-year effort to hold both a mirror and a microphone up to the American people so they can better understand and build upon what their country has going for it.
As Hooks shared with me,
“When we talk to the [non-profit] leaders, they will consistently tell us the same thing: When we ask people to show up to help solve these problems, they do. You know, this is who we are as a country. This is what it means to be Americans – we pursue happiness by helping others to succeed. This is in our bones as a country, and it still is. But when you look at the national conversation, the narrative, the story that's being told about our country, it's a story that doesn't reflect that.”
The most telling part of our conversation for me was Hooks’ reflection on his cross-ideological collaboration with fellow philanthropists in what he has come to call “Team Liberalism,” and on his ongoing defense of philanthropic pluralism and freedom against illiberal critics on both the left and right.
Three years ago, Hooks co-signed an op-ed defending philanthropic pluralism with, among others, Darren Walker, then president of the Ford Foundation. For those who assumed the two were destined—and obliged—to engage in ideological combat, the collaboration was flabbergasting. Their joint stand suggested that principled disagreement need not preclude common cause.
For his part, Hooks is even more convinced today that the coalition he joined was onto something profound and essential. As he noted toward the end of our conversation:
“It's not easy to live in a pluralistic and liberal society, but you always have to ask the question, compared to what? The alternative to living through pluralism is violence, basically, in terms of how we would settle disputes. Rather than respecting those who are different from us, for most of human history, the way people did it was they went off and killed those that disagreed with us. So when you look at it in context, pluralism looks pretty good.”
Pluralism certainly is demanding. But as Hooks suggests, and our conversation makes clear, in a diverse and disputatious country, we don’t really have viable alternatives. The only way out is through.