Chairing an important panel on faith and philanthropy, Edward Jones, the Director of Programs for the Association of Black Foundation Executives, reminded participants that during the days of Jim Joseph’s leadership of the Council on Foundations, there was a program called “philanthropy and the black church.” As Joseph wrote at the time in his widely respected essay, Black Philanthropy, The Potential and Limits of Private Generosity in a Civil Society, “the Black church…was from the very beginning the center of Black philanthropy.” In Joseph’s view, “the Black church has always been a kind of community foundation; encouraging giving, collecting funds and distributing them for the good of the community.”

In a way, the memory of Joseph’s words infused the discussion Jones led with presenters Lisa Sharon Harper of Sojourners and the Rev. Starsky Wilson, whom NPQ interviewed and featured this past February.NPQ was present to catch up with Wilson’s progress on the Ferguson Commission and the intersection of his efforts there with his philanthropic leadership at the Deaconess Foundation.

Much of the theme of this year’s Council on Foundations annual meeting has been finding common ground between peoples on opposite sides of various issues. Few issues challenge that as much as what has been happening to young black men—sadly, with horrific frequency—since the death of Michael Brown in August in Ferguson. The challenge comes to Wilson in his dual roles as co-chair of the commission and CEO of the foundation. Calling the community to forgive, he indicated, needs to be accompanied by calling the community to justice. If it is simply a matter of forgiving, perhaps better stated as reconciliation, that still leaves the question of the kind of “just world” people are trying to develop—or ought to develop.