Piper Fund, a program of Proteus Fund, is featured in this article originally published in Inside Philanthropy:

“We’re watching our democracy being attacked and undermined, and there hasn’t been a very vocal response, not even one that says, ‘hey this is not normal,’” [Dimple Abichandani of the General Service Foundation] said. “I’ve been struck by the silence, the gap between conversations we’re hearing among funders and among grantees.”

She cited, for example, philanthropy’s silence around changes at the U.S. Postal Service that could impact vote-by-mail, or a relative lack of attention to legal advocacy for protestors, even as millions took to the streets following George Floyd’s death. The General Service Foundation is also one of several backers of right-to-protest work via the Proteus Fund’s Piper Fund, which has engaged with a network of organizations to defend protest rights and distribute rapid-response grants. And that’s not to discount the funders and individuals who did step up this summer to support peaceful protestors, including by bailing them out of jail.