Appropriations for Peace
July, 2024
Compton Foundation was born out of a couple’s grief for their son John, a 19 year old soldier who was killed by a sniper during World War II. Dorothy and Randolph Compton wanted to express solidarity with other families who lost loved ones to violence, and work toward a future without armed conflict. Now 78 years later, our world is still enmeshed in grief as terrorism and targeted state violence rip apart families around the world.
We refuse to be locked in a cycle of violent response to these brutal and needless deaths. Instead, we carry forward Dorothy’s and Randolph’s legacy of hope by supporting movement partners who have the courage to imagine new tools, test new approaches, and nurture new leaders who choose peace.
These partners include Just Vision, which makes visible the powerful efforts of grassroots Israeli, Palestinian, and American leaders working for peace and justice; Win Without War, a network advocating for more peaceful and anti-militarist US foreign policy; MADRE, which supports grassroots women peacemakers around the world; and the Truman Center for National Policy, which connects and trains up the next generation of policymakers to bring innovative, values-aligned solutions. We support these experienced strategic partners because they are proximal to the issues, and they understand that those most affected by violence are the wisest guides finding ways we can resist and respond.
Whether or not war is on our doorstep, we live today in a global economy shaped by both ancient and ongoing bloodshed. As a foundation created to end violence, it’s our responsibility to be truthful about power and privilege, about who we’ve hurt, how we may still cause harm, and how we can help heal the wounds of settler colonialism and enslavement. Our decision to spend Compton Foundation’s entire endowment is one step we’ve taken toward healing. We will no longer hold wealth built in part on stolen labor and the abuse of Black and brown bodies as if it belongs to us, and instead will return it to all of us. Along the way, we’re expanding our programming to stimulate the reparative actions of collective funding, personal gifting and wealth redistribution. Behind every experiment and collaboration is the belief that seeds of peace are sown when the collective mindset shifts from “mine versus yours” to “ours.”
Ceasing to operate in a time of such crises may seem an odd choice, but our passion for peace doesn’t end with this organization. That passion—not this institution or the wealth it has held—is the most important and appropriate legacy for this family to offer each subsequent generation. We will do more for their futures by investing in our purpose now, returning capital to leaders and organizations who build power in the communities most harmed by our ancestors.
And yet building power within the current world order is not enough to transform it. We need to practice understanding our interconnected human, natural and spiritual worlds, relating to each other, and building the muscle of collective repair. This is how, as the Compton Foundation ends, we can heal some of the harm caused by its founders while honoring their impulse toward peace, solidarity and hope.
Learn more about our peace grant partners and join us in funding their work.