I am not qualified to distribute large sums of money but let's just pretend!

This week--our final week!--we're engaging with the thought experiment of how and where we would dispense $10,000, $100,000, $1,000,000, and $10,000,000 to have maximum impact in public history. My initial response was, "I have no idea!" Upon further reflection, my response is, "I have no idea and I shouldn't do this on my own, anyway!"

I still don't know enough about public history to know what to do with large amounts of money

If I had any of these amounts to give away, I wouldn't make the decision on my own. Frankly, at this point in my life, I don't trust myself to have the level of experience and knowledge necessary to truly understand where this money could make the biggest impact. I certainly don't have the information necessary to propose any specific ideas.

What can money truly fix anyway?

Throughout the semester, we have learned about numerous areas that are underfunded. Nonprofits need help with maintenance costs, programming, staffing, conservation, and basically everything else. But so many of the issues we've discussed can't be fixed simply by throwing money at them. There are structural issues in public history that exist because of structural issues in our society and capitalism. Even if $10,000,000 could fix these issues, I'm certainly not qualified to know how to maximize that money's impact.

If I must get more specific...

There are a few key, more specific issues that bother me: unnecessary growth/equating size with success, difficulties in digitization, and unpaid internships. Thus, I guess I'd want the money to go to these areas, but I'm certainly not the best steward. For the $1,000,000 and $10,000,000 grants specifically, I'd probably want to gather community leaders and public history professionals to form a committee that would determine the best place(s) to distribute the money.

I'm also not sure if I'd want all the money to stay in Philadelphia. While this city undoubtedly suffers from issues in the way it engages with its past, many smaller and/or more conservative places suffer, too, and receive even less attention for funding and grants. I also think that our class has already come up with a lot of great ways to distribute money in Philadelphia, such as @charliehersh's idea for paid internships at Art Reach.

So, if not Philadelphia, then where?

I can't get into too many specifics about actual organizations I'd give the money to. I just don't know. I think, however, that I'd want it to be distributed to schools and community organizations in underprivileged communities in red states to help fund community history projects. For example, the Newtown Alive project from my hometown of Sarasota, FL.

Clips from a 2017 event hosted by Newtown Alive that provided trolley tours of the community's historic areas.

While most cultural institutions in Sarasota serve to promote the legacy of 20th-century white boosters, Newtown Alive engages in preservation and commemoration by and for Newtown, Sarasota's black community. With $10,000 they could hire local students as paid interns. With $100,000 they could hire interns and partner with local schools and afterschool programs to involve youth in historical work. With $1,000,000 they could do the aforementioned things and greatly expand their programming including creating more oral histories, holding more community events, and advocating for preservation. With $10,000,000 they could establish their own history center and overall fund a counter-narrative to Sarasota's historical legacy as a vacation town for northern white elites.

A selection from the Newtown Alive history report. Most narratives of Sarasota's history include the white Gillespie family, while the African Americans like Leonard Reid who labored on their behalf are ignored

BUT: It is not my job to decide what Newtown Alive could/should/would do with the money. Again, I am not qualified to know where this money could have the biggest impact.

In 2014, Newtown Alive released a 364-page report that includes transcriptions of oral histories along with extensive plans and goals for future historical work on the community. I imagine that they'd want to distribute the money to these proposed projects.

A map of a potential historic district in Newtown as proposed by the Newtown Alive task force from their 2014 report

I am sure that there are many similar communities that could use the money that I simply don't know about. In any case, I'd ask their community leaders where the money should go and then proceed from there.

What other communities outside of Philadelphia can you think of that could benefit from this money?

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