This Isn’t Philanthropy
A Letter to Anand Giridharadas
Dear Anand,
You wrote the book on why billionaire philanthropy fails — how “changing the world” became a cover for protecting the systems that create the problems philanthropy claims to solve. How the people who benefit most from inequality get to decide how to address it, and unsurprisingly decide on solutions that don’t threaten their position.
I read Winners Take All. I’m not writing to argue with it. I’m writing because I built something that tries to route around the whole problem.
The Critique You Made
Philanthropy, as currently practiced, is a pressure release valve. It allows the extraction to continue by addressing just enough symptoms to prevent systemic change. The winners get to keep winning while taking credit for helping the losers.
The structure is the problem. Good intentions don’t fix bad structures.
What I Tried Instead
Liana Banyan isn’t philanthropy. It’s infrastructure.
Three commercial portals (.com/.biz/.net) generate thin margins — Cost + 20% — that permanently fund six charitable initiatives through the .org. Not “donate to continue” — structural sustainability.
Every user earns ownership. Not “stakeholder voice” — actual equity, blockchain-verified, that they can split, sell, or pass down. The people using the platform own the platform.
When I step back, there’s no foundation board to capture, no donor class to appease, no billionaire deciding what counts as worthy. The users govern what they own.
Is this still compromise? Probably. Is it perfect? No. But it doesn’t depend on the continued generosity of people whose wealth comes from the problems we’re trying to solve.
The Initiatives
- LifeLine Medications: Community-coordinated prescription access. One in five insulin users ration doses because of cost. This isn’t a charity — it’s collective bargaining.
- Let’s Make Dinner: Neighbors feeding neighbors. No means-testing, no tracking, no judgment.
- Defense Claws: Group legal defense. Because individuals can’t afford to fight, but communities can.
Three more beyond these. All structured the same way: user-owned, margin-funded, designed to sustain without donations.
What I’m Asking
I’m not asking for your endorsement. Your whole point is that endorsements from prominent people are part of the problem.
I’m asking: what am I missing?
You’ve studied how good intentions get captured, how structures get corrupted, how “doing well by doing good” becomes just “doing well.” If you see those patterns here, I want to know now.
The economics are published at Cephas.LianaBanyan.org. I’ll answer any question.
Jonathan Jones Founding Manager, Liana Banyan Corporation November 2025
P.S. — You wrote that the question isn’t “how can I help?” but “how am I complicit?” I’ve asked myself that for nine years while building this. I still don’t have a clean answer.
406-578-1232 Support@LianaBanyan.org