Urban communities are typically remarkably diverse in residents' backgrounds, values, and views of the good life. The "community," then, is held together by a staggering number of relationships, compromises, habits, associations, and traditions that have been worked out over time. Dramatic change spurred by philanthropic initiatives can disrupt and reorder community institutions in a way that fails to solve existing problems, creates new problems, and brings a rash of old problems back to life. Often, those involved in place-based philanthropy believe that solving an area's intersecting social challenges requires two values: (1) respecting the people, practices, and organizations of a community and (2) bringing dramatic, systemic change to that community. This report argues that those values are generally at odds and that when the two are incompatible, the first must be prioritized. A respectful, sustainable, and effectual place-based philanthropic strategy won't aspire to disrupt or dismantle. Instead, it will invest in strategies that increase individuals' ability to control their own lives, foster voluntary associations' development and activity, and enable citizens to shape public policy.