Funders with few or no staff can advance change on urgent issues. With a few dollars and a wealth of local knowledge and relationships, Exponent Philanthropy members have facilitated reform of a state’s juvenile justice system, increased access to nursing care for new and expectant mothers, and created statewide coalitions to focus dollars and attention on... Read More
Can we recover from the pandemic while becoming a more equitable society? Food, housing and financial security are rightly our philanthropic priorities right now. Yet, our country is calling on us to heal persistent divides and right structural wrongs. Humanities organizations could play a pivotal role. The humanities suffer benign neglect in philanthropy. Many funders... Read More
As Executive Director of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, Nat Chioke Williams is leading a family foundation to strategically move its assets to support racial justice. Nat’s passion and thoughtfulness on racial justice issues has had a deep impact on the board’s understanding of anti-Black racism, and how philanthropy can create change. He led the family board... Read More
Forward-thinking philanthropy is by nature a gamble. With new ideas continually being tested, new fields discovered and new measurements created, it can be difficult to know when you are succeeding. We substitute the known to try and bring order. We count the number of people served. We measure the hours of service provided. We substitute scale... Read More
Diversity and racial equity touch on every aspect of a foundation’s work. In the blog posts Developing a Shared Language and Introducing an Anti-Racist Intersectional Frame, we discussed how philanthropy can advance racial equity. In this post, we lay out three ways you can start doing racial equity work in real time. 1. Look Internally... Read More
For over forty years, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) has worked to produce equal outcomes for children, families and communities. In part one of this blog series, we shared CSSP’s Key Equity Terms & Concepts. The organization’s commitment to equity, especially racial equity, means we’re constantly evolving our thinking. Part of this evolution... Read More