Our 2021 Discovery Forum provided considerable food for thought, as ninety-nine girlfriends continues our journey to embed racial equity in all that we do. We heard from three philanthropic leaders about three very different approaches that their foundations or giving circles have taken to change grantmaking, investing, and organizational structure and culture.
Nancy Ramirez Arriaga from Meyer Memorial Trust described how their organizational culture is continuing to work on equity “from the brain side and the heart side.” She reminded us philanthropies can use their voices and resources, but they can’t do it alone. Philanthropic funds are eclipsed by governmental funds, and it’s government policies that must change to center race and gender more equitably in our societies.
Se-Ah-Dom Edmo, from Seeding Justice, told of her work in various social justice movements and described the change that MGR Foundation made recently to become Seeding Justice, acknowledging the need to frame their work vividly as supporting grassroots efforts.
Beth McCaw, from the Washington Women’s Foundation, provided practical examples of how they moved from centering themselves to centering communities as they did both grantmaking and events. The speakers gave advice about how we can diversify our perspectives by actively inviting more community members to share their voices and access power. A few take-aways from the conversation:
Philanthropy is embracing trust-based grantmaking by trusting organizations to make the right decisions on how to deploy resources. It’s time to also ensure that people “closest to the pain” have input and power to make change.
Should change be iterative and incremental (bending and stretching rather than breaking)? Or can the tension for change and specific breaks also move things forward?
Washington Women’s Foundation updated their values to be “commitment statements,” emphasizing both aspirational and practical priorities to guide their collective action.
Maybe we can broaden our lens and our relationships within our communities to enable us to be part of the transformation.
Check out the blog about democratizing grantmaking from D’Artagnan Bernard Caliman of Meyer Memorial Trust.
Ninety-nine girlfriends’ challenge is to find ways to embed racial equity in our organization and our grantmaking - our values, language, leadership, membership, grantmaking and partnerships. It’s a long-term challenge that Stephanie Montgomery observes will take courage and collective action. It’s also exciting.
If you were not able to attend the Discovery Forum, you can view the presentations and panel discussion below. And here’s the article we sent to our attendees about Moving from an Exclusive Club to an Inclusive Organization.