Preparing the Organization to Address Social Justice and Racial Equity

• The Challenge
• Promising Practices
• Benchmarks

Explore your philanthropic organization's interests, and the ways that issues of  social injustice and racial inequity interfere with them.

• Inquiring into local conditions, if you haven't done it in a while, can yield fresh or surprising views. Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. has conducted multiyear studies to learn how issues of racial inequity affect quality of life in its community. A hallmark of its approach: drawing on a wide range of perspectives in gathering and interpreting data.
• Deepen understanding by diversifying sources of information and advice from consultants, staff and board.  The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation invites grantees, board and staff to an annual retreat. Other ideas: plan peer discussions and events, with the majority White foundation board and staff in the minority.
• Put issues of social justice on the agenda for discussion by staff, board, and partners. Regional foundations such as Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation , Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation , Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation , and Jessie Ball duPont Fund routinely allot time in staff and board meetings to discuss justice and equity. The Community Foundations of Canada offers a program for its members that facilitates discussions around social justice in all foundation proceedings.

Build your philanthropy's ability to incorporate themes of justice and equity into its mission and practice.

• Specialized training and coaching for yourself, staff and board can create better understanding of the dynamics of culture, context, and root causes of disparities and injustice. The Long Island Community Foundation asked the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond to conduct training for its staff and board. The result: a new initiative to erase racism. Other ideas: plan learning experiences for your board, staff and donors. Visit other organizations that are active in this arena, taking them to parts of town they might not otherwise go. Arrange presentations by those with experience.
• Increasing the diversity of viewpoint, experience, and skills in your philanthropic organization, especially in positions of influence, can lead to better actions based on better information and advice.  The Jessie Ball duPont Fundwent to court to get its bylaws changed so that, among other things, it could more easily diversify its board, and better “walk its talk.”  
• Becoming more inter-connected with diverse communities will help at the operational day-to-day level. The National Network of Grantmakers has undertaken a major effort to ensure that the language and emphasis on social and economic justice is more securely hardwired into its operational and programmatic priorities. Idea: Review your operations budget to include more diverse vendors of everything from paper clips to investment advice.
• Develop funding criteria that address structural issues that affect gaps. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation , Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation and Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro provide specific criteria to attract the kind of proposals they would like to fund.

Become a learning organization, and foster learning communities.

• Foster an environment where colleagues share and learn skills and practices that make a difference. The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation , National Rural Funders Collaborative , Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation hold conventions, widening participants’ perspectives, skills, contacts and opportunities. Institute for Church Administration and Management developed five models for understanding the role of black churches, providing information communities can use. For more ideas and examples, see the article, “ Providing Culturally Appropriate Technical Assistance ,” by Betty Emarita, available in Resources .
• Convene different groups working on similar issues. The National Rural Funders Collaborative supports “learning communities,” helping participants from different settings identify common elements of strategy. MDC, Inc . annually brings together the highly diverse participants of the Ford Foundation ’s Community Philanthropy and Racial Equity project for the same purposes. Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy builds networks of emerging and experienced colleagues by creating local chapters in communities across the U.S. and the world.
   

RESOURCES

Becoming A Catalyst For Social Justice: A Tool For Aligning Internal Operations To Produce Progress.Produced by Betty Emarita for this project, 2006, available on this site under Resources.

Cultural Competency in Nonprofit Capacity Building (Pt 2). Produced by Brigette Rouson for the Cultural Competency Initiative of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. http://www.paradigmpartners.us/contact.htm

Race Matters. A tool kit available from Annie E. Casey Foundation. http://www.aecf.org/knowledgecenter/publicationsseries/racematters.aspx

Organizational Development & Capacity in Cultural Competence: Building Knowledge and Practice. A monograph series produced by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services & supported by The California Endowment

Resources of the Diversity in Philanthropy project (http://www.diversityinphilanthropy.com) of the Council on Foundations (www.cof.org)

Listen, Learn, Lead: Grantmaker Practices that support Nonprofit Results. A report of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations Change Agent Project, 2006.

Providing Culturally Appropriate Technical Assistance, produced by Betty Emarita for this project, available on this site under Resources

Improving Race relations and Undoing Racism: Roles and Strategies for Community Foundations, Rainbow Research, Inc., 2001

Assessing your Readiness for a Stronger Anti-Poverty Role, part of a “toolkit on poverty for community foundations” produced by the Community Foundations of Canada, 2006. http://www.cfc-fcc.ca/poverty/assessing-readiness-e.cfm

This page updated 29 August 2008