GIA Blog

"Centering the voice and leadership of Black folks in driving social change should be a top priority for all foundations and philanthropic organizations working to advance racial equity." Tasha Tucker, program director of Racial Justice Grants & Mission Investing at Trinity Wall Street, pointed that out in a post reflecting on Black Philanthropy Month.

After a blaze tore through the National Museum of Brazil on Sunday night, officials have said much of Latin America’s largest collection of treasures might be lost, as The Washington Post wrote.

For the month of September, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

A year ago, the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund launched the $100 million Art for Justice Fund, a five-year fund that aims to reduce U.S. prison populations. A recent article on the American Nonprofit Academy delves into the initiative's work to reform the criminal justice system.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded recently Pitzer College a five-year $1.1 million grant to develop a Claremont Colleges-wide Critical Justice Education (CJE) program. The program will foster social change through the power of prison education and educate Claremont students and incarcerated individuals.

“The board meeting is not going well. (...) To the consternation of some board members, the executive director suggests that increasing staff diversity is a top priority.” One exasperated member says to the executive director, “You want to spend your time on that? We have so many more-pressing problems!”

In light of challenging times, Grant Oliphant, president of The Heinz Endowments, examines the role of the courageous leader and the power to make change happen within the philanthropic field and our own culture.

Stories can make us connect in unsuspected ways. A piece by the Stanford Social Innovation Review makes the case for the power of stories to make, prop up, and bring down systems.

The Mellon Public Scholars Program at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), which introduces graduate students in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to the intellectual and practical aspects of identifying, addressing, and collaborating with the public through their scholarship, received support for the next three years from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Surdna Foundation has announced that Don Chen will serve as the new president of the foundation. Chen currently leads the Just Cities and Regions team at the Ford Foundation and has been with the foundation since 2008.