GIA Blog

A group of philanthropic organizations signed a joint letter condemning the violence that unfolded January 6 as a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol.

"The failure of trust sits at the intersection of two live debates in philanthropy. First, foundations are being called to give more to communities of color. Second, they are also being called to give capital that shows trust: long-term general operating support (GOS)," writes Jacob Harold, executive vice president of Candid.

“The only way to achieve equity is to expose how white privilege exists from top to bottom in many…cultural institutions, making it nearly impossible for artists of color to tell their stories on their own terms,” writes Salamishah Tillet, in The New York Times. “Fortunately,” Tillet continues, “Black artists are not waiting around for change to happen, slowly or suddenly.”

Cave Canem, EcoTheo Review, and LOGOS Poetry Collective announced the launch of the Starshine and Clay Fellowship, a new initiative providing financial and development support to emerging Black poets, and fundraising opportunities for Cave Canem. Applications for this fellowship are accepted until January 31.

On behalf of GIA’s team and our membership, I am writing this blog post as a response to Quanice Floyd’s recently shared article, The Failure of Arts Organizations to Move Toward Racial Equity. First, to Quanice – Grantmakers in the Arts hears you. Your statement offered our community the opportunity and charge to reflect deeply, specifically about power.

In a recent Artsy article, Kemi Ilesanmi, executive director of The Laundromat Project (The LP), discussed the mission and the work of this New York–based, POC-centered organization "that aims to meet the concerns of local communities of color and enact change through public engagements with the arts by actualizing spaces like community gardens, plazas, and, yes, laundromats."

In "The importance of BIPOC voices and the unique challenges BIPOC content creators face," Vu Le writes in his Nonprofit AF blog, about talented BIPOC folks that are "hesitant to contribute content and get their voices out there."

"We must build up people of color and Indigenous-led philanthropic and movement infrastructure organizations in order to challenge the power structures in this country and invest into the self-determination of the people on the frontlines," said Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective president & CEO, as he recaps the past month of mobilization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A report from the United States Department of Arts and Culture tackles how "as natural disasters and social emergencies multiply, the need has grown for ethical, creative, and effective artistic response—arts-based work responding to disaster or other community-wide emergency, much of it created in collaboration with community members directly affected."

In "Cultural institutions start to put their assets to work for mission," published in ImpactAlpha, Dennis Price discusses Upstart Co-Lab's new research on "what cultural institutions need to know about investing for values and mission is the first primer on impact investing specifically for leaders of museums and other cultural institutions."