Philanthropic practice

From USC Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project: Interest in narrative change approaches has been increasing over the last several years in the advocacy and philnathropic worlds. 

With support from the California Health Care Foundation, the USC Norman Lear Center embarked on a learning project to:

From Nonprofit Quarterly: "At GEO’s 2022 National Conference, hosted in partnership with Forefront, grantmakers and other practitioners had the opportunity to come together in Chicago, Illinois to explore challenges and uncover solutions with fellow grantmakers who are continuing to lean into transformational change in order to create a just, connected, and inclusive society where we can all thrive.

"At United Philanthropy Forum’s 2022 Annual Membership Meeting on July 19, 2022 in Seattle, WA, the Forum’s membership elected five new members to the Forum’s Board of Directors for three-year terms," which include GIA President Eddie Torres.

From authors Shaena Johnson and Marni Rosen for The Katalay Foundation: "Participatory grantmaking can be a powerful tool to center the experiences and expertise of people who have deep knowledge of the issue areas in which grants are being made. It is also a process that comes with unique needs for support. Foundations that are engaging with participatory grantmaking must be aware of how their institutional practices do — and do not — set participants and grantees up for success."

"There is no denying that over the last three years our world has been fundamentally reshaped by a worldwide pandemic, urgent climate collapse, widening inequality, rising authoritarian threats, and increasingly violent reactionary culture backlash," said Richael Faithful for Peak Grantmaking. "The peril of this moment is defined by precarity of many of the systems, norms, and order that we have known. It is an inherently stressful time. The fact is that as our world has been reshaped, we—as people—have been, too."

Media Impact Funders hosts the Member Briefing, "Recommendations for documentary impact funders," on May 24 at 1pm ET. The hour-long zoom meeting features Denae Peters (Perspective Fund), Daniel Forkkio (Represent Justice), and Shaady Salehi (Trust-based Philanthropy Project). It is open to all funders.

From Exponent Philanthropy: "Building trust has been a key part of philanthropy for years for lean funders. Nevertheless, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, trust and strong relationships have taken on an even greater significance."

“Some of the changes that we instituted during the pandemic were things that we were actually thinking about before,” said Rashad Cobb, community engagement program officer at the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. He summarized, “These weren’t necessarily new ideas that we had never thought (of) before, but maybe the pace at which we would’ve implemented these ideas was sped up by the pandemic.”

In an Upack the Past feature in Al Jazeera, Donna J. Nicol writes, “From New Deal liberalism in the 1930s to the academic culture wars of the 1980s and the rise of Donald Trump, how White fears of losing power led to philanthropy that openly discouraged discussions of race and diversity.”

“Everyone in philanthropy can potentially play a role in supporting transformative racial justice work," remarks Lori Villarosa, founder and executive director, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) in a piece for PEAK Grantmaking blog. "But to unlock that potential, each person needs to apply racial equity and racial justice lenses to all aspects of their work. And grants professionals can be a driving force by both shifting practice and ensuring that the organization is impactfully looking at its work through both lenses.”