Philanthropic practice

GIA is sharing this blog post to as in introduction to the collaborative Racial Equity Grantmaking Coding Project being led by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) with Callahan Consulting for the Arts (CCA) and a cross section of grantmakers nation-wide. You may find more information here and apply to join this cohort here by November 1, 2023.

We believe that what we count counts. GIA is participating in the Racial Equity Grantmaking Coding Project, the culmination of research led by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) with Callahan Consulting for the Arts (CCA), for just this reason.

This pandemic and the ongoing murders of Black people by the state has made eminently visible a crisis as old as the nation itself – structural racism. Our national grantmaking field has used this historic moment to increase support to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, as we should. With that said however, the national grantmaking field is already expressing some ambivalence about maintaining these changes going forward.

Last November, Memphis Music Initiative (MMI)’s Director of Grantmaking and Partnerships, Dr. Rychetta Watkins, attended the 2021 annual Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, which took place in the virtual world for a second year due to the ongoing pandemic. Dr. Watkins, along with MMI Executive Director Amber Hamilton, developed and hosted a panel on the topic of intermediary funders in the grantmaking space, centering the unique perspective of intermediary funders. Dr. Watkins shares a reflection following their conference session including the context in which intermediary funders operate, the benefits of this model, and the lessons traditional funders can learn from intermediaries.

"If you’ve taken a leap, what was the runway you needed? If you wanted to take a leap, but didn’t, what held you back?" writes guest editor Donita Volkwijn about the prompts for the latest edition of Nonprofit Wakanda Quarterly.

"We have to stop being afraid of the critique,” Joe Scantlebury, CEO of Living Cities says in the Chronical of Philanthropy. “We don’t improve in silence.”

Following an extensive national search, United States Artists’ (USA) Board of Trustees announced this month the appointment of Judilee Reed as its new President and CEO.

Angelique Power, president and CEO of the Detroit-based Skillman Foundation, speaks with eJewishPhilanthropy on the power — and necessity — of centering trust within grantmaking. "What’s complicated about philanthropy is that money and power are often synonymous," Power says, "And so while the sector is directed at helping, being the arbiter of how capital moves makes you — in some ways, it jeopardizes trust, just in that act right there. It creates this uneven scenario where people are coming to you asking for funding."

Victoria Foundation announced yesterday that Sharnita C. Johnson will serve as the Foundation’s Vice President of Strategy, Impact and Communications. In this new position, Johnson will provide oversight and management of all programmatic activities and ensure alignment with the Foundation goals and values.

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations recently released a publication that, as the website explains, "builds on the principles outlined in Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity and will take a critical look at the ways in which capacity-building practices can be grounded in approaches that acknowledge and center racial equity."

Brookings recently published a piece by Paula Arce-Trigatti, director of the National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships, reflecting on various aspects of partnership work, lessons on defining research-practice partnerships, and how to know whether partnership work is making a positive impact.

As part of The Redford Center's investments in storytelling strategies that respond to the urgency of today’s crises, the center introduced a new category of impact grants as part of their expanded grantmaking strategy.