Grantmakers in the Arts

For the final conversation in 2023 for The Shift, Mark will be in conversation with the first woman of color to lead Dance/USA, a service organization for the dance field in its 40-year history. In this conversation, we will discuss how the Board of Directors should and can support women of color in executive leadership positions in the non-profit sector.

The discussion will stream on LinkedIn on Tuesday, December 12 from 2-2:45pm EST. Learn more here.

From The Boston Foundation: 

The Latino Equity Fund at the Boston Foundation (LEF) today announced $375,000 in grants to 20 Latinx-serving organizations in Massachusetts. The grants, made through an open request for proposals in September, bring the total grantmaking from the Fund to over $1.8 million since 2013, with $692,000 being distributed this calendar year, making 2023 the largest giving year for LEF.

From Funders for LGBTQ Issues: 

Encouraging funders to increase their grantmaking to transgender communities requires shifting philanthropic culture to be more inclusive and supportive of binary and non-binary transgender and gender non-conforming people as employees, colleagues, and leaders within the sector. Yet transgender people remain woefully under-represented in philanthropy, and trans-specific professional and leadership development opportunities remain rare.

From the Nonprofit VOTE Team: 

"Ongoing efforts to roll back social gains, such as reproductive and LGBTQ rights, have made one thing clear: Focusing on politics alone won’t create lasting social change. Political debates and legislation are too closely tied to the whims of the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Instead, what drives long-term shifts is culture — the public attitudes and narratives that underlie progress," said Ken Grossinger for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

"Nonprofit leaders perceive lobbying, as it is currently practiced and understood, as corrupt conduct that exerts undue influence to the detriment of fair, impartial, and effective policymaking. The popular imagination associates lobbying with dodgy deals in smoke-filled back rooms," said Alberto Alemanno for Stanford Social Innovation Review. 

From Sustainable Arts Foundation: 

Our reading and dialogue with colleagues have sharpened our focus on the unjust distribution of wealth in this country. In solidarity with the groundswell of efforts toward decolonization, we feel compelled to spend down our foundation’s assets.

"Here’s a challenge: Find a figure in American philanthropy more inspiring, more knowledgeable, or better able to articulate both the vast import and fundamental limitations of this great national tradition than Darren Walker.