A CEO's Take on Racial Equity: The San Francisco Foundation Approach

Submitted by Carmen Graciela Díaz on February 15, 2018

Fred Blackwell, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF), recently tackled racial equity after the organization made a bold commitment to racial and economic equity in the Bay Area as a regional anchor.

"We did a lot of data collection and analysis," Blackwell says in an interview with Philanthropy News Digest. "And the data all pointed in the same direction: the need for greater levels of inclusion here in the Bay Area. The fact that race and economic status and geography had predictive power over where people were headed and what they could accomplish concerned us, and it was important to try to respond to that."

In his interview, Blackwell discusses TSFF's equity agenda, the underlying framework, and how the foundation views racial equity through concrete action:

What I think I brought to the foundation is a laser-like focus on the dimensions of social justice work with respect to racial and economic inclusion and equity — making sure that that "North Star" is something that is modeled at the top and cascades down through all levels of the organization. I would say that we are more explicit than we've been in the past about making equity the focus — not just in our grantmaking but also in how we work with donors, how we provide civic leadership in the region, and how we bring our voice to the table and those of our partners in order to make a difference. We view that North Star as guiding not only our programmatic work but everything we do here at the foundation.

Read the full interview.

Image: Fred Blackwell, courtesy The San Francisco Foundation