Innocent Giving

Building Authentic and Functional Relationships with Communities of Color

Monday, October 17, 10:00am – 11:30am

Organized and co-moderated by Vickie Benson, Arts Program Director, The McKnight Foundation; and Glyn Northington, Special Initiatives Director, Nonprofits Assistance Fund.

Presented by Alexs Pate, Author and President, Innocent Technologies LLC.

This session will introduce and briefly outline a new approach to reducing disparities in the outcomes of arts grantmaking. Alexs Pate, award-winning American author, novelist, playwright, and writing professor, will discuss how to build authentic and functional relationships with diverse communities where innocence and good are the key elements. Participants will explore how stereotypes about people and communities can impact relationship building with grantees, and how grantmakers can deepen their connection to organizations that represent people of color and other marginalized groups. The tactical and strategic approaches embedded in this work serve to create and support these relationships and increase the effectiveness of the grantmaking process for all parties. Participants will learn how this approach has been explored by arts funders from The McKnight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Bush Foundation, Nonprofits Assistance Fund, Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, and Minnesota State Arts Board. Past participants will be present to enhance the discussion.