Invisible Weavers: Charting the Evolving Identity of Intermediary Organizations

"Intermediary organizations, like mycelium, play a vital role in connecting, nourishing, and sustaining nonprofits and communities." –Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

In this webinar, we'll explore intermediaries' evolution from their historical roots to their potential future roles. We will dive into their primary functions, examining these organizations' proximity to communities and their deep connections therein, and investigate their critical role in bridging the gap in funding and nurturing the roots of change. Are intermediaries truly the overlooked "middle child," and what identities are they clarifying in today's landscape?

Join Sage Crump (National Performance Network), Cate Fox (AmbitioUS), and Ron Ragin (MAP Fund) on Tuesday, July 16 at 2pm EDT/11am PDT for a discussion on the significance of membership versus network, the impact of dwindling institutional support, and shedding light on replicating systems of harm under the guise of benevolence.

This 90-minute webinar will include breakout room discussions for attendees.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Live captioning will be available in English throughout the webinar. For additional accommodation requests, please contact GIA Program Manager Jaime Sharp, jaime@giarts.org, at least three (3) business days before the event.

Presenters

Sage Crump, Cultural Strategist & Director of Racial Justice and Movement Building, National Performance Network

Sage Crump is a culture strategist, coach, artist and movement facilitator who expands and deepens the relationship between the cultural sector and social justice organizing. She is a Black Queer Socialist Feminist based in New Orleans but working nationally, she believes in leveraging art, creative practice, and the cultural sector to transform systemic oppressions Sage is a member of Complex Movements, a Detroit-based artist collective whose interdisciplinary work supports local and translocal visionary organizing. She is principal and co-founder of The Kinfolks Effect (TKE) with artist muthi reed. TKE is an incubation space for multimedia interdisciplinary artwork that examines the movement of Blackness through time and space. She has recently completed a 10 year initiative on the development of liberatory infrastructure and is Director of racial justice and movement building at the National Performance Network. She is a member of the Guild of Future Architects, Women of Color in the Arts, and a board member with the Center for Cultural Innovation, Art2Action and Mark-n-Sparks. Sage’s work engages movement history, complex sciences, and creative practice to deepen our analysis, imagine the world we want to live in and build the infrastructure, strategies and practices that will get us there

Cate Fox, Program Director, AmbitioUS

Cate Fox (she/her/hers - hear my name) is Director, AmbitioUS. AmbitioUS is CCI’s national pooled fund program that invests in alternative economic paradigms of and federated infrastructure by those most dispossessed—primarily African American and Native American communities—who are seeking financial self-determination in order to preserve and support their cultural identity and artistic expressions on their own terms. Prior to joining CCI, she spent nine years at the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation leading and co-leading arts and institutional grantmaking; participating in and advising interdisciplinary initiatives that center artists and creatives as change-makers (such as Envisioning Justice); and supporting the Foundation’s racial equity and racial justice work. Additionally she brings more than a decade of experience in nonprofit consulting, strategic planning, and fundraising. She has served as an advisory board member of the Center for Cultural Policy (University of Chicago), Arts for Illinois Relief Fund, and the Urban Manufacturing Alliance. Cate is a creative writer, trained mediator, mother of three, and nonprofit nerd. Cate has an M.A. in peace and development studies from the University of Limerick (Limerick, Ireland) and a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Hollins University (Roanoke, VA).

Ron Ragin, Director of Programs, MAP Fund & Artist

Ron Ragin is a researcher, strategist, organizer, and interdisciplinary artist. He partners with artists, organizations, and grantmaking institutions to help them move in deeper alignment with their values, goals, and principles -- toward that ever-shifting space of liberation. He currently serves as the Director of Programs at MAP Fund. Ron has worked in the field of (arts and cultural) philanthropy for nearly two decades, with program officer posts at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He is co-author, with Maria Cherry Rangel, of the report Freedom Maps: Activating Legacies of Culture, Art and Organizing in the U.S. South. Ron sustains a vibrant performance and creative writing practice, rooted in music of the African Diaspora, improvisation, liberation aesthetics, and the development and maintenance of spiritual technologies. His artistic work centers around the role of sound, and the unamplified human voice in particular, in transforming our environment, our selves, and each other. Proud to be born and raised in the South, Ron now makes home on Tongva lands in Southern California, bakes a mean red velvet cake, and can throw down on some biscuits.