Weekly Reads
“‘We have observed a disconcerting pattern where Black women leaders are vacating their roles, with some leaving the non-profit sector altogether, citing hostility toward their leadership, strain on their health and well-being, unfair job expectations, and limited opportunities for career progression.’ This is the opening of a new report by the Washington Area Women’s Foundation entitled Thrive As They Lead: Advancing the Infrastructure to Support Black Women Leaders in the D.C. Metro Area Nonprofit Sector. It is the first glimpse of a funder tackling what might be one of the sector’s biggest, as yet untold story, indeed, a trend: the pushing out of Black women in leadership.” [more]
Cyndi Suarez, Nonprofit Quarterly
“Efforts made by philanthropy to improve our communities in just about any area of social well-being may not be enough and can be undone—sometimes in devastating ways—due to exclusionary public policy. So we believe that philanthropy needs to have a voice, to the extent possible, on public policy solutions that address systemic inequities and, as the Forum’s vision states, catalyze a just and equitable society where all can participate and prosper.” [more]
David Biemesderfer, United Philanthropy Forum
“We need to recognize that organizational culture—our ways of being with and making sense of ourselves and one another—permeates, animates, and shapes our organizational structures, systems, and strategies. … Culture does not happen to us, it happens through us. The further we travel toward a just transition, the more resistance we should expect from the systems and structures we seek to transform. Stopping the bad, changing the rules, and creating the new in the face of mounting resistance will require the continuous expansion, reinforcement, and regeneration of imagination, courage, persistence, and resilience.” [more]
Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, Justice Funders, for Stanford Social Innovation Review
“MacKenzie Scott’s giving represents a pathbreaking approach to philanthropy. In year two of The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s ongoing study, CEP further examined how recipient organizations are faring with these transformational gifts, expanding the study to ask about funders’ perceptions of nonprofits’ ability to handle such gifts. Scott’s large, unrestricted gifts are having dramatically positive effects on organizations and the communities they serve and have so far rarely resulted in the challenges or difficulties that many predicted.” [more]
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