Weekly Reads
“Some of the best foundations that I have had relationships with were those that have actually come to see the work, that have actually spent time, like quality time—not just dropping in for half an hour. Let’s dream together what this could be. If we could just put aside all of the structures, if we could put away all of those hierarchies, let’s sit down together and let’s dream. It really is about that relationship of seeing each other as human beings, and not seeing each other as a piece of paper or something in a portal or even a picture.” [more]
Corrina Gould, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, for the Kataly Foundation
“I’m a big believer in intergenerational knowledge sharing and learning. I believe you can’t know where you're going until you understand where you've been. And so, I think the biggest thing that the leaders of today could learn from their early-, mid-career, maybe younger staff [is] the power of inquiry, the curiosity. I think sometimes we settle on a routine. And that routine works for a time. There comes a time when that routine may need to be reevaluated because circumstances change.” [more]
Storme Gray, EPIP, for Impact Audio
“‘Some people’s altruism puts other people under their power,’ [political philosopher and author Emma Saunders-Hastings] writes. Philanthropy creates ‘objectionably hierarchical social and political relationships.’ She sees unacceptable paternalism anytime philanthropists try to dictate the behavior of their recipients, or otherwise assume that they have a better idea of what’s in their recipients’ interests than the recipients do.” [more]
Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
“Of all the changes philanthropy has made, the increase in support for organizations led by Black people or supporting racial-equity efforts is perhaps the most tenuous, [the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s Phil] Buchanan says. The problem, he says, is that foundations may be wary of taking a public stance amid the ‘orchestrated backlash and fearmongering about critical race theory’ and demands for racial justice.” [more]
Alex Daniels, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
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