Weekly Reads
“As part of our work to align our policies, practices, and behaviors with the new narrative [, we’re now designing a program that goes beyond building standard leadership capacities to supporting the development of the capacities participants want to enhance in their collective efforts to upend racism and drive systemic change in the health systems where they work.” [more]
Deborah Bae, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Kiernan Doherty, Metropolitan Group, for Stanford Social Innovation Review
“Are we funders using capacity-building support as a substitute for what organizations really need, that is, multi-year, flexible support? Is it a disservice to provide capacity-building funds without operating capital to implement them? [...] Furthermore, are we as funders treating BIPOC-led organizations unfairly by assuming, without asking, that they have different capacity needs than other organizations?” [more]
Chris Cardona, Ford Foundation, and Frances Kunreuther and Sean Thomas-Breitfeld, Building Movement Project, for Building Movement Project
“Investing in Black leaders and organizations is a powerful opportunity for impact. Over and over again, such leaders have been able to achieve significant results with a fraction of the resources of their white counterparts. Case in point: The 1954 Project is radically redesigning how philanthropy connects with Black leaders in education, not only by upending chronic underinvestment, but also by reinventing how investments are made.” [more]
Britt Savage, Lyell Sakaue, Nicole Austin-Thomas, The Bridgespan Group
“By avoiding funding compensation and only funding programs (or providing general operating support but focusing every conversation with grantees on programs), funders allow themselves to fund only at the margins—in the relatively narrow band of program expenses. … [They] can create multiple significant levels of value through investing in grantee staff: healthier, better-equipped, well-supported nonprofit leaders; more powerful, sustainable nonprofit organizations; and more robust, cohesive civil society networks able to advance their causes.” [more]
Rusty Stahl, Fund the People, for The Foundation Review
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