Dear TFN Community,
The Surdna Foundation is honored to sponsor The Funders Network's "Rise Together" conference. In the spirit of sharing knowledge, we've curated a list of four ways funders can support BIPOC communities. Each of these resources has helped shape how Surdna thinks about and funds racial justice. I look forward to learning, working, sharing, and rising up together.
— Kellie Terry, Senior Program Officer for Sustainable Environments at the Surdna Foundation, TFN Board Member, and #TFN2021 Conference Planning Committee Member
Four Ways Funders Can Support BIPOC Communities
1. Follow the Frontlines of Racial Justice
How can we in philanthropy do a better job of supporting the kind of collaboration and shared learning that grassroots organizations need to grow their movements?
This short video looks at how the Surdna Foundation's Sustainable Environments team set out to answer this question and offers five takeaways for funders who want to deepen their participatory grantmaking and equitable evaluation practices..
2. Join the Amplify Fund
As a funder collaborative, the Amplify Fund supports Black, Indigenous, people of color and low-income communities to build power and to influence decisions about the places where they live and work. The Amplify Fund centers racial justice and believes in following the wisdom and guidance of local leaders.
Amplify members to date include: Ford Foundation, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, General Service Foundation, Missouri Foundation for Health, Moriah Fund, Open Society Foundations, Raikes Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Surdna Foundation, The California Endowment, The Cricket Island Foundation, The JPB Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, Z Smith Reynolds Foundation. Amplify invites funders and donors with shared values and goals to learn more and join them.
3. Practice a People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy
"There are moments of clarity that allow for society to challenge popular thinking and status quo solutions. Within all the challenges that this pandemic has created, it has also revealed what is wrong with the extractive economy while showcasing the innate resilience, common care, and original wisdom that we hold as people....A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy offers community groups, policy advocates, and policymakers a pathway to solutions that work for frontline communities and workers." - Climate Justice Alliance
A People’s Orientation to a Regenerative Economy was authored by the United Frontline Table.
4. Take the Donors of Color Climate Justice Pledge
The Donors of Color Network’s new Climate Funders Justice Pledge shifts the center of gravity in philanthropy towards racial and economic justice, challenging the nation’s largest climate funders to commit publicly to greater transparency and give at least 30% of their climate funding to the BIPOC-led powerbuilding groups who are the most successful in fighting the climate crisis.
Solidarity, Not Charity
Solidarity philanthropy is rooted in recognition that those closest to the problems hold powerful solutions to solve them. Here are three examples of "solidarity, not charity" in action that inform and inspire us as we support power-building in BIPOC communities:
- Movement for Black Lives: From mutual aid efforts to disaster relief, Black communities know what’s best for Black people. Be sure to read "10 Things Black Communities Can Do to Support Each Other Through the Covid-19 Crisis."
- Justice Funders: A partner and guide for philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world. .Justice Funder’s 100-year vision for a Just Transition for philanthropy is detailed in Resonance: A Framework for Philanthropic Transformation.
- Visionary Freedom Fund: A key component of the Visionary Freedom Fund (VFF) is the Power Table, a youth-led collective who will come together to inform values-aligned funders about how to best support their long-term vision for youth justice. Together, they will help transform the way philanthropy partners with frontline communities by creating equal representation at the table where grantmaking strategies and decisions are made. (The VFF was launched by the Andrus Family Fund, a program of the Surdna Foundation. )
With deep gratitude for all of the movements, nonprofits, funders, thinkers, and doers who strive for thriving cultures, inclusive economies, and sustainable environments across the US. And a special thanks to the grantee partners in this post: Amplify Fund, Climate Justice Alliance, Justice Funders, and the Movement for Black Lives.