BUILDING RESOURCES TO END RACISM
The Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) is a multiyear project intended to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism in communities through capacity building, education, and convening of grantmakers and grantseekers.
Upcoming Events & Announcements:
March 19, 2012 San Antonio, TX
Grants Managers Network Annual Conference
Incorporating Diversity into Grantmaking
Integrating diversity is a hot topic in philanthropy. Countless initiatives and programs seek to ensure grantmakers are meeting the needs of all communities. How can you track and evaluate the diversity of your current and potential grantees, and what systems need to be in place to ensure that you meet your organization's goals around diversity? This session will build on the knowledge of grants managers and highlight the unique role that grants management plays in data collection, management, and analysis.
Speakers
Bryan Glover, Communications Officer, Funders for LGBTQ Issues
Kalpana Krishnamurthy, Gender Justice and RACE Program Director, Western States Center, and PRE Advisory Board Member
Lori Villarosa
For full details on all events, visit our news page.
Previous PRE Events & Announcements:
January 20th, 2012 Seattle, WA
Governing for Racial Equity
The daylong event will be an opportunity to deepen skills in promoting inclusion, diversity and racial justice and to build institution's ability to address racial equity. The conference is a networking opportunity for all government employees and officials. The event is hosted by the City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI). More information on RSJI and an event flyer can be found at www.seattle.gov/rsji or call 206-255-7556.
Plenary:Working with Government for Racial Equity
What are the challenges in working with government, and what are the opportunities for partnering?
Participants:
Kalpana Krishnamurthy, Gender Justice and RACE Program Director, Western States Center, and PRE Advisory Board Member
Dustin Washington, Community Justice Program Director AFSC and People's Institute Northwest Trainer
Lori Villarosa
Workshop:Structural Racism: Measuring Racial Equity
What is structural racism, and how do we measure progress toward structural equity?
Kalpana Krishnamurthy and Lori Villarosa will be facilitating and coordinating this presentation.
November 15th, 2011 Los Angeles, CA
Southern California Grantmakers 2011 Annual Conference and Members' Meeting[only open to SCG Members].
Marking Progress: Evaluating Movement Toward Racial Justice
What is both meaningful and realistic when evaluating work to change complex, cumulative and deeply entrenched conditions such as racial inequities and injustice? How do we assess progress toward true transformation when so many of our indicators are transactional? How do issues of power and privilege affect evaluation and how can we address them in establishing useful indicators of progress? In spite of the conceptual and practical challenges, we all want to know if our short-term gains are leading to longer term, sustainable and important changes. This interactive session will frame challenges, offer examples of current evaluative efforts, and share suggestions to help lift up the right questions for funders, evaluators, national advocates and community-based practitioners to consider.
We will raise issues that have been written about in PRE's Critical Issues Forum, Vol. 3 Marking Progress: Movement Toward Racial Justice and explore implications for local, statewide and national work.
Presenters
Julie Quiroz-Martinez, Senior Fellow, Movement Strategy Center and PRE Advisory Board Member
Mari Ryono, Director of Development and Evaluation, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote
Lori Villarosa will be facilitating and coordinating this presentation.
Sunday, October 30th, 2011 Chicago, IL
Independent Sector 2011 Annual Conference
Tough Conversations
Fear of conflict or desire to avoid misunderstanding can sometimes get in the way of progress. What issues do we shy away from at our peril? Learn to initiate tough conversations in order to unearth - and address - difficult subjects before they stop you in your tracks.
Facilitator: Mikaela Seligman, Independent Sector
Discussion leaders: J.D. Hokoyama, Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics; Debra B. Natenshon, The Center for What Works; Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity; Jill Williams, Andrus Family Fund, Surdna Foundation, Inc.; Kara Inae Carlisle, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Alice Kim, Illinois Humanities Council; and Martha L. McCoy, Everyday Democracy (& PRE Advisory Board Member).
Thursday, October 6th, 2011 Seattle, WA
2011 Race & Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) Summit [Closed Event]
The RSJI Summit is a dynamic half-day event held every year to bring together racial justice change agents across City of Seattle and King County departments. The Summit is an opportunity for City employees working on racial equity to gain skills, strengthen relationships across departments and to hear about overall RSJI work, goals and priorities. This year the topics will include Race and Media, Measuring Racial Disparities, Power and Politics, and Structural Racism. About 300 city and county employees and nonprofit leaders are expected to attend the event.
Keynote by john a. powell, Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University (and PRE Advisory Board Member)
Structural Racism: Measuring Racial Equity
This workshop will cover:
- What is structural racism?
- How do strategies for challenging institutional racism differ from those challenging structural racism?
- How do we measure progress towards structural equity?
Presenters: Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity; Maggie Potapchuk, MP Associates ; and Scott Winn, RSJI.
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011 2-3:30 PM EDT: Webinar
Marking Progress: Evaluating Movement Toward Racial Justice
Click here for Video and Audio of the Webinar, or here for slides.
While practitioners, advocates and funders increasingly understand the importance of using a structural racism lens or systemic approach, we have had less conversation about how to determine whether such work is generating the impacts we desire. What is both meaningful and realistic when evaluating work to change complex, cumulative and deeply entrenched outcomes and conditions? How do we assess progress toward transformation when so many of our indicators are transactional? In spite of the conceptual and practical challenges, we all want to know if our short-term gains are leading to longer term, sustainable and important changes.
This webinar addresses challenges, offers examples of current evaluative efforts, and shares suggestions to help us ask the right questions from various roles of community activist, advocate, researcher, or funder. More importantly, the interactive session and invitation to continue sharing comments and questions via email aims to ensure that we hear what funders, activists and others are struggling with or learning in their own evaluations.
Presenters
Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor,The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Rinku Sen, Executive Director, Applied Research Center and Colorlines Magazine
Maya Wiley, Executive Director,Center for Social Inclusion
Coordinated and moderated by PRE's Lori Villarosa
This webinar raises issues that each of the presenters have written about in PRE's Critical Issues Forum, Vol. 3 Marking Progress: Movement Toward Racial Justice, as well as expands on them to reflect how our thinking has continued to evolve and as we have continued to hear about challenges raised by others.
June 7th, 2011, Webinar
Moving from Diversity to Racial Justice: Assessing our Giving
PRE's Lori Villarosa was featured in a webinar for Women's Donors Network to share findings from Catalytic Change: Lessons from The Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment, which PRE developed in partnership with the Applied Research Center (ARC) and piloted with two foundations. She discussed strategies to determine and refine the ability of giving/grantmaking to achieve systemic and racially just solutions.
May 25, 2011, Asheville, NC
W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s America Healing: Building The Field And Connectiong The Leaders Conference [Closed Event]
Measuring Our Progress: Racial Equity Evaluation Tools and Success Markers
If data are needed to make a case for injustice and to show progress, then how can we measure progress in achieving racial equity? Choosing the accurate and realistic indicators and markers of success are critical parts of data collection. So, how do community leaders, advocates, and decision makers know when real progress toward racial justice is being made? There is an increasing demand in communities and institutions across the country for evaluation tools that help to establish appropriate success indicators and assess progress towards achieving racial equity. What racial justice assessment issues have been most important to advocacy and community organizing groups on the ground? How does evaluation contribute to or detract from the ongoing activities of community organizers? This session will engage evaluators and other community leaders in robust discussions and exchanges about a variety of racial healing and racial equity assessment strategies and social justice success markers.
Moderator: Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE). Panelists: Sally Leiderman, Center for Assessment and Policy Development; Donna-Marie Winn, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Lloyd Asato, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum.
April 10-12, 2011, Philadelphia, PA
Council on Foundations Annual Conference
April 12, 2011, Philadelphia, PA
10:00-11:30 AM: Onsite Seminar
Speaking of Race: Communications, the Unconscious Mind and Public Policy
As political and cultural discourse on race becomes increasingly polarized, it is critical to understand its role in public-policy debates. This session explored the data on ways hidden and explicit racial messages affect public enthusiasm for particular policies—and how funders can address race directly for greater impact.
Presenters: Kica Matos, U.S. Reconciliation and Human Rights Program of Atlantic Philanthropies; john powell, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at The Ohio State University; and Rinku Sen, Applied Research Center and Colorlines Magazine. Coordinated and moderated by Lori Villarosa, PRE
February 25, 2011, New York, NY
EVALUATION AS A TOOL FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE: A Continuing Conversation and Call to Action Among Funders, Evaluators and Community-based Practitioners
Invitation Only Workshop at The Graduate Center, City University of NY, NYC
This event is co-sponsored by: The Public Science Project, The Graduate Center - CUNY: Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Maria Elena Torre, Director;The Full Frame Initiative: Katya Fels Smyth, Founder and Executive Director and Rasmia Kirmani Frye, Director of Community-Based Policy
Wednesday, February 9, 2011, Detroit, MI
W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Strong Sector Initiative Convening [Closed Event]
Racial Equity and Inclusiveness to Strengthen the Sector
This interactive session, developed by PRE, addressed both internal and external needs and opportunities for broadening or deepening racial equity, diversity and inclusiveness policies and practices within the nonprofit and philanthropic infrastructure organizations. It shared and built upon the efforts of participants, as well as brought in lessons and tools from others in the field.
Presenters/facilitators: Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) and Maggie Potapchuk, MP Associates
October 27-29, 2010, New Orleans, LA
Grantmakers
for Education Annual Conference
October 27, 2010, New Orleans, LA
1:30-4:30
PM: Onsite Seminar
The Uncomfortable
Conversation: How Grantmaking Practices can Advance or Hinder Racial
Equity
This seminar explored the professional practices and organizational strategies that are relevant in understanding both the persistence of racial inequality in education and the efforts that must be undertaken to address it. Together, we considered the implications of naming racial equity as a goal of our work and began to put together practices that promote equity at the center of how we work. Key questions that participants were prompted to explore included: Where does race figure into the institutional and structural dynamics of the problems we are trying to solve? How might these dynamics be replicated in our own work? How do the power dynamics of the grantmaking role, combined with the class and race dimensions of the institutional settings in which we work, shape our thinking and action in this arena? What thoughtful practices should we adopt regarding power and privilege?
Facilitator: Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE)
Presenter: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, African American Policy Forum
September 23 - 24, 2010, Chicago, IL
The
Applied Research Center's Facing Race Conference
Marking Progress: Evaluating Movement Toward Racial
Justice
While practitioners, advocates and funders increasingly understand the importance of using a structural racism lens or systemic approach, we have had less conversation about how to determine whether such work is generating the impacts we desire. What is both meaningful and realistic when evaluating work to change complex, cumulative and deeply entrenched outcomes and conditions? How do we assess progress toward transformation when so many of our indicators are transactional? In spite of the conceptual and practical challenges, we all want to know if our short-term gains are leading to longer term, sustainable and important changes. This panel framed challenges, offered examples of current evaluative efforts, and shared suggestions to help us ask the right questions from various roles of community activist, advocate, researcher, or funder. More importantly, we conducted an interactive session to ensure that we heard what activists and others in the room are struggling with or learning in their own evaluations.
Presenters
Michelle Fine,
Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, City University
of New York
Rinku Sen, Executive Director, The Applied
Research Center
Lori Villarosa, Executive Director, The
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Thursday and Friday, May 27 and 28, 2010, Oakland, CA
The California Endowment [Closed Event]
Racial Justice Training Institute
PRE assisted in coordinating a pilot training institute for key staff and community parters of The California Endowment (TCE)'s Building Healthy Communities program to provide a shared experience in deepening awareness and understanding of:
• Structural racism or racialization, and how it impacts our communities;• The use of a racial equity lens in policy analysis, program development and evaluation; and
• Ways that the foundation, its grantee partners and communities can build effective coalitions with shared goals to more effectively combat the inequities and increase opportunity for all.
Presenters
john powell, Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Rinku Sen, Executive Director, Applied Research Center
Jesse Mills, Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of San Diego
Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Danielle Mahones, Executive Director, Center for Third World Organizing
Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
This event was open to TCE staff and invited community partners only.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 9:30am - 11:30am, Center for Healthy Communities, Los Angeles, CA
Southern California Grantmakers
The Economy and Racial Equity: Strategies to Increase Recovery for All
Foundations are keenly aware of the uneven impact that the economic crisis has had on Californians, with effects divided along lines of gender, race and geography. Gaps in unemployment, income and assets that existed before the downturn persist, and in many cases are being widened with the uneven economic recovery.
While it is important to have universal goals around economic recovery, research increasingly indicates policy responses that are focused on the needs of the hardest-hit communities may achieve better results for the broader community. Known as "targeted universalism", this policy strategy also makes more efficient use of public investments.
Presented by Southern California Grantmakers and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, this program explores how grantmakers can use targeted universalism to reach communities most impacted by the economic crisis.
Who May Attend: Current SCG members and other grantmakers eligible for SCG membership. Eligibility requirements.
Please RSVP to programsrsvp@socalgrantmakers.org by May 19, 2010.
Presenters
john powell, Executive Director, Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
Paulina Gonzalez, Executive Director, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
Lori Villarosa, Executive Director, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Saturday, April 24, 2010, 12:30pm - 2:00pm, Denver Convention Center, Denver, CO
Emerging Partners in Philanthropy National Conference; Next Gen in 2010: Building a Movement, Making an Impact
Racial Justice and Philanthropy: Experiences from the Field
This lunch plenary will feature:
Melissa Johnson, Neighborhood Funders Group (moderator);
Victor De Luca, Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation;
Cynthia Renfro, Marguerite Casey Foundation;
Ron Rowell, Common Counsel Foundation; and
Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Tuesday, April 27, 2010, 1:45pm - 3:30pm, Hyatt Regency, Denver, CO
Council on Foundations Annual Conference
Advance Practice Institute: Social Justice Evaluation: Reframing for Real Learning
We all want to know that our work had an impact. Social justice activists striving for meaningful change with communities in greatest need have no time or resources to waste. As grantmakers, our challenge is ensuring that evaluation efforts are framed and conducted in ways that measure progress and don't simply tally up numbers. Fortunately, there are excellent tools to build on and peers, activists and others testing out new approaches.
This workshop will address questions generated by participants drawing from their own experiences. Experts who are well-versed in the practice of social justice philanthropy will bring a range of resources to share with you including the new TRASI (Tools and Resources for Assessing Social Impact) system available from the Foundation Center. There will be no long speeches, only interactive problem-solving, either in a whole group or in small groups.If impact assessment for social justice work is on your mind, but you don't quite know how to approach it, this workshop is for you. Bring a challenge to share or -- even better -- tell us about it in advance so we can think about it beforehand. Email villarosa(at)racialequity.org or jessica(at)bearmanconsulting.com if you have a question or issue you would like to bring to the workshop.
Workshop Leaders
Bradford K. Smith, President, Foundation Center
Barry Knight, Executive Director, Centris
Lori Villarosa, Executive Director, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity
Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 9:15am - 10:45am, Marriot New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
Katrina at Five: Partners in Philanthropy
Catalyzing Change & Deepening Racial Justice Impacts
What is the racial justice potential of your grantmaking? Get practical tools for addressing racial equity with funder resources, explore ways to address racism at the institutional and structural level, and come away with new ideas for translating commitment to racial justice into concrete action and results.
Presenter and Session Organizer:
Lori Villarosa, PRE
Co-Presenter:
Ron Chisom, Executive Director, The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond
Friday, March 12, 2010, 2:30pm - 3:45pm, Hyatt Capitol Square, Columbus, OH
Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama
Evaluating Progress: Effective Movement Toward Reducing Systemic Racism
While practitioners, advocates and funders increasingly understand the importance of using a structural racism lens or systemic approach, we have had less conversation about how to determine whether such work is generating the impacts we desire particularly before equity or social justice are achieved. What is both meaningful and realistic when evaluating work to change complex, cumulative and deeply entrenched outcomes and conditions? How do we assess progress toward transformation when so many of our indicators are transactional? How do issues of power and privilege affect evaluation and how can we address them in establishing useful indicators of progress? In spite of the conceptual and practical challenges, we all want to know if our short-term gains are leading to longer term, sustainable and important changes. This panel will frame challenges, offer examples of current evaluative efforts, and share suggestions to help us ask the right questions. We will reflect a variety of perspectives from community-based activists, national advocates, evaluators and funders, and develop an interactive session to engage everyone with a stake in this growing discussion.
Presenters:
Rinku Sen, Applied Research Center
Sally Leiderman, Center for the Assessment of Policy Development
Rahn Dorsey, Barr Foundation
Lori Villarosa, PRE
Tuesday, February 22, 2010
PRE/ARC Webinar
Catalytic Change: Lessons from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment
While many funders have expressed their commitment to addressing inequities in their communities, there is often still a disconnect between these aspirations and the grantmaking strategies needed to truly improve opportunity and outcomes for all. Join Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) in a webinar as they share key findings from Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment. Speakers will share strategies to determine and refine the ability of your own grantmaking to achieve systemic and racially just solutions. The webinar will also feature the heads of the two foundations who piloted the assessment, offering practical insights from boards, staff, and grantee partners that you can build upon in your work.
Presenters:
Rinku Sen, Executive Director, Applied Research Center
Lori Villarosa, Executive Director, PRE
Patricia Brandes, Executive Director, Barr Foundation
Margaret O'Bryon, President and CEO, Consumer Health Foundation
In this Webinar you will learn to:
• Establish a racial justice lens in grantmaking;
• Move beyond the "diversity lens" and recognize the potential and limitations of intervening at the individual, institutional, or structural levels;
• Create a clear set of definitions, questions and processes to help assess internal and external systems that support people of color;
• Understand how being explicit vs. implicit about racial dynamics can affect outcomes; and
• Use analytic tools to examine the efficacy of organizational commitments to racial equity
May 2009
PRE, together with the Applied Research Center (ARC) introduce joint publication:
Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment
This report was developed following ARC s 2004 publication of Short Changed: Foundation Giving in Communities of Color. That report documented, as recent reports have confirmed, decreasing grantmaking with clear racial justice impacts, as well as decreasing support for organizations led by people of color. As foundation executives grapple with the meaning of racial disparities in philanthropy and how to remedy them, we hope that the ARC -PRE assessment will help all of us understand how foundations can advance racial equity more effectively. The report highlights lessons learned from the pilot assessments at two foundations, the Consumer Health Foundation in Washington, DC and the Barr Foundation in Boston, MA
