BUILDING RESOURCES TO END RACISM

Upcoming Events & Announcements:

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 will frame challenges, offer examples of current evaluative efforts, and share suggestions to help us ask the right questions from various roles of community activist, advocate, researcher, or funder. More importantly, we will conduct an interactive session to ensure that we hear 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

Recent Events & Announcements:

Thursday and Friday, May 27 and 28, 2010, Oakland, CA
The California Endowment [Closed Event]
Racial Justice Training Institute

PRE will assist 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 is 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

VIEW SLIDES

Tuesday, December 8, 2009, New York, NY
Philanthropy New York
Shared Prosperity: Philanthropic Approaches to Economic Recovery Through Racial Equity

While the economic crisis has been global and impacted everyone, research shows us that communities of color have been facing the crisis for years. What policies and practices helped create the crisis and how is that related to race in America? How can funders assist in ensuring that those most impacted by the crisis receive their share of the recovery? What are some of the opportunities and challenges to forging structural reform that can build a nation whose people can meet their basic needs no matter their race? Maya Wiley, Executive Director of the Center for Social Inclusion, will lead a discussion of structural racism in a time of economic challenge and political hope. Lori Villarosa, Executive Director of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, will share a range of tools available for foundations to apply the same analysis and criteria to their own grantmaking. This interactive session will provide both current strategies to increase the equitable impacts of the stimulus spending and apply those lessons for greater impact across any number of issue areas.

This event is by invitation only.

Thursday, October 22, 2009, Charlotte, NC
The 3rd National Convening of the Fulfilling the Dream Fund:Advancing Equal Opportunity in an Obama Era
Raising Resources in the Current Economic Period

PRE Executive Director Lori Villarosa will join this panel including Quinn Delaney of the Akonadi Foundation, PRE Advisory Board member john powell of the Kirwan Institute, and Bill Vandenberg of the Open society Institute.

This event is by invitation only.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009, New Orleans, LA
Neighborhood Funders Group Annual Conference
Catalyzing Change and Deepening Racial Justice Impacts

Please join the Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) for this pre-conference workshop on assessing the racial justice potential of your grantmaking. Rinku Sen (President and CEO, ARC and Publisher of Colorlines Magazine) and Lori Villarosa (Executive Director, PRE) will share key findings from Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment , which captured the process and impacts of the pilot project with two foundations that sought to strengthen their work with communities of color.

The interactive workshop will be relevant to funders with a range of experience, but is primarily intended to deepen the practical tools of "how" to address racial equity with foundation resources, rather than focus on the question of "why," which is already well-understood by many NFG participants, and yet still a challenge to our program plans. We will go over ways to address racism at the institutional and structural level, moving beyond "diversity,""outreach," or minimal criteria. The session will work with participants' own specific and real program challenges to consider individually and within small group discussions. Participants will come away with new ideas and practical tools for translating their commitment to racial justice into further concrete action and results.
This pre-conference workshop is sponsored by the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 9am - 12pm, AGM, 55 Court St. Suite 520, Boston MA
Associated Grantmakers
Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens

Come learn how a racial equity lens not only strengthens outcomes for communities of color, but for the broader community, and why it is still both relevant and critical. AGM and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) will address grantmaking with a racial equity lens at this half-day workshop.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 8:30am - 10am, Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA
Philanthropy Northwest Annual Conference
Catalytic Change: Grantmaking to Address Racial Disparities

In an environment of shrinking resources, how do we achieve the greatest impact in the short and long term? Can our cuts be “colorblind,” or do universal cuts often hurt the organizations working in communities of color the most? Learn about new tools that can help funders use a racial equity lens to ensure restricted grantmaking dollars still support communities equitably, even when resources are scarce.

Friday, June 12, 2009, 9:30am - 12:30pm Sheraton Overland Park Hotel, Overland Park, KS
Gamaliel Foundation African American Leadership Commission 2009 Conference
Uniting for Power through Coalitions
PRE Executive Director Lori Villarosa was a panelist, with Professor John Brittain and moderator Mayor Joyce Seals

Wednesday, May 13 - Thursday, May 14, 2009 Ashe Cultural Center, New Orleans
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families
Building Blocks of Change: Challenging Social Determinants

Tuesday, May 5, 2009, 2:30 - 4 pm Marriot Marquis, Atlanta, GA
Council on Foundations Annual Conference
Building Local Power to Address Structural Racism: Overcoming Challenges
Using an upcoming statewide effort to track the racial equity impacts of federal stimulus spending as a case study, this session highlighted local and regional approaches that aim to have a broader structural implications. It emphasized the importance of engaging those most affected as agents of these changes.
Moderated and co-designed by PRE Executive Director, Lori Villarosa, with presenters: Leticia Alcantar (co-designer) Akonadi Foundation, and PRE Advisory Board members Professor john a. powell of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, and Gihan Perera of the Miami Workers Center.

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

Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity 1720 N Street NW Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202-375-7770 Fax: 202-375-7771 info@racialequity.org
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