BUILDING RESOURCES TO END RACISM

1. Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens

PRE has partnered with GrantCraft to develop a publication to assist grantmakers to deepen their understanding and actions regarding race, ethnicity and racial equity, the Guide to Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens. Grantmakers and grantseekers describe the ways they incorporate a racial/ethnic analysis into a range of issue areas, as well as within dedicated racial justice programs. It distinguishes between diversity and justice, address internal and external dynamics, and recognize challenges and opportunities. The guide is supported by the Ford and Mott Foundations. PRE is available to conduct workshops for grantmakers using the guide, as well as other related resources.

2. Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment

PRE and the Applied Research Center, partnered to develop a process designed to help foundations with an explicit commitment to racial justice, measure and assess the impact of their commitment to funding racial equity. Assessments to test and refine the tool were conducted with two foundations, the Consumer Health Foundation in Washington, DC, and the Barr Foundation in Boston, MA, led by ARC and PRE, with project manager, Maggie Potapchuk, of MP Associates. Lessons learned from the pilot assessment were published in the recent report, Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment, co-written by Soya Jung, Maggie Potapchuk, Rinku Sen and Lori Villarosa. Funder networks or associations interested in possible workshops or presentations related to the lessons learned should contact PRE. Those funders who are interested in potentially conducting the assessment should contact arc@arc.org.

3. African-American and Latino Coalition-Building: Challenges and Opportunities

PRE is working with regional and national representatives of Hispanics in Philanthropy and Association of Black Foundation Executives as they conduct a series of regional gatherings among nonprofits and grantmakers to surface effective practices, explore current challenges and opportunities, and provide clear recommendations about ways grantmakers can increase and strengthen multiracial coalitions, particularly among the two largest communities of color in the U.S. Initial sites are Atlanta, Chicago and Denver.

4. Regional Associations of Grantmakers

PRE is working in various ways with a number of regional associations of grantmakers to assist their members in addressing racial equity more directly, including Washington Grantmakers, New York Regional Association of Grantmakers, Philanthropy Northwest, Northern California Grantmakers, and Associated Grant Makers. In many cases, this work is part of a larger emphasis on diversity and inclusiveness. PRE’s efforts range from consultation to presentations to partnering.

5. Structural Racism Caucus

Through the Structural Racism Caucus, PRE is continuing to work with Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity, Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change, Applied Research Center, Center for Social Inclusion, Institute on Poverty and Race, and other research, advocacy and community organizing racial justice groups to increase their coordination and effectiveness to ensure that resources have greater impact. They will be planning for a national conference within the coming year.

6. Trans-Atlantic Learning: Applying an Explicit Racial Justice Lens to Funding in Europe.

PRE has been engaging in exploration of international cross-learning, given the increasing need and potential opportunity for European funders to address significant racial and ethnic disparities and exclusion in an era of increasing tension and awareness. PRE has participated in gatherings of the Diversity and Migration, and Integration Interest Group of the European Foundation Centre (EFC) as well as presented at the EFC’s Annual General Assembly. Recognizing that this could be the beginning of constructive and creative action leading to greater justice, it is a rich opportunity to share some lessons learned through success as well as failure in the U.S., and also to draw upon innovations occurring among European funders and the communities that they serve.

7. Issue-based Affinity Groups

PRE convened a strategy/learning circle among staff and board chairs of affinity groups that may be less explicit about racial equity to allow them to share challenges and lessons in responding to members that are seeking a stronger level of racial analysis and inclusion, while maintaining their “big tent” approach. We will continue to seek ways to partner with these groups bilaterally, as well as in different appropriate groupings. PRE has presented at conferences of the Environmental Grantmakers Association, Grantmakers for Education, and Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families, as well as providing advice on publications, presentation or project development with others, such as Funders Network for Smart Growth.

8. Intersectional Efforts and Common Vision

PRE has been working in partnership with Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues on several projects, including as an advisor for various stages of FLGI’s path breaking Racial Equity Campaign and participating as a resource person at their first LGBT Funders Racial Equity Retreat. Additionally, PRE has been an active partner and advisor of FLGI’s collaborative project, Common Vision, a multi-year initiative that’s convening grantmakers in various states and regions of the country who share an interest in creating healthy communities with widespread equity.

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1. Youth and Racial Equity Project (YRE)

The Youth and Racial Equity Project (YRE) was funded by the Ford Foundation, to examine the ways racial equity is understood and addressed in the fields of youth development and youth organizing. Conducted in collaboration with Mosaic Consulting, the project included: a literature review and field research; regional convenings of practitioners, intermediaries and funders; site visits to document issues and promising practices; a briefing for funders; and a final report of findings and recommendations entitled Changing the Rules of the Game: Youth Development and Structural Racism. Click here to download the report.

2. Network of Alliances Bridging Race and Ethnicity (NABRE) Interdependence Project

PRE partnered with the NABRE (National Alliance for Bridging Race and Ethnicity) project of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies to help community-based foundations improve their race relations and racial justice initiatives at the local level, with an emphasis on how different organizations working at the individual, group or institutional levels could collaborate more effectively. The project worked with local foundations and community organizations in the following four cites: Boston, St. Paul, Santa Barbara, and Knoxville (representing the Appalachian region). This work culminated in the report, Cultivating Interdependence: Guide for Race Relations and Racial Justice Organizations, authored by Maggie Potapchuk, with a chapter on the role of foundations by Lori Villarosa. Click here to download the report.

3. African-American and Latino Coalition-Building: Challenges and Opportunities

PRE worked with regional and national representatives of Hispanics in Philanthropy and Association of Black Foundation Executives as they conducted a series of regional gatherings among nonprofits and grantmakers to surface effective practices, explore current challenges and opportunities, and provide clear recommendations about ways grantmakers can increase and strengthen multiracial coalitions, particularly among the two largest communities of color in the U.S. Initial sites are Atlanta, Chicago and Denver. Additionally, PRE Executive Director Lori Villarosa was a member of the members of the Research Advisory Committee providing guidance and leaderhip in the development of On Message, an ABFE-HIP report on using strategic communications to advance social change in Black and Latino communities.

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