Letter From the Editors

As we planned together for the first issue of a new decade, and a new editorial partnership, we considered how an evolving PEAK Grantmaking Journal can best serve you.

Building on a legacy of in-depth reporting and insight critical for grants management professionals, we are proud to present this expanded Journal, your new member magazine delivered three times yearly in print to our Organization Members and accessible online exclusively to our membership community.

With this reenvisioned Journal, we’re staking out a space for members, experts, and the PEAK team to bring their best thinking forward. Our goal is to earn and hold your attention, giving you a place to unplug and focus on the issues that matter most to you as a grantmaking professional, team member, and sector leader.

Our partnership as coeditors begins with an issue that is consuming philanthropy and philanthropic organizations: the persistent lack of racial equity. The conversation is flowing, but progress lags. Meanwhile, the fallout is ongoing, limiting impact and potential in our work, workplaces, and lives.

Why is change so hard, and what are the obstacles we need to overcome? Our guest editor, Roland Kennedy, Jr., eight contributors, and a panel of professionals have courageously raised their voices to bring clarity to our present moment and light the way forward. Read closely: In their passion, frustration, buried anger, and seedlings of hope, they offer the keys to greater understanding. And from their ideas come the building blocks for inclusive cultures, equitable grantmaking practices, allyship, and mentoring.

Colleagues: Join us in rededicating yourself to your work in service of equity and raising your voice to accelerate progress within your organization and across our sector. Here’s to another year of internal growth and external impact for us all.

Betsy Reid and Melissa Sines
Coeditors, PEAK Grantmaking Journal