Letter From the Editors
The PEAK community has made one priority clear: Equity must be at the heart of our work.
We started 2021 on a journey to commemorate our 25th anniversary—a time to celebrate, reflect, and launch into PEAK’s next chapter. It was also a year where our work was deeply rooted in the Drive Equity Principle for Peak Grantmaking. As we gathered to talk about career development, advancing practice change, or imagining the philanthropic technology of the future, we always recentered on the urgent need to realize racial equity and racial justice.
That’s why this edition of the Journal is dedicated to driving racial equity in philanthropy, and why we, alongside our guest editors, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Director of Grants Management Adam Liebling and Kenneth Rainin Foundation Director of Grants Management Miyesha Perry, are humbled and proud to share it with you. We also offer deep appreciation to our contributors for sharing their wisdom and experiences.
In these stories from the field, you will be inspired to intentionally build cultures of belonging for all, and, from no matter where you sit, embrace your power to move us closer toward equity and justice in our work and our world.
During the roundtable conversation that is the cornerstone of this issue, we asked what resources we can rely on in the long-term endeavor to dismantle structural racism in philanthropy and rebuild an equity- and justice-focused grantmaking practice. Andrew Brown of the Meyer Foundation said it best: “We have each other.”
Betsy Reid
Communications and Marketing Director
Sara Sanders
Membership Director
GALLERY
Pete Railand, Driving Racial Equity in Philanthropy
Our cover illustration is by artist-activist Pete Railand, a member of Justseeds Artists’ Collaborative, a network of 41 artists committed to social, environmental, and political engagement. It was inspired by the surge of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.”If we want change,” Railand says, “it is necessary that we show up.” Throughout this issue, we feature the work of nonprofits and artists exploring the themes of racial equity and racial justice and provide insights about their projects and creative processes.
Justseeds Artists’ Collaborative (justseeds.org)
Meet the Author
Betsy Reid
Communications and Marketing Director, PEAK Grantmaking
Sara Richman Sanders
Membership Director, PEAK Grantmaking