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PEAK Grantmaking

Weekly Reads – April 10, 2020

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A roundup of timely insight from the grantmaking community and beyond.

“Although 95 percent of foundation leaders say they care about their grantees’ overall organizational health, only 43 percent of nonprofit leaders say their grant makers care. When it comes down to it, the real problem at hand is that many grant makers struggle to truly trust our nonprofit partners. We don’t want to give up our control over their work — and there are all sorts of excuses to avoid leaning into this trust.”  [more]
– Kathy Reich, Ford Foundation, in Chronicle of Philanthropy

“Until recently, social change philanthropy – at its best – was still based on the premise that through incremental steps, power could be built and shifted to move our society towards equity and justice. At this point in history, incremental approaches have no reasonable chance of addressing the scale of crisis we face. Only transformational approaches rooted in strategies with the potential to advance exponential change can put us on a path towards justice and liberation.”  [more]
– Dana Kawaoka-Chen, Justice Funders

“Being committed to freedom and justice doesn’t require a months-long strategic process. It’s as simple as choosing to be in relationship to those who offer proximity to humanity and opposition to power as it currently exists; choosing to give more and in the form of general operating support; and supporting organizing and advocacy as opposed to privatizing, what should be, services and benefits of a functioning state.”  [more]
– Carmen Rojas, Marguerite Casey Foundation

“A pandemic like this is multifactorial, and like any multifactorial disease, we need a multi-sectoral approach to address it. The private sector can’t tackle COVID by itself, and neither can the public or NGO sectors. We all need to come together. Philanthropy can be a trusted convening partner in that process.”  [more]
– Naveen Rao, Rockefeller Foundation, on PND by Candid

“Companies do not yet understand the importance of making remote work a key part of their diversity and inclusion strategy… Location as an element of diversity is not yet part of the conversation. It really needs to be.”  [more] 
– Paul Estes, in Fast Company