Weekly Reads—January 20, 2023

Enjoy PEAK’s weekly roundup of timely insights from the grantmaking community and beyond.

“Black leaders taught me and my family the power of our collective resiliency in the face of many forms of violence, whether it is by war, the state, or our economic system. Likewise, they contributed to the public and nonprofit infrastructure—a result of cross-racial solidarity movement work—from which we benefited. … Our sector may not recognize the community-led philanthropy of my family or Black liberation organizers as tax-deductible contributions. But to me, this is what philanthropy looks like.” [more]
Son Chau, East Bay Community Foundation, for Nonprofit Quarterly

“[W]e cannot solve problems by only responding to the symptoms. Our fear and disdain of political engagement for decades have resulted in the proliferation of the injustice we are claiming to fight, and it gets worse the more we keep ignoring political reality and insisting on remaining above the fray. Foundations must provide more funding for protecting voting rights, ending gerrymandering, stopping political corruption, and electing more progressive women of color into office.” [more]
Vu Le, Nonprofit AF

“[D]ata collected from Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2022 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey provides a unique window into both what worked when nonprofits across many different service areas had more resources and how funders might better support them in the future. … The field now has an opportunity to solidify the funding gains we saw in the first two years of the pandemic and continue the kinds of funding best practices nonprofits have been fighting to secure for years.” [more]
Chris Lisée, Nonprofit Finance Fund and Larry McGill, Ambit 360 Consulting, for Stanford Social Innovation Review

“A ClimateWorks Foundation report released in October found that in 2021, total grantmaking to address climate change grew 25 percent from 2020 levels, and it would appear that the momentum continued this year. Yet, based on a survey conducted between January and March 2022, a Center for Effective Philanthropy report funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation found that even among foundations that explicitly fund climate initiatives, only 29 percent allocated at least 20 percent of their grant dollars to those efforts. ‘Climate action is not happening fast enough, and our window is narrowing, so the pressure is on for all of us to raise ambition, accelerate action, and be more coordinated to get on track to achieve a 1.5°C future,’ said ClimateWorks Foundation president and CEO Helen Mountford.” [more]
Kyoko Uchida, Candid