Weekly Reads – October 9, 2020

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

“A strong civil society is the antidote to authoritarianism, and as foundations, our core purpose is to resource and bolster civil society. Between now and the election, consider this a start to your pro-democracy checklist:” [more]
– Dimple Abichandani, General Service Foundation and Carmen Rojas, Marguerite Casey Foundation, in Inside Philanthropy

“At the same time that many [United Philanthropy] Forum members have continued to deepen their racial equity work over the past several years, they have also been addressing the racial and ethnic diversity of their own staffs and boards. [… F]or the first time in the Forum’s four years of reporting on these data, people of color represent a majority of staff members among national PSOs responding to the survey … [with] similar trends for the boards of PSOs.” [more]
– David Biemesderfer, United Philanthropy Forum

Five Lessons Learned from Running a Foundation That Gives Directly to Families [more]
– Amy Kingman, on National Center for Family Philanthropy