Weekly Reads—September 24, 2021

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

“Many organizations have redoubled their efforts to bring on BIPOC directors, board members, and staff, which is an important step. But if we seek fundamental change, our goal cannot be simply to try to advance BIPOC leaders in organizations and structures that remain unchanged. […] Organizations need time, space, and support to question and experiment with how they operate at a fundamental level: testing new approaches to leadership, organizational structure, services and programs, financial resources and sustainability.” [more]
Roger Nozaki, Barr Foundation

“We must move money first, then build an intentional practice of learning from the best teachers—our BIPOC grantees with lived experience who are organizing for lasting systemic change. We must invest in ecosystems where vibrant change is already happening, where unrestricted resources provide financial scaffolding to match the network of human connections. Funders need to enter this space with humility, acknowledging that privilege and white supremacy permeate the philanthropy sector, so we are obliged now to school ourselves in anti-racism.” [more]
Crystal Hayling, Libra Foundation, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review

When the McKnight Foundation released its diversity, equity, and inclusion statement in 2017, it made a commitment to live by those values and demonstrate the change it wants to see throughout the world. This new report explores the changes McKnight has made over the past three years to put equity at the center of its role as a funder, convener, thought leader, employer, economic entity, and institutional investor. [more]
Equity in Action, McKnight Foundation