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Journal | Issue 19

Driving Racial Equity in Philanthropy

This design element features a small preview of the PEAK Grantmaking Journal cover.

About this issue

The PEAK community has made one priority clear: Equity must be at the heart of our work. In this issue, we feature stories from the field that will inspire you to intentionally build cultures of belonging for all, and, from no matter where you sit, embrace your power to move us closer toward racial equity and justice in our work and our world.

This edition of PEAK’s member magazine is now open to the community. Not yet a member? Click here to learn about the benefits of joining PEAK, including access to member-exclusive publications, resources, our discussion forum, and more.

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What's Inside

Letter from the Editors

 

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 and Sara Richman Sanders
Coeditors, PEAK Grantmaking Journal
 

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. We are excited to lift up the power of art and the voices of creators to both inspire and provoke.

FROM OUR CEO

I know what it feels like to be the “only” in a room.

According to PEAK’s Satonya Fair, advancing equity is a learning journey we need to take collectively. Together we can dismantle institutional and systemic racism in the philanthropic sector and beyond.

 

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NOW is spelled out with a yellow sunflower in place of the O. This is a close up preview of the linked image.
Pete Railand, NOW
This print shows hands holding up sunflowers. NOW is spelled above them, with a sunflower in place of the O.
The idea that hope is a catalyst for action infuses Railand’s work featured in this issue. “Through my work, I hope to communicate to the viewer that our lives are unwritten. We can change things,” Railand says. “We can work together to make things better.” Now, which he created for the Global Climate Strike marches of 2019, features the sunflower, a symbol used in social and environmental movements for decades, from the first Earth Day in 1970 to the 2014 Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan. Justseeds Artists’ Collaborative (justseeds.org)

Philanthropy’s Long Road Toward Racial Equity

Take a historical glance at the obstacles to equity in philanthropy and some of the movement builders who are overcoming them.

 

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How We Can Advance Support for Racial Equity and Racial Justice Funding

Lori Villarosa explains how understanding the difference between racial equity and racial justice funding empowers grants professionals to reimagine their roles to support transformative grantmaking.

 

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This piece is a small version of the linked image. It shows a young Black girl painted in blues, blacks, and creams. Her eyes are closed, but a third eye is opened on her forehead. The phrases "Humanity over everything," "Breathe," "Inner City Blues," and "Bless" are stenciled in.
Lionel Milton, Inner City Blues
This painting shows a young Black girl painted in blues, blacks, and creams. Her eyes are closed, but a third eye is opened on her forehead. The phrases "Humanity over everything," "Breathe," "Inner City Blues," and "Bless" are stenciled in.
Internationally acclaimed New Orleans artist Lionel Milton uses his art to tell the stories of the Black American experience. Inner City Blues is a mural painted along Frenchman Street. “This mural is close to my heart because it features my daughter Ella,” Milton says. “Looking through her third eye, she sees her own greatness and future. She also sees that humanity is essential over everything else.”
This image is a smaller version of the linked photo. It shows Black boy joy as four boys laugh together in various poses.
Lionel Milton, Joy
This painting highlights Black boy joy as four boys laugh together in various poses.
“Joy is a piece inspired by a feeling I get when I think about parts of my childhood. Being raised in New Orleans during Reaganomics was challenging, but I always loved it when my cousins would come over to the house. I knew I’d hear all the latest music and all the best jokes.” This painting was featured by Ashé Cultural Arts Center in The Art of Resistance, a summer 2021 exhibit that explored the idea of creative defiance.
ROUNDTABLE

Grantmakers as Changemakers: Lead an equity revolution

PEAK’s Dolores Estrada leads a conversation with Andrew Brown, Chindaly Chounlamountry Griffith, Adam Liebling, Miyesha Perry, and Ursula Stewart to explore how grantmakers can re-envision themselves and leverage their positions to drive racial equity.

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This is a close up preview of the linked piece. It features a Black person, drawn and painted in a digital format, holding the words "Your Voice Builds New Worlds" in their hands.
Kah Yanghi, Untitled
This is a close up preview of the linked piece. It features a Black person, drawn and painted in a digital format, holding the words "Your Voice Builds New Worlds" in their hands.
“I wanted to make something that’s as hopeful as the visions of the future that youth I’ve been around, my friends, and people I know have for the future,” says artist Kah Yanghi, who created this piece for the The Center for Cultural Power (CCP), a women-of-color, artistled nonprofit dedicated to “inspiring artists and culture makers to imagine a world where power is distributed equitably and where we live in harmony with nature.” “We need stories that inspire people to do more than just vote, but to come together to claim their power and create a new future,” explains CCP Director of Campaigns Cristina Uribe. “Together, working with movement and artists, we can do that.” Kah Yanghi (kahyangni.com)
This is a close up preview of the linked image. It shows Grace Lee Boggs in blue on a purple background. She gazes to the left with her hand on her chin.
Bec Young, Grace
"In the middle of catastrophe, in the middle of a disaster, people - particularly people who have already suffered - see an opportunity to evolve to another stage of humantiy."
“Grace Lee Boggs was a deep thinker and revolutionary activist who turned problems and concepts upside down in her mind to see them from a new perspective,” artist Bec Young says in her statement on her screen print of the Chinese American activist. “She believed it was possible for humans to evolve into humankind.” Young, a Detroit-based artist who specializes in printmaking, papercutting, illustration, and installation pieces, is a member of the Justseeds Artists’ Collaborative. Justseeds Artists’ Collaborative (justseeds.org
This is a close up preview of the linked piece. It shows a Black ancestor holding a young Black person, curled up on their lap. The two are in front of a celestial background, made up of blues, oranges, yellows, and creams.
Destiny Belgrave, They Hold Me
This is a close up preview of the linked piece. It shows a Black ancestor holding a young Black person, curled up on their lap. The two are in front of a celestial background, made up of blues, oranges, yellows, and creams. On the right, text is outlined in an orange box and reads, "someone somebody someguide somespirit somebeing is with you."
In 2021, The Laundromat Project (TLP) commissioned Bajan/African American artist Destiny Belgrave to create this paper cutting for their Fulton Street Window, an outdoor community art installation by a local artist. Based in Brooklyn, New York, TLP “envisions a world in which artists and neighbors in communities of color work together to unleash the power of creativity to transform lives.” “At its core,” writes Belgrave, “my art upholds and uplifts black figures, activities, spaces, and objects, while portraying these entities as spiritual vessels and sacred experiences. I am mainly influenced by my own family, the domestic spaces that they inhabit and the many rituals, stories and photos that come from them. While sifting through these influences, I delve into the themes of Blackness, family, bonds, spirituality and culture. When all of these things combine within the art, the piece that is created acts as a memento and a preserver for the lives and narratives that are in it.” Destiny Belgrave (destinybelgrave.com)

Making All Feel Welcome

In this series of essays, Isabella Gargiulo, Tiauna George, and Erik Stegman explore the barriers to creating cultures of belonging and the transformative power of finding and building a community.

 

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CEO:CEO

The Impact of Putting Equity at the Center of Strategy

PEAK’s Satonya Fair and Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Lisa Hamilton discuss how equity-based strategy drives change within and outside of your organization.

 

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Erica L Chisolm, Shine Different
Erica L Chisolm is a mixed media artist and activist based in Atlanta, Georgia. She uses acrylic paint, tissue paper, decorative paper, twine, and other elements to create portraits with rich textures that represent the beauty and imperfections of being. Her hope is to use public art to bring health, creativity, love and a sense of identity to the cities in which she works. This mural located in Atlanta, Georgia, features portraits of Black women in careers where Black women have historically been underrepresented: marine ecologist Alanna Vellacott, harpist Madison Calley, composer Ashley Keiko, and a selfportrait of the muralist herself. “I had the honor of creating a mural of living, thriving, beautiful young women of color, living their dreams and sharing their fire with the world. I am also honored and grateful to hold space with each of you. May we continue to shine and continue to encourage others to shine different.” Erica L Chisolm (elcreative.co)
Lenny Foster, Emancipation Day Parade
“Upon arriving in St. Augustine [Florida], I discovered a deep history, largely unknown to the public at large, about the history of African Americans in our country [and] I learned a hidden history of my own African American heritage.” This newfound knowledge became the focal point of Foster’s art, including his 22-part series Where We Stand, which explores the interconnection between history and the continuing fight for social justice. “The decision to use shoes as the vehicle for storytelling initially came as a result of the controversy surrounding the kneeling of professional athletes protesting racism in America: We have stood, sat, and knelt for many a high and honorable cause, not to mention, the struggle for everyday existence.” Lenny Foster (galleryonefortyfour.com)
Lenny Foster, The Right to Vote
Lenny Foster, The Lunch Counter Sit-In

Use Demographic Data to Drive Equity and Impact

Kelly Brown shows you how to take a hard look at how you use demographic data can result in data-management processes that strengthen programs, reach underserved communities, and ensure that resources are deployed effectively.

 

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Champion a Culture of Allyship

Six members of the PEAK community—Jaser Alsharhan, Kelsey Andersen, Richael Faithful, Rachel Gonzales, Jody Marshall, Jenny Zhang Morgan—offer their opinions on how to best be an ally to others and how to build a larger culture of allyship from wherever you sit in your organization.

 

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Raychelle Duazo, Together We Are Home
Raychelle Duazo is a queer femme Filipina-American illustrator and tattoo artist based in Seattle. She uses a combination of dreamy aesthetics and vibrant colors to visually explore themes of queer identity, love, visibility, transformative grief, and diaspora. This piece was originally commissioned for Sanctuary: Design for Belonging, an art exhibit that examined how urban areas can respond to the global refugee crises by creating welcoming environments where displaced persons can feel like they belong. Amplifier, a nonprofit that uses art to elevate social movements, was a cocurator for the show and later made Together We Are Home available to download and use via its website. Raychelle Duazo (raychelleduazo.com) for amplifier.org
Favianna Rodriguez, An Invitation EV 7/10
In addition to her art, Favianna Rodriguez is deeply engaged in writing, cultural organizing, and power building. In this image, the seventh in a series of ten, three people are building relationships with each other and collaborating to transform their future. Each person is holding an individual piece of a puzzle. Each figure is focused on a separate, yet complementary pathway toward a shared goal. “Each piece in the edition is both a destruction and a reimagination of its original composition. I reorganized, ripped, dissected, and dramatically recomposed the figures in the piece, as a metaphor for challenging our own assumptions about what constitutes ‘social justice art.’” Favianna Rodriguez (favianna.com)
Mer Young, Solidarity
For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, nonprofits Amplifier, Nia Tero, and IllumiNative teamed up to launch a large-scale public art campaign to elevate Indigenous land stewardship and celebrate the vital relationship between Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation. Solidarity is one in a series created by Indigenous artist Mer Young, a Tongva (Long Beach) Descendant of the Chichimeca and Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache Tribe, who aims to inspire, celebrate, and elevate repressed indigenous, First Nations and native cultures, and women of color. Mer Young (meryoung.com) for amplifier.org

PEAK Community

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Welcome to PEAK Year 26!

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