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NCRP Identifies Philanthropy’s
Best & Boldest Leaders in Announcing
the Winners of Its 2023 Impact Awards

Selection Committee of 12 philanthropic and nonprofit leaders spotlights innovative and steadfast commitment of the Raikes Foundation, the Solidaire Network, the Black Immigrants Bail Fund, New York Women’s Foundation and NonProfit AF’s Vu Le to challenging their colleagues to better support movement groups.

Washington, DC –This week, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) proudly announced the winners of its biennial celebration of philanthropy’s best actors, the IMPACT Awards.

The Raikes Foundation (“Changing Course” Award for Incorporating Feedback), the Black Immigrants Bail Fund run by Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) and African Bureau for Immigration & Social Affairs (ABISA) (“Get Up, Stand Up” Award for Rapid-Response Grantmaking), the Solidaire Network (“Mover and Shaker” Award for Bold Peer Organizing) and the New York Women’s Foundation (“Smashing Silos” Award for Intersectional Grantmaking) were chosen by a committee of distinguished philanthropic and non-profit leaders for displaying the kind of exemplary leadership and funding practices that philanthropy should be pursuing in service of the common good.

Non Profit AF’s Vu Le was also announced as the inaugural winner of the NCRP’s “Pablo Eisenberg Memorial Prize” for Philanthropy Criticism. The award was established late last year in honor of NCRP’s Founding Board Chair Pablo Einsenberg, who passed away at age of 94.

“We live in a nation under the constant threat of not just authoritarianism that would limit rights and opportunities, but a kind of draining and paralyzing cynicism that doubts the possibility of any kind of collective action can bring progress on the things we hold most dear. However, the leaders and organizations honored this year by NCRP don’t need extensive data sets, surveys, or focus groups to know how to support communities,” said NCRP President & CEO Aaron Dorfman, “They have done the work to understand that the urgency of the moment requires both the rapid and bold flow of resources to movement groups, as well as extended time to form collaborative decision-making relationships and thoughtful examinations of their own work and wealth in order to get us all to the multiracial, multilingual, multigenerational democracy we deserve.”

Winners will be presented their awards at a ceremony in Los Angeles, California on October 18 during the 2023 CHANGE Philanthropy Unity Summit. The three-day conference looks to create a diverse and safe space to gather and deepen individual and institutional practices that advance equity with an intersectional lens and community at the center.

LEADERS RESOURCING & PUSHING EACH OTHER TO FUND SOCIAL CHANGE

Dorfman and NCRP VP & Chief External Affairs Officer Russell Roybal thanked the members of the Selection Committee and external consultant Rebecca Murphy for their time, energy and insights, especially given the increased personal and professional challenges since the pandemic. The outstanding leaders that served on this year’s committee were:

Elizabeth Barajas-Román, President and CEO., Women’s Funding Network (WFN)
Vivian Chang, Executive Director, Susan Sandler Fund
Aaron Dorfman, President & CEO of NCRP
Elizabeth Guernsey, Chief of Staff, US Programs, Open Society Foundations
Jillian Hishaw, Esq., Founder and Director, Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (FARMS)
Amaha Kassa, Founder and Executive Director, African Communities Together
Eloisa Lopez, Executive Director of Pro-Choice Arizona and Abortion Fund of Arizona
Erin Matson, co-founder and Executive Director, Reproaction
Dwayne Proctor, Ph.D., President & CEO, Missouri Foundation for Health, and NCRP board member
Molly Schultz Hafid, Executive Director, Butler Family Fund, and NCRP board member
Nick Tedesco, President & CEO, National Center for Family Philanthropy
Marissa Tirona, President, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees
Sophy Yem, Senior Program Officer for Philanthropy, Surdna Foundation

Roybal said that this year’s Impact Awards specifically reflects and honors the ways that grantmakers are funding the social justice movements that are pushing back against those who would want to limit rights, opportunities and the deep work of holding institutions for the harms of the past.

“These honorees know that philanthropy has a strong civic, economic, and moral obligation to resource a more inclusive and equitable future,” said Roybal. “They understand that we get there not only by building, wielding and sharing power with communities to resource movement groups, but also alongside these groups in encouraging their colleagues to do the same.”

Winners were selected based on these three criteria:

Exemplary Grantmaking – Funders had to demonstrate evidence of allocating a relatively high percentage of annual discretionary giving to social justice, marginalized communities, general operating support and multi-year grants. Its grantees have a visible effect on promoting systems change and empowering underserved communities.

Philanthropic Leadership – The funder’s leaders also had to publicly demonstrate a commitment to systems change strategies such as public speaking or writing about funding social change strategies and marginalized groups, serving on committees or other initiatives that promote social justice and signing on to Philanthropy’s Promise.

Diversity, Inclusion and Equity – Finally, the funder shows a demonstrated commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity, especially along lines of race and gender, in its staff and trustees.

While many in the sector are using their resources to build, wield and share power on behalf of racial, gender, reproductive and climate justice movements, this year’s award winners stand out: for their commitment to boldly resourcing and advocating for those on the frontlines of getting us closer to a just and equitable world:

 

Raikes Foundation

The “Changing Course” Award for Incorporating Feedback is given to the funder that has shifted their strategies and operations in response to feedback from their stakeholders, particularly those most affected by inequity and injustice.

Dorfman : “The Committee chose the Raikes Foundation for the extraordinary work that they have done in both deeply learning about the harms of systemic racism and ultimately utilizing their grantmaking to support the work of racial equity and justice, center it in their work. and advocating that their peers do the same.”

Dennis Quirin, Executive Director, Raikes Foundation & Tricia Raikes, Co-Founder, Raikes Foundation: “The entire Raikes Foundation team would like to thank NCRP for selecting us for the “Changing Course” Impact Award for Incorporating Feedback. Our foundation embarked on a journey to reimagine and redesign our organization to center racial equity because we recognized it not only as a moral imperative, but also a social and economic one. When we invest in equity, we invest in a stronger, more prosperous future for all. Our 20-year journey is a testament to the power of collaboration and the unyielding commitment of our partners and staff who have propelled us forward on this transformative path. We are honored to work alongside them and honored to receive this recognition.”

Black Immigrants Bail Fund

The “Get Up, Stand Up” Award for Rapid-Response Grantmaking goes to a funder that provides timely, flexible resources and adjusted processes to respond quickly to urgent movement needs, especially those of smaller grassroots, frontline groups.

Dorfman: “The Committee chose the Bail Fund, an effort jointly run by the The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) and African Bureau for Immigration & Social Affairs (ABISA), for their extraordinary work providing free legal assistance and relief to Black immigrants who are wrongfully held in ICE detention. Their work to eradicate the mass incarceration of Black immigrants and to level the playing field of equity in due process is not really being done by anyone else.”

Guerline Jozef, Co-Founder & Executive Director: We want to thank the Selection Committee and the NCRP staff for this honor. We wish our work didn’t have to be done, but the urgency of the moment demands that we immediately address the dual threat that the criminal justice and immigration system poses to Black immigrant families. We stand with our colleagues across a number of trusted movement organizations who know that the more of us who are quickly resourced to lend a hand, the greater the chance that we can bring about a system that gives communities an equal opportunity at the better life we all deserve. Anpil men, chay pa lou! (Many hands make light work!)”

Solidaire Network

The “Mover and Shaker” Award for Bold Peer Organizing goes to a funder that centered their work on the needs of excluded and impacted communities, leveraging their reputation and convening power to advance systems-change strategies.

 Dorfman: “The Committee chose Solidaire for their extraordinary work moving quickly to distribute funds to community-led social justice movements, specifically reproductive, gender, racial and climate justice. Their donor engagement and activism through education influences not just foundations and institutional donors, but also individual high net worth donors who are increasingly having a greater say in how groups are funded.”

Rajasvini Bhansali, Executive Director: “We are deeply honored to receive the “Mover and Shaker” Award for Bold Peer Organizing. Here at Solidaire, we see ourselves as one force among many in a long, liberatory struggle and we are committed to accompanying movements as they contest for power. We model our solidarity with movements by moving money quickly and boldly, and meeting our partners in their various forms of development and growth. We are honored to follow the trusted guidance of movement leadership and movement elders as we work together to transform society so that every community has the resources to flourish.”

New York Women’s Foundation

The “Smashing Silos” Award for Intersectional Grantmaking is given to funders that worked in deep partnership with under-represented and vulnerable communities and supported multi-issue and cross-identity efforts to address systemic causes of social, economic or environmental challenges.

Dorfman: “The Committee chose the New York Women’s Foundation for their extraordinary work advancing justice for women and families in New York – work that is rooted in gender, racial, and economic justice, that uses trust-based philanthropy, and engages community in identifying and developing solutions. The Committee particularly noted the foundation’s recent grantmaking in the areas of reproductive and environmental justice, as well as their focus on participatory grantmaking.”

Ana Oliveira, President/CEO:  “We are so honored to be the recipient of NCRP’s The “Smashing Silos” Award for Intersectional Grantmaking. We take pride rooting our work in the interconnected needs of women and gender expansive people in New York City and beyond. At a time of unprecedented attacks on our bodily autonomy and national abortion rights, it more important than ever for funders to address the immediate health and reproductive needs of communities and invest in pathways for long-term solutions.”

Vu Le, Non Profit AF
The inaugural “Pablo Eisenberg Memorial Prize” for Philanthropy Criticism. This award was recently established after the passing late last year of one of NCRP’s founders, Pablo Eisenberg. The honor seeks to spotlight the kind of bold truth telling that Pablo modeled all throughout his public career.

Dorfman: “Vu was chosen for this award for his engaging, insightful and often humorous work telling the truth about, and to, philanthropy. His writing holds holds philanthropy accountable, challenging long-held narratives about wealth and puts up a mirror our intentions, actions and funding. He courageously communicates what so many think and know about the sector, but who may not have the right words or platform to express them.”

Vu Le: “I feel deeply honored to be receiving this award. I had the pleasure of talking with Professor Eisenberg once, and his passion and clarity were inspiring and fueled my work. To get this recognition named after him means a lot to me.”

This year’s recipients join a distinguished list of past winners that include the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, Libra Foundation, the Groundswell Fund, the Four Freedoms Fund, the Third Wave Fund, The California Endowment, Marguerite Casey Foundation. the Solutions Project, the Brooklyn Community Foundation and the Emergent Fund.

ABOUT NCRP

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has served as philanthropy’s critical friend and independent watchdog since 1976. We work with foundations, non-profits, social justice movements and other leaders to ensure that the sector is transparent with, and accountable to, those with the least wealth, power and opportunity in American society.

Our storytelling, advocacy, and research efforts, in partnership with grantees, help funders fulfill their moral and practical duty to build, share, and wield economic resources and power to serve public purposes in pursuit of justice.

ABOUT THE 2023 IMPACT AWARDS

Since 2013, NCRP has awarded 29 Impact Awards to grantmakers in recognition of support, leadership and partnership with grassroots organizations and community leaders around LGBTQ rights, minimum wage, environmental justice, health equity and other critical issues. This year, we will add a fifth, the Pablo Eisenberg Memorial Prize” for Philanthropy Criticism, in honor of NCRP’s founding board chair.

The biennial event has been traditionally held on the last night of Change Philanthropy’s Unity Summit. This year’s edition is slated to be held in Los Angeles, CA, the first in four years to be held in person. (The previous event was held virtually in 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns)

ABOUT THE CHANGE PHILANTHROPY’S UNITY SUMMIT

This year’s Impact Awards — and the 2023 Unity Summit in general — are expected to be the biggest yet, with over 1200 people expected to attend the conference from Oct. 16-19th. The three-day conference will explore strategies for utilizing power to advance philanthropic equity, with emphasis on how philanthropic institutions and individuals working in philanthropy can shift their practice. Across various session types and formats, summit participants will explore shifts in internal organizational practice that consider organizational climate and culture as well as realizing intersectional racial equity within philanthropic organizations; and external practice that examine use of capital, ways of engaging with accountability to community, and methods for leveraging collective power. For more information on the 2023 Unity Summit, or to explore past Unity Summits,  visit https://www.changeunitysummit.info/

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  

As a white kid growing up in Atlanta suburbs and small towns, I first learned about the March in school, through grainy clips of Dr. King proclaiming the “I Have a Dream” speech to a crowd of thousands before the Lincoln Memorial. It felt almost like a movie: a powerful prologue to the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act that came after. By now, that’s a familiar editing. It’s the same way I got the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s greatest hits, but not Fannie Lou Hamer’s legacy, or the way Rosa Parks’ lifetime of radical organizing for the Black Power movement so often gets reduced to one seat on one bus.  

The reality, of course, is far more complex. The 1963 March itself grew out of decades of organizing and a severe lack of national progress on civil rights. It echoed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters’ threat to march in the 40s to end defense industry segregation, built on the late 50’s Prayer Pilgrimage and Youth Marches to protest inaction after Brown v Board, and drew breath from the countless local marches and acts of resistance that Black women, in particular, had organized across the South and beyond. Talented people disagreed, too: Malcolm X refused to participate, the AFL-CIO declined to join, and John Lewis edited his speech up to the day of to satisfy different factions. 

In short, it was messy and hard: one important chapter in a long, still-open story. The famous speeches and protests so many of us half-remember were powerful, but they alone did not ensure the incomplete success that followed. Activists today carry on that legacy in so many ways: disrupting the placement of fossil fuel infrastructure that worsens the climate crisis, ensuring people get access to abortion healthcare they deserve, providing support to their undocumented family and friends, protesting ongoing police violence on Black and trans bodies, and so much more. In other words, fighting for justice long denied “to remind America of the fierce urgency of now,” regardless of who these actions make uncomfortable.

Funder ambivalence 60 years ago and today 

Some funders embrace these organizers, their dreams and their tactics. The Solutions Project, for example, won a NCRP Impact Award in 2017 in part for their immediate support of Indigenous communities blocking the Dakota Access Pipeline. Other winners, like the Groundswell Fund and the Four Freedoms Fund, have long supported intersectional, grassroots movements for gender, racial, and migrant justice. They, too, follow and evolve a tradition. In addition to the Black-led mutual aid that sustained the movement’s core, institutional funders like the New World Foundation, Field Foundation, Stern Family Fund, and Taconic Foundation provided flexible support for civil rights organizations in the lead up to the March on Washington, organized other donors to the cause and even helped raise non-c3 dollars. 

But then as now, such funders remain relative outliers. Few of the 12,000 foundations present in the 1960s wanted anything to do with groups undertaking massive protests or litigating in the courts. In addition to the obvious white racism that pervaded the ranks of these foundations, even for those who sympathized with the movement’s cause, protest seemed – and was – risky. Civil rights protesters were routinely targeted and killed. Enforcement of the limited civil rights protections on the books was almost non-existent. And despite his sanitized approval today, when Dr. King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, only 40% of Americans had a favorable opinion of him. That opinion declined to 30% by 1968, after he more publicly embraced labor protests, called for a massive federal aid program for Black people, and denounced the War in Vietnam. Even the Sterns of the Stern Foundation received anonymous threats of violence for their support, though thankfully, and unlike the Black organizers and their comrades on the frontlines facing lifelong injury, unemployment, and death for their activism, no physical harm befell them. 

Grassroots movements still struggle to find the resources they deserve. For example, despite a wave of statements and black squares after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the many acts of vigilante and state violence against Black, queer and other communities of color since, the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity has found a yawning chasm between the amount of money pledged for racial justice and the actual dollars that made it out the door. Moreover, from the data available, “only 1.3 percent of racial equity funding and 9.1 percent of racial justice funding supports grassroots organizing.” NCRP’s own nonprofit members tell us the same: for organizers of color with small budgets in conservative areas, it can be hard to even get a foundation meeting, let alone a meaningful multi-year grant. 

Bold Funders Cede Power 

Funders’ skittishness persists at a time when we need philanthropy to be more bold. Since 2017, 20 states have passed laws that criminalize protesting. In 2021 alone, lawmakers in 34 states introduced 81 anti-protest bills, double the amount in any other year.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the institutions that most owe their wealth and existence to the systems we have would be the most reluctant to fund efforts to fundamentally change them. Given the distance between foundation leadership and the communities they serve, why wouldn’t funders misunderstand the obvious frustration boiling over generations of oppression as “disruptive,” or an escalation of tactics after thousands of shut doors as “divisive”? But when this misguided respectability politics dictates the invisible fences of their grantmaking, funders miss out and misfire, just like the funders before them.

To be clear, funder over-excitement can burn, too. Foundations can micromanage strategy, as the Garland Fund did with the NAACP’s choice of campaigns in the 50s. Or they can fall in love with the drama of protest but not the diligence of late-night meetings, community care, and the ups and downs of the struggle. When the headlines and cameras fade, acts of protest look different in different places, and a strong ecosystem of local, grassroots movement groups need funders to stay in solidarity and in their lane long before and after those moments of visibility. 

Yet a beautiful opportunity endures: Even if funders don’t cede their wealth and their power to grassroots movements for justice overnight, they can still choose to do something different today than they did yesterday.  

The week before I started my first and only foundation job, I picked up my friends from the local county jail. We had been participating in the Moral Monday rallies outside the North Carolina legislature, and my friends had intentionally risked arrest as an act of civil disobedience. I had been worried about getting arrested days before I started a new job, so after marching I did the next best thing: I brought snacks, and a ride home. But as I waited for them to be processed, I was surprised to find someone I’d only seen on web pages: the foundation’s board chair.

In his day job he was a lawyer, and he was there to provide pro bono support to the protesters. That moment told me two things.

First, I wasn’t about to get fired.

And second, foundation leaders can embrace the nuance and power of protest movements, if they choose.

60 years after the March on Washington, that choice remains.  

Ben Barge is NCRP’s Field Director. In this role, Barge strengthens NCRP’s relationships with U.S. social movements and philanthropic organizations to move money and power to community-led advocacy and organizing.

Banner Image Credits: Marion S. Trikosko. Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States (@libraryofcongress). Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Additional Image Credits: Ben Barge

Summer 2023 issue of NCRP’s online journal, Responsive Philanthropy, kicks off NCRP’s multi-year campaign to get grantmakers to invest more in grassroots climate justice solutions and away from the
billionaires whose actions continue to extend the crisis.  

Washington DC- With soaring temperatures intensifying summer wildfires, storms and other climate disasters, grassroots leaders are calling on grantmakers to turn toward viable community-oriented solutions to address the crisis and away from billionaire vanity projects that do more to repeat the systemic mistakes of the past than forge a just and healthy planet.

This is the cumulative conclusion of the stories in the summer 2023 issue of Responsive Philanthropy, the online journal of the DC-based National Commitee for Responsive Philanthropy. The recent publication from the 47-year-old philanthropic advocacy organization features intersectional essays from the Chisholm Legacy Project’s Jacqueline Paterson, the Climate Justice Alliance’s Co-Executive Director Marrion Gee, the Leadership Team at the Clima Fund, Native Americans in Philanthropy’s (NAP) Dawn Knickerbocker and Chorus Foundation Founder & Chair (and NCRP Board Member) Farhad Ebrahimi.

“The devastation of a rapidly heating planet has been an ongoing concern for leaders in every sector, so the question for philanthropy has always been how best to address the climate crisis not whether it should,” says NCRP President & Executive Director Aaron Dorfman. “Will the sector step up and support the grassroots groups and impacted communities that are already leading the way? If they do and specifically support a movement of Black, Indigenous and people of color fighting to protect their water, air, and their communities, they have the potential of shifting the entire sector and the practice of philanthropy.”

We Need a Just Transition Now – for communities, Mother Earth and philanthropy
The summer issue of NCRP’s online journal kicks off a multi-year campaign encouraging grantmakers to prioritize a just transition away from an extractive to a regenerative economy that invests in community and frontline power, redistributes resources equitably, and upholds deep democracy and self-determination.

Working with funders and non-profits, NCRP researchers and organizers will amplify those who are leading the shift away from often experimental and profit driven billionaire false solutions and toward community-centered, grassroots projects. Unlike false solutions, which are often detached from frontline community participation, grassroots designed plans often focus both on small scale quality-of-life improvements and systemic/institutional change.
“Without much public fanfare or resources, frontline organizations and organized impacted communities are finding some success in building community resilience and pushing back against some of the worst impacts of climate crisis,” says NCRP’s Senior Movement Engagement Associate for Climate Justice Senowa Mize-Fox. “By centering their multiple, smaller scale holistic solutions, funders have an opportunity to help create a tidal wave effect, leading us to the cleaner, healthier planet that all communities deserve.”

As Chorus Foundation’s Farhad Ebrahimi notes, the sector should be guided by investing in power-building and sharing solutions that ultimately lessens the oversized influence of wealthy foundations and donors.

“What does it look like to support the kind of infrastructure at the community level that credibly makes them that much less dependent on outside philanthropic or investment organizations such as our own?”

INSIDE THE SUMMER CLIMATE JUSTICE ISSUE

The following articles and all past issues of Responsive Philanthropy are available at no cost on NCRP’s website ncrp.org:

Chorus Foundation Retrospective: A Q&A with Founder & Chair Farhad Ebrahimi
NCRP’s Senowa Mize-Fox chats with NCRP Board Member and Chorus Foundation Founder and Chair Farhad Ebrahimi on what funder organizing looks like in the context of a just transition.

Displaced On Repeat: Black Americans and Climate Forced Migration
Jacqueline Patterson, Founder and Executive Director of the Chisholm Legacy Project, writes about how the climate change that is forcing millions around the world to flee to America is also driving the internal migration of frontline Black and Latine peoples in the South and Southeast.

Philanthropy Must Jumpstart Just Transition to a Regenerative Economy
Marion Gee, Co-Executive Director of the Climate Justice Alliance, discusses the different regenerative practices that grantmakers and intermediaries can implement to address the climate crisis in a way that builds up, rather than steals from, impacted communities.

Putting ‘Justice’ in ‘Climate Justice Philanthropy’
The Clima Fund Leadership Team of Laura Garcia, Chung-Wha Hong, Kate Kroeger, and Solomé Lemma describe their grantmaking experiences supporting and engaging with frontline organizations in new, innovative, but non-extractive, ways.

The Community at the Center: The Interplay Between the ICWA Decision and Environmental Justice
Dawn Knickerbocker (Anishinaabe), Vice President of Communications and External Affairs for Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP), shares a very personal reflection of connection between Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice through the struggle to uphold 1978’s Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

ABOUT NCRP 

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has served as philanthropy’s critical friend and independent watchdog since 1976. We work with foundations, nonprofits, social justice movements and other leaders to ensure that the sector is transparent with, and accountable to, those with the least wealth, power, and opportunity in American society.

Our storytelling, advocacy and research efforts, in partnership with grantees, help funders fulfill their moral and practical duty to build, share and wield economic resources and power to serve public purposes in pursuit of justice.

Together, we can create a just and equitable world where all communities get the resources they need to thrive.

Following the recent Indian Child Welfare Act victory in the Supreme Court, NCRP curated a poem from poet, organizer, and Indigenous Mexika dancer, Briana Muñoz. In the continued commitment to tribal sovereignty, Briana’s poem showcases a uniquely humanized reflection on parenting an Indigenous child and the importance of continuing Indigenous practices, even as early as in the womb.  

 

You have been accompanying me 

since conception  

to ceremony 

dancing in my belly 

  

surrounded by fire-keepers 

and elders 

surrounded by Indigenous song

 

You have been prayed for 

by your momma 

and your grandparents  

and your great grandparents: 

an unbreakable chain link  

  

I have offered tobacco  

for your spirit arrival 

and in community 

have been gifted 

  

rosemary, rosehips, 

eucalyptus, and lavender   

to welcome you, 

future leader

  

You have been sitting quiet 

as if in meditation 

in the pond of my being  

already knowing that water is life 

  

You, warrior child, 

are the DNA 

of sun and moon  

and a thousand ancestors  

  

All of the answers – 

you already carry 

within you 

 

 

Briana Muñoz is a poet and traditional indigenous Mexika dancer from Southern California. She is the author of two books of poetry including Loose Lips (Prickly Pear Publishing) and Everything is Returned to the Soil (FlowerSong Press). Her work has been published in the anthology How to Reimagine America, Cultural Daily, the Beat Not Beat Anthology, the Oakland Arts Review, Dryland Literary Journal, and several other publications.  

 

More About the Poem:

As someone immersed in indigenous practices who is currently pregnant, I was reflecting on all of the ways this baby in my belly is already connected to community. I am a traditional indigenous Mexika dancer and continued to dance my first and second trimesters. When my lower back pain began, I moved to drumming which is easier on my body. 

I think of how the baby has been feeling movement and hearing/ feeling the huehuetl (Aztec drum) throughout my pregnancy and how important it is to introduce these practices early on, yes, even before they leave the womb. 


Feature banner photo credit: Azzedine Rouichi
Additional photos: Briana Muñoz

This month, the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete of all time, Allyson Felix, penned this piece in memory of her friend and teammate Tori Bowie. In it, Felix calls on the systems at fault to address how three Black women — gold medalists who set out to become mothers—had such serious complications.  

Felix reminds us that the CDC states that in 2021, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 2.6 times the rate for white women, higher than previous years. What’s at fault is not anyone being Black and pregnant, but the white supremacist systems within the medical community that deliver dangerously unequal care to those who need it the most. 

Recognizing Medical Racism as the Root  

Medical racism allows other families and communities the autonomy and opportunity to experience childbirth with little error or harm, while Black families and communities are consistently denied the same experience, and instead are left with a birth filled with trauma and grief. 

“Despite advancements in medicine and technology over the years, the racial gap in who is suffering the most severe consequences of childbirth is growing, and most Black maternal and child health experts point to systematic racism as the root cause.” Felix names that the medical community and legislatures must do their part to address the Black maternal health crisis. 

Combatting Outdated Patterns and Funding Real Solutions 

While both spaces raised need to be called in, it is also crucial for philanthropy to step forward, and no longer recuse itself from its impact on this issue. A consistent pattern that the movement has raised suggests that philanthropy’s presence dehumanized the maternal mortality crisis. Current grantmaking practices aren’t saving us, just romanticizing our deaths and trauma.  

One direct solution to combat these outdated patterns is by allocating more funding to Black-led organizations and platforms, and ensuring the sector is following the leadership of Black feminists centering the reproductive justice framework as they hold the solutions to the crisis but are severely under-resourced. 

Funders should be listening as birth worker Sarah Michal Hamid joins The Black Feminist Rants podcast to name what birth work entails, the impact of settler colonialism on reproduction, and the importance of doulas operating outside of the capitalist health care system. 

The sector must look to leaders like the Birth Justice Care Fund at Sister Song and the Birth Justice Fund at Groundswell Fund for examples of ethical, trauma-informed organizing and grantmaking that is grounded in birth justice. 

Philanthropy by itself doesn’t have the solutions, but Black birthworkers and organizers do. To end the Black maternal mortality crisis, funders have to use their capital and capacity to make a transformative impact for Black pregnant people and the families and communities that love them.  

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brandi Collins-Calhoun is a Movement Engagement Manager at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). A writer, educator and reproductive justice organizer, she leads the organization’s Reproductive Access and Gendered Violence portfolio of work.

A year out from the Dobbs decision, journalists and researchers and pundits everywhere are attempting to quantify the damage. Some 14 states have banned abortion, leaving tens of millions of people of reproductive age and capacity without legal access to abortion.  

A new study from #WeCount estimates that 34,000 people in restricted states were unable to overcome the logistical, financial, and legal barriers in order to obtain a wanted abortion. That means the state forced at least 34,000 people to continue unwanted pregnancies, and I didn’t say the state forced 34,000 people to have babies, because some of these people and babies didn’t make it. We will never know the exact number, because people don’t fill out surveys en route to this sort of death. There will be suicides and accidents and overdoses, involuntary commitments and slow slides into states of undoing that will eventually become fatal. Countless people will not make it through. 

Roe v. Wade ensured abortion rights for just shy of 50 years. Abortion rights are supported by upwards of 70% of Americans. One in four women has an abortion, at least half of them have several. As far as I know, we aren’t sure how many men have participated in sex that leads to abortion; that lack of knowing says a lot about what we ask of men. If we include “miscarriage management” in abortion statistics, and we include those who wanted to become parents but had a non-viable pregnancy, that number is much larger; it would probably be closer to half.  

The point is, abortion is politically popular, and is a common occurrence even amongst those who claim to oppose it. The right to abortion should have been impossible to lose. How did this happen? The answer to that question isn’t just the key to understanding Roe post-mortem, it’s the key to surviving post-Dobbs. 

We Can’t Afford To Compromise 

Institutions have failed us, among them: the Democratic party, ostensibly liberal foundations, large NGOs and non-profits with budgets in the tens of millions, and pro-choice PACs. The parameters of the pro-choice position and political strategy was staked out largely by NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the two largest voices and budgets on our side of the fight.  

A recent New Yorker piece titled The Problem with Planned Parenthood detailed some of the impacts of PPFA’s outsized influence, coupled with its inclinations as a large business primarily concerned with sustaining itself as opposed to an equitable landscape, for both patients and providers. To be clear, there’s no need to single out PPFA which employs many wonderful people and provides a lot of incredible healthcare. The problem with Planned Parenthood is in many ways, the problem with everything: capitalism, white supremacy, and the genocidal tendencies of these two forces in tandem. PPFA is one of many institutions in the space who failed to see or prioritize Reproductive Justice.  

Ultimately, we rallied behind a movement which celebrated victories that didn’t include poor folks, primarily Black and brown folks, a movement which allowed the public to believe that we’d won while the Hyde Amendment still sat on the books. We fought from the defense for decades, struggling to articulate a clear, values-based demand for abortion access as a fundamental matter of justice and a non-negotiable human right.  

Don’t get me wrong: even the mainstream movement players were trying to do the right thing, and many, many good people on our side fought tirelessly. The opposition is craven and mercenary. But they fought uncompromisingly, and we didn’t, so we lost.  

It’s time for us to stop waiting for politicians to save us. They are not going to and never were, and our investment in the idea that that they would has blinded us to the work we must do to save ourselves

The Way Forward 

Obviously, we must continue fighting for abortion rights; criminalization is racist and classist and forcing people to break laws in order to end pregnancy is dehumanizing. But tens of thousands of people will need to break laws in order to have safe abortions, and we need to stop conflating legality and safety so that people know that they don’t need permission from any court in order to have an abortion, and that there are people and organizations ready to help them circumvent abortion laws while mitigating legal risk.  

Obviously, everyone deserves to have access to abortion care in a medical context if that’s what they prefer, but early abortion in the United States is profoundly overmedicalized; there is no medical reason why people should feel safer going to a doctor’s office and paying $600 for pills they could receive discreetly by mail, while receiving medical support from organizations like the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline.  

It is time for us to stop thinking about abortion as something we must pass through legal systems and medical establishments to access and begin thinking of access more in the context of mutual aid: abortion belongs to the people, currently and indefinitely, but access is on us to facilitate. Abortion access is a community responsibility, and the number of people who survive in post-Dobbs America is directly proportionate to the number of people who find a way to plug in. 

The failure of funders and philanthropists to think beyond legal and political solutions has allowed the opposition to run the table, without even pretending to play by the rules. There is no greater example of this than large institutions pulling out of Texas in the wake of SB8, instead of supporting those who would have dared to challenge an utterly lawless law. We cannot meet this moment by funding political solutions and enormous national organizations who are afraid to get their hands dirty. Funders must support those who are building power in communities, those who are contributing to access, and those willing to work in defiance of unjust laws, That’s what it’s going to take to build an uncompromising mass movement that creates abortion access in the absence of rights, a movement which will eventually win these rights back, and a movement which wouldn’t dare declare victory until nobody—not a single community, not a single human being—is left behind.  

Amelia Bonow is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Shout Your Abortion, a movement dedicated to normalizing abortion and elevating safe paths to access, regardless of legality. 

As a coalition of philanthropic networks working together to strengthen bridges across funders and communities, CHANGE Philanthropy has issued a statement against what some have labeled “new philanthropic pluralism.”

While proponents of this pluralism speak of ideals in the abstract, wielding polite language and calling for civility as a tool to avoid dealing with the tangible issues facing our communities, we stand with our colleagues at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP),  Funders for LGBTQ Issues, Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP), Native Americans in Philanthropy (NAP), Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG), Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), Women’s Funding Network (WFN) in emphasizing the importance of fostering deep relationships to encourage philanthropic collaborations based on mutual respect and power.

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Philanthropy must be able to shift and pivot and to respond to these dangers, guided by those who are directly impacted by those decisions and rooted in building – and maintaining — trusting and caring relationships with those communities.

The deepest relationships — the loving, energizing, healing kind — cannot blossom in a bed of lies and ignored truths. Collaboration that moves us forward past tough issues and difficult conversations is a partnership based on mutual respect and power. True partners are not afraid to be transparent with each other or held accountable to their current or past action.

For foundations, that also means examining their role in seeding these current issues, which often means having the courage to go back and examine how they acquired their current power and influence. The examination and reckoning around the wealth generation of a vast majority of our nation’s foundations are necessary steps in organizations healing the harm and trauma of society’s racist and exploitative systems. There is certainly room for grace in these discussions, but the discomfort and vulnerability implicit in this journey cannot be side-stepped nor shortened because of philanthropy’s best intentions.

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NCRP promotes philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness. That means that all of our work in this sector should be measured in large part by how much it contributes to justice, not just civility.

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Bridging differences is an important part of getting to a more just and equitable world. But people don’t build bridges just to meet in the middle. They do so to get to somewhere.

Philanthropy’s goal should not be survival or cooperation, but to help foster justice. Foundations do that by funding work and making space for relationships that lift our human rights and dignity, not strip them. That is the bottom floor, the starting line.

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Click here to read the full statement on the CHANGE Philanthropy website. 

NCRP released the following statement online and our social media platforms celebrating the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Brackeen v. Haaland that upholds 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act. (ICWA). Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Native American Rights Fund and the Protect ICWA Campaign are among a number of other partners that released statements hailing the 7-2 decision.

Today marks a major win for tribal sovereignty and reproductive justice! SCTOUS ruled in favor of the Indian Child Welfare Act, upholding the federal law that was passed in 1978 to protect Indigenous children from the states attempts to remove them from their homes and eliminate their tribal connections.

It is essential to uplift the hard work happening on the ground to disrupt the historical and modern efforts to separate families through assimilation tactics. Specifically, the 497 Tribal Nations, 62 Native organizations, and many reproductive justice, child welfare, and adoption organizations, and that signed on to the 21 briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of upholding ICWA.

We celebrate this win at the same time knowing that the work doesn’t stop here. The fight for tribal sovereignty is constant, and those committed to obstructing tribal sovereignty continue to be well organized and funded in their attempts.

We call on our partners and counterparts in the sector to be responsive at this moment, make radical, transformative investments in the organizers on the ground leading this work, and inform yourselves on tribal sovereignty.

Remember that those working to hinder tribal sovereignty rely on these disturbing child removal tactics, which give corporations more latitude for destructive energy and mineral exploitation in Indigenous lands and territories. The way these corporate land theft strategies have been wielded against ICWA has been destructive, inflicting all types of reproductive harm, coercion and gendered violence upon tribal communities. All this is happening while Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people continue to be taken away from their families and communities because of the murdered and missing Indigenous people’s crisis.

We also know that Native tribes, families and lands precede this country’s current borders. Indigenous people following the same migration paths used for centuries are treated as political pawns at best, and face traumatic separation from their families at worst. Migrants face extreme cruelty by way of policy and limited access to seeking legal asylum. If they are granted entry into the U.S. at all, their existence is erased upon arrival, and their stories are silenced. These tactics, which cause systemic harm to migrating and immigrant populations alike, date as far back as the beginning of Indigenous assimilation projects and family regulation, especially within the philanthropic sector.

Funders, take this time to learn how you can center the sovereignty and dignity of tribal, indigenous, and migrating populations in your grantmaking. We are witnessing a truly cross-movement issue, one that should be funded and amplified well beyond what philanthropy has offered thus far.

Part 3 of 3: Why Asian Immigrant Refugee Communities are Key to a Just Transition in California
APEN’s Christine Cordero explains the important role that Asian immigrant refugee communities can play in making a Just Transition to a regenerative economy a reality for millions of Californians.

 

In the previous entry in this three-part series, Filipino climate justice frontline leader and Co-Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Christine Cordero discussed the group’s history and how climate funders and organizers can create a healthier world by centering the wisdom of Asian immigrant refugee communities.

 

In this third part, her discussion with NCRP’s Senowa Mize-Fox centers on the lived examples of how Asian immigrant refugee communities are already doing the work of making Just Transition a reality in places like Richmond, California.

 

Senowa Mize-Fox: APEN focuses on utilizing a just transition framework – what is your vision for a Just Transition for Asian immigrant refugee communities in California?

 

Christine Cordero: So, while we focus on our Asian immigrant refugee population, I did want to say, so that we’re very clear, that we understand the nuances and importance of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. We just don’t want to misspeak for any community. We try to be very specific about the groups that we speak of because our community is so big and broad and beautiful.

 

When we’ve talked about it, we want to transition this refinery in Richmond, CA, an effort that ultimately ties us to Just Transitioning California from fossil fuels, and imagining a remixed, regenerative set of economies.

 

We see this vision and we’re getting granular and trying to define that in our specific geographic regions right now. One of the biggest things that we’re looking at as we’re transitioning to this “clean green economy,” is envisioning who pays for that. Who gets to enjoy it? Who can afford to come along in the “clean green economy”? What does a public private investment look like that brings all our communities and workers along to make the transition just and equitable?

 

We’re going to be looking at what are different potential financing and resourcing models for paying for this Just Transition. We’re looking at what community-owned land projects look like, modeling some prototypes of climate resiliency hubs in Richland and Oakland with groups like RYSE Center And Oakland Community Land Trust.

 

RYSE Center is an amazing Richmond youth-organizing organization who run a liberation and resiliency hub that was co-designed by Richmond youth in RYSE and APEN. The youth surveyed themselves and their families for things that they wanted, and the result was a place where they can organize for youth opportunities, jobs, and other economic resources, as well as a place communities can congregate in times of climate-related distress like wildfires or power outages.

 

They also wanted their own closed energy system of solar and battery storage. A lot of our Richmond youth are in intergenerational immigrant families, who when asked, wanted a place that could stay open when the power goes out. They wanted to know what it meant to go to a place that still has power and actually has clean, working air filters. That has refrigeration for elders’ medicines and outlets for health machines that people – siblings or other people that have no help – can plug in for breathing and other things.

 

And so, they designed the center based on what the communities needed. And it is up and running. We’re trying to think about it all the way through. We’re trying to think through what programming looks like. What do mutual aid networks look like in this place?

Imagine if we shoot for a resiliency hub within a mile of every person? Because sometimes people aren’t going to be able to drive to some place.

 

Organizing the Networks We Need

 

Christine: What I have learned from our comrades and homies in New York during Sandy, and in Louisiana during Katrina and Ida was how these mutual aid networks could look like. How close do these resiliency hubs have to be when the streets aren’t going to be navigable. What would that look like? For the Richmond RYSE Center, the solar installation alone costs upwards of $7 million dollars.

 

What does it look like to have a mutual aid network that’s on purpose, versus one you had to do organically? In New York, they had mutual aid networks that popped up organically, but what if we planned to have social infrastructure to care for each other?

 

To me, those are also organizing networks, right? Like, do we know our neighbors, who are the children and the elders that will need to be brought to one of those hubs. In between times of crises, can these networks also support ongoing power building and engagement with our civic infrastructure. People can get more involved in what happens in their neighborhoods. The dream when I think about it are these cultures of communal care which are deeply ingrained into immigrant communities, and particularly Asian immigrant communities have long standing models of caring in communities and village structures? And I don’t think this is just Asian immigrant refugees. I think a lot of our folks still have connections to our communal roots. That and that’s something that’s like, great, how do we get institutional support to maintain this type of social infrastructure?

 

When infrastructure is too big, and it isn’t rooted in communities, it can take too long to get to people in emergencies? Can we consider micro gridding mutual aid networks, micro gridding these hubs and scaling them in a way that feels meaningful The RYSE Liberation and Resilience model in Richmond, and then the Lincoln Recreation Center in Oakland, Chinatown – both have been hubs for community activity. Lincoln Recreation Center is in the process of becoming a climate resiliency hub. That total renovation cost is roughly $32 million. While that might seem like a lot, I think about the billions the federal government is putting into dirty hydrogen and carbon capture. Those are not real solutions, but just an extension of the fossil fuel infrastructure.

 

What if we actually sent billions to climate resiliency hubs and the social infrastructure of mutual aid networks? Imagine what that could look like. We’re not the only ones trying to build what we need now. We’re with a lot of our EJ partners across the state in BIPoC communities that are really looking at converting health clinics, converting community centers into these hubs that can be both powerful during a crisis, but also, in between, in organizing and building community social infrastructure.

 

We’re also exploring how to prevent a classic dynamic that happens in environmental justice. When we make our communities beautiful and livable, often we get pushed or priced out. So, we’re really looking at what community-owned affordable housing and land projects look like.

 

That answer has to be specific to place. In one place, we might be talking about increasing accessibility to additional dwelling units for families to support their elders in in-law units right in the backyard. Whereas in a denser location, in a very concentrated area, maybe we’re looking at multi-unit buildings that can support high density residential living. And so, we’re looking at, is that viable? Can we make that work in a way that’s sustainable? We really want to preserve the cultural heritage and legacy of a place that makes people want to be there, and then make sure people can stay there. So that’s some of our dreams. We believe in the necessity of our folks getting access to the clean green economy and the future that we need, which actually is a remaking of the whole economy. The folks that don’t see themselves as part of the climate and environmental justice fight actually need to. We need to start organizing folks starting to see the intersections.

 

Senowa: This is such a good reminder that it will be okay. There are people who are building this on the ground.

 

Appreciating the Wins

 

Senowa: You have talked previously about funding a Just Transition. What does it mean to fund a just transition for Asian Immigrant Refugee Communities?

 

Christine Cordero: Specific to philanthropy, there are the classic recommendations many movement leaders and I have been saying for decades: Give multiyear, general operating support. Let us do our work. That’s the baseline. The thing that’s more nuanced after that is how to be in a long-term transformational relationship with us and understand this moment of resourcing that needs to happen.

 

 

The climate action window is real. Just as we are having to get bolder in the field, the funders need to be bolder, courageous, and riskier in their investments. And I mean that in all the ways: if you already give three years, give for five or seven years of general operating support. Push whatever edge that is. If you’re funding in silos, start to make the connections between the issue silos, especially when climate disruption is just the most acute symptom of an economy and mismanagement of home (as our folks at Movement Generation say), that isn’t working for most families and communities.

 

Environmental justice frontline communities have always been the canary in the coal mine. When you protect the most vulnerable, you protect everybody. And I think we need to start understanding how climate has, is, and will only continue to disrupt education, health, housing, immigration, etc. Climate funding cannot continue to exist in a silo –it intersects, is intersectional with so many other issue areas. Folks want all these flashy policies, but if you don’t have communities engaged to hold these folks accountable and to implement real power, there’s no shortcut to real power building. There’s no shortcut to people, there’s no shortcut to masses of people getting involved in this work, which is what it will take to shift this to save our species. The planet is going to be alright, it’s about our species surviving so I don’t know who’s getting on board, right? So, I would say that I would say start getting involved, if they haven’t already, started looking into the innovative models around spin down and funding for electoral work, I know this is going to be edgy for a lot of folks, but there are foundations who have figured out how to do it. Learn how to fund the breadth of the work because that’s what it’s going to take to search the system and start investing in innovative land projects that are being anchored by communities. There’s so many. People are dreaming and building the new right now in order to contest for power.

 

So, you know how Just Transition works. People think stop the bad and build a new are separate, but Just Transition is actually building the new on top of stopping the bad. You stopped the bad by building the new right now for what we need. So, I think folks need to see philanthropy and funders actually challenging some of the long-standing traditional definitions of risk and return.

 

It means challenging some of the old thinking about what is thought of as a viable solution. Because let me tell you, they’ve been following the more traditionalist greens and GHG emissions, where are we right now? Where are we? So, folks want to get serious about changing things? What is it, it’s madness to keep doing the same thing and expecting different outcomes, right? So, I think folks need to really think about what it’s going to take to do the shifts we’re talking about. These are monumental remaking of the economy, and how we manage our home, fundamentally. So, we actually have to fund it like we want to win.

 

If you want us to win, you have to fund people power and organizing power within us with the same gusto/fervor that these lobbyists are being funded.

 

 

Philanthropy is honestly just one piece, right, of a larger shift that needs to be made and moving resources. But there is a piece for philanthropy to do. And they do not have the same constraints for instances like the federal investments. So, I think it’s time for everybody to go big and bold.

 

Senowa: Can you talk about one big win that you are particularly proud of?

 

Christine: Yeah, I mean, there are several, the quiet ones you don’t hear about are the ongoing organizing. So, I talked about the resiliency hubs. I think those are huge wins that we’re still fighting for, like our people are still building the solutions on the ground. I would say a big win is we’re fighting for this win right now. But we got California to move 280 million into the concepts of resiliency hubs. And now it’s like show and prove time. That is, what did I tell you our one solar installation was 7 million. So that’s, you know, that’s a good handful of projects, but it’s not enough. And then we won about a billion in climate resilient housing and got to insert things around renter protections and eviction stuff that we’re really proud of, and now we’re defending those wins. So those have been huge. California is making huge investments in the solutions we want that now we have to keep. So, I would say those are, those are a couple big things that were the wins most recently that we’re very excited about.

 

We also won with our other EJ partners in the state, we got California to actually set a goalpost for petroleum phase out. Now whether we can hold them to it, yeah, we were like you we needed we need it, we need to manage this decline. If we don’t do it and leave it in the hands of corporations, they don’t give a shit about frontline communities and workers. So, we’ve seen their model, they will leave and file for bankruptcy and leave us holding the bag on toxic land and water, and no safe social safety net. We’re like, let’s do this on purpose, we actually have a trajectory for it.

 

So, we want some pretty big wins at the state level for the state staying ambitious, obviously everybody’s still on this, like, I know, we all want a silver bullet. Everybody wants dirty hydrogen to be the key. Everybody wants carbon capture to be the thing, those are band aids at best, and they actually still increase GHG. Because when you look at the full lifecycle of energy they use, you still need to, you still need to do solar and wind. You still got to do renewables, if we’re actually going to reduce GHG. And folks make hasty decisions and desperation.

 

And I know we want that to be the answer. I wish it were the answer. It is not. You do a little bit of digging on the science. It is unproven technologies that we’re banking on that will continue to pollute and sacrifice our communities. No, thank you. If we’re going to actually remake the economy, we should do it right this time. Then we have the opportunity to do that if we are willing to kind of dig in.

 

 

Senowa: How can funders learn more about APEN’s work/what is the best way for funders to engage with APEN?

 

Christine: We’re on all the socials and the website. They can reach out to me or our team if they want to learn more. christine@apen4ej.org

 

It’s our first name at apen4ej.org. You can reach us. I would say, you know, look up our stuff. This is a thing for funders. We have 30 years of work on the Internet. Come look at it. And if you want to get with us after looking at it, then come see us. But we have tons of resources and reports, and our comms team is amazing. All our work is out there.

More immediately, our LA launches on May 26. If folks want to get with us around Los Angeles, and any of that stuff they can we’re going to be building out that chapter for decades to come. So, and then our statewide membership, obviously, that I mentioned, like whoever wants to get on board, we’re getting serious about building power in California. So yeah, we’re excited. But I don’t know, I don’t know if there are specific, best ways to engage. Give us money. We need C4 donors. And I mean, you know, there’s some stuff that’s very obvious, but the thing I would say is that can help us more indirectly is we need more funders to be doing funder organizing. We need folks to be in it in their own personal stake within their position in philanthropy. Come become an APEN member.

 

There’s a personal stake for everybody in this, funders included, to me, they can be organizers as well. And I think folks should engage as organizers and get an understanding of who their people are in their community.

 

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It is clear from the Q&A with Christine Cordero that not only is a Just Transition possible, but also there are many people within the Asian immigrant refugee community that have laid the groundwork for a better, more equitable world focused on collective work and organizing. And it is important to fund this work in a way that ensures we all win.

Celebrating Asian immigrant refugee Contributions to Climate Action Series 

Veteran Nonprofit and Philanthropic Executive
Russell Roybal Joins NCRP as its next
Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer

Organization taps former National LGBTQ Task Force leader to head its Development and Communications efforts. 

Washington, D.C.- The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)  announced this week that seasoned philanthropic and nonprofit executive Russell Roybal (he/they/she) has joined NCRP as its next Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer.

Headshot of newly hired NCRP Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer Russell Roybal (he/they).
Russell Roybal

Roybal, a former NCRP Board Member, brings with them nearly three decades of experience as an activist, organizer and resource mobilizer. They have previously served as the Deputy Executive Director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Chief Advancement Officer of San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), and Director of Training & Capacity Building at the Gill Foundation.

They are also the current Chair of the Board of Rockwood Leadership Institute, one of the nation’s premier transformative leadership development programs for nonprofit leaders and social changemakers.

“Russell has always displayed a deep commitment not only to getting communities the resources they need to thrive, but also to frontline leaders trying to stretch those dollars to scale up change,” said NCRP President and CEO Aaron Dorfman. “At a time where so much is on the line, Russell understands the urgency for philanthropy both to act in the moment and invest in people for the future.”

Kathy Reich, Director of the Ford Foundation’s Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) work, agrees.

“Russell brings a unique combination of skills to NCRP including experience as a senior leader across social service, advocacy, and philanthropic organizations,” said Reich. “This broad perspective will only elevate the important work of NCRP to promote philanthropy that serves the public good.”

Former NCRP Board Member and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation CEO Dr. Sherece Y. West-Scantlebury is delighted to see Roybal back with the organization.

“I’ve known Russell for over 15 years and served with him on the NCRP Board, said West-Scantlebury. “He is a strategic communicator, an authentic relationship builder and natural influencer for effective change. I have no doubt that NCRP – and the sector — will only benefit from their dedication, drive, and perspective.”

A mentor to many in the non-profit and philanthropic space, Roybal’s past accolades include being elected as Chair of the California Commission on the State of Hate and being the inaugural recipient of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Equality Award.

“As a Latinx, male-bodied, non-binary queer leader, my activism has always been rooted in a tradition of public service and the pursuit of social justice,” said Roybal. “I can’t think of a better time or a better place to push the sector to be responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity. I look forward to continuing NCRP’s work in holding US-based philanthropy accountable.”

Roybal will oversee NCRP’s Development and Communications departments and serve on organization’s leadership team along with Dorfman, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Timi Gerson, and Vice President and Chief Operation Officer Burhan Razi. They take over for Maria De La Cruz, who moved on to the Raikes Foundation to lead the grantmaker’s inaugural  Resourcing Equity and Democracy (RED) portfolio.

ABOUT NCRP 

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has served as philanthropy’s critical friend and independent watchdog since 1976. We work with foundations, nonprofits, social justice movements and other leaders to ensure that the sector is transparent with, and accountable to, those with the least wealth, power, and opportunity in American society.

Our storytelling, advocacy and research efforts, in partnership with grantees, help funders fulfill their moral and practical duty to build, share and wield economic resources and power to serve public purposes in pursuit of justice.

Together, we can create a just and equitable world where all communities get the resources they need to thrive.