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Genuine, local-level engagement between public agencies and the communities they serve is crucial to meeting the needs and priorities of people experiencing health inequities, particularly communities of color and low-income people. Public agencies often ask their communities for input, which results in low participation and feedback, perpetuating the inequitable status quo. How can public agencies re-think their community engagement practices, prioritizing people historically excluded from access to power and decision-making? And what is the role of philanthropy in this work?
A recent report, Much Alarm, Less Action, from the Center for Effective Philanthropy found that both foundation and nonprofit leaders believe that climate change will negatively affect their work —no matter the issues they focus on. However, less than 2% of all giving went to building climate resilience. Continued climate inaction by the philanthropic sector, will undo existing efforts to address a multitude of societal challenges, particularly those around public health.
The Funding Strategies to Accelerate Power-building Cohort is learning and collaboration community of practice that will help philanthropic grantmakers sharpen their power-building strategies by engaging in 501c(4) and complementary 501c(3) funding. A core premise is that these types of grantmaking strategies (which NCG calls “c4-aligned funding”) can accelerate movement building and systems-change goals, strengthen our democracy, and advance racial equity.
We can only act on what we can imagine. As philanthropy is called to meet this moment, we need to expand our imagination. How do we not imagine philanthropy as it is, but what it could be at its best? Within philanthropy we need practices, tools, and ways of being that are in service to resourcing freedom and equity. As those mobilizing resources, we must stay steadfast in imagining and co-creating generative pathways to a more equitable future. At NCG's 2024 Annual Conference, we will offer space to conspire, imagine, and act on ushering in new possibilities.
Confronting and transforming the devastating harm of a planet in crisis along with the ongoing reckoning of persistent deep inequities stands as The Work of our time. Many of us feel a blend of overwhelm, unknowing, and grief - perhaps even guilt and anxiety - that may drive paralysis.
The American banking system is broken, and the evidence is unmistakable. From the recent failure of one of the largest banks in the U.S. to ongoing predatory products blanketing lower-income communities, it is clear that we are at an inflection point. Bank regulators currently fall into the familiar trap of trying to fix the symptoms such as banning certain products, minor regulatory modifications without fixing the root causes of structural inequities. This results in repeated crises usually requiring taxpayer-funded bailouts but no meaningful change of the system. We must find better opportunities to address staggering losses of wealth through failures in the banking system while also building new structures that support economic equity and help build and preserve more local community wealth.
This sixth and final session of the Foundations of Racial Equity series explores Equity in the Center's “Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture” publication and framework. Equity in the Center’s research is designed to support leaders as they build and expand their organization’s capacity to advance race equity and transform their culture. In these modules, we’ll engage in a critical conversation on the cases, tactics, and tools that will drive action to combat structural racism in the philanthropic and nonprofit sector.