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This month, President and CEO Dwayne S. Marsh has officially taken the reins from Steve Barton and Phuong Quach, senior staff who’ve served as NCG’s interim leaders for the past six months. The three took turns answering questions about the moment in which we find ourselves and the possibilities ahead. As the interview was drawing to a close, Dwayne paused to check if we were going to address race explicitly. And so, signaling the new future into which we are stepping, we did.
NCG’s board and staff are pleased to announce the conclusion of a rigorous search for the organization’s next president and CEO. From a pool of nearly 90 candidates and many strong contenders, one leader emerged as the consensus choice of board, staff, and management. Oakland’s own Dwayne S. Marsh brings nearly thirty years’ experience advancing racial and economic equity through sustained work in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors.
One of the things I love about being President of NCG is how powerfully I am reminded of the privilege and responsibility of the position. Leading the organization whose charge it is to strengthen philanthropic practice in Northern California has never had more meaning than it does today.
November’s presidential election results will have pulled the United States back from the brink of authoritarianism. After we’ve taken a moment to celebrate our achievement and rejuvenate, there comes the challenge of plotting a course forward. Because there’s no going back to some imagined normalcy. Many consequences of Trump’s presidency – cult of strongman personality, capture and erosion of the courts and other democratic institutions, normalization of misogyny and white nationalism, consolidation of Christian Right power, mobilization of vigilantes, enrichment of oligarchs, rise of a media disinformation infrastructure – will not be so easily undone.
In Get It Right: 5 Shifts Philanthropy Must Make Toward an Equitable Region, we've highlighted 5 case studies from regional leaders who are already doing this work. Read about how the Libra Foundation, Tipping Point, Latino Community Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation are creating donor collaboratives to leverage more capital.
Recently, Northern California Grantmakers and philanthropic research and strategy firm Open Impact released Get it Right: 5 Shifts Philanthropy Must Make Towards an Equitable Region, a report funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The report outlines what we need from decision-makers in philanthropy – board members, trustees, high net worth individuals, CEOs, and executive directors –to listen to communities, catch up to the moment, and align grantmaking support.
The Libra Foundation is a family foundation dedicated to funding grassroots justice movements led by and for marginalized communities of color. The Libra Foundation’s guiding principle is that those who are closest to the issues understand those issues best. Impacted communities are not only the most equipped to build solutions, they are the most effective at implementing those solutions. We fund frontline organizations led by and for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) transforming the criminal justice system and advancing environmental and climate justice and gender justice.