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As a part of our Member Spotlight series, we spoke with Amy Saxton, Vice President of Program Development at The James Irvine Foundation. Amy shared how she is approaching her work, program strategy, and where others can jump in to collaborate.
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.
Our team recently returned from a Summer refresh, where we pumped the brakes on the remarkable array of activities we are cooking up and allowed the team to recharge in anticipation of the second half of the year. It’s part of our commitment to centering wellness in racial equity, and while time off alone can’t address all the challenges facing workers in these existential times, it’s a good start.
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.
I connected with Tanir Ami, CEO of the CARESTAR Foundation, and Michael Heil, Board Chair, during the final week of NCG’s learning series Unconscious Whiteness for Board Members & Trustees, where a cohort of 15 white-identifying board members and trustees came together to learn. We discussed their motivation for participating, the challenges and opportunities CARESTAR has encountered in attempting to center racial equity, and what’s next in manifesting their commitment. The conversation has been edited for brevity.
Even before a global pandemic, that was the question we kept asking ourselves. Children are thrown into cages. Anti-immigrant rhetoric. A threat to render our immigrant communities invisible through a citizenship question on the census. Mass shootings from Buffalo, NY to Uvalde, TX.
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.