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Are you struggling to understand your role as a white person in philanthropic spaces centering racial equity? If you are a foundation or philanthropic-client serving staff member, board member or trustee, or a consultant who works with staff and board members of philanthropic entities, join peers in a five-session cohort learning experience to deepen your understanding of how white supremacy manifests in philanthropic organizations and systems.
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’ll be the first to acknowledge that I’ve arrived as NCG’s CEO on the shoulders of many others that came before me. Two of the strongest shoulders belong to my first professional mentor and a heavyweight in philanthropic circles, Joe Brooks. During my seventeen years as a work partner and friend at The San Francisco Foundation and then PolicyLink, I learned more from him than I could ever adequately describe. He had a habit of saying things that were increasingly profound the more you thought about them. One of those sayings was, “how much do you need to know to act?”, often dropped in a setting surrounded by other foundation colleagues where he was about to propose bold action to engage some of the Bay Area’s most vexing social challenges
According to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, philanthropy invests most of its dollars immediately following a disaster, when media attention is at its peak. However, less than 10% of our philanthropic dollars go toward reducing hazard risk and preparing our communities for disasters.
2020 has truly tested our resolve. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people in prison cannot be understated. As rates of infection rose inside prisons throughout the state, we witnessed our movement partners quickly and efficiently organize in response to this crisis. We witnessed the same tenacity and steadfastness this summer, as organizers led uprisings worldwide to protest racist state violence after the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others—violence that is all too familiar for incarcerated people and their families.
Launched in 2019, the Youth Power Fund is a network of foundations and individual donors committed to creating more equitable, just, and effective social, economic, and political systems in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area.
NCG member the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced yesterday that Emiko Ono has been named the new Program Director of its Performing Arts Program. Emiko has been a sharp and engaging member of NCG's Arts Loan Fund Steering Committee since 2011. Join us in congratulating her on the new role!