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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.
If you know me, you know how central my mother was in my life. I often say I do what I do because of my father, but I am what I am because of her. So when her birthday rolled around recently and my sister Nadine mentioned she’d unearthed some more papers of hers, I was naturally interested. In particular, Nadine found notes my mother had made on a 1948 article titled Health Problems of Negroes in Richmond. I was equally impressed by the depth of the analysis of the article and the thoughtful notes my mother had made on it. Some of its findings might sound familiar:
Our staff from the Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County joined NCG’s 2023 Power Building cohort to learn how to be better advocates for policy changes on behalf of our grantees and their clients. Our goals were to learn more about IRS rules governing public charity C3s doing C4 and C4-aligned funding, and to bring what we learn to our many nonprofit colleagues in Sonoma County who are hungry to engage in more advocacy, but unclear on how to move forward. There are roughly 3,000 nonprofits in Sonoma County. We believe that only by aligning and harnessing our collective resources around key issues that affect our most marginalized residents can we, as a sector, build the power necessary for real change.
Although the missions, strategies, and goals of our foundations are different, we share the belief that the grant application process should be simpler, and it is our responsibility as funders to reduce the burdens we place on grantseekers wherever we can. That is what our newly launched Common Application for the Arts is all about.
In the kickoff of out Mic Drop Series, hear from Aria Florant on philanthropy's role in reparations.
Well, it didn’t take long for 2021 to remind us that the journey back from the edge of an abyss will not be a gentle one. Last Wednesday showed us we will need to advance racial equity to achieve a functioning democracy. And if democracy fails, we cannot sustain racial equity. The insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th undermines both.
The lunar new year of the tiger began on February 1, so it's still a new year which means we have an opportunity for a fresh start. Leaders and staff in organizations from different sectors use the phrase “racial equity” or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and talk about it but sometimes there is a disconnect between talking and acting on what it means to operationalize racial equity.