Search Results
In the last year alone, Californians have experienced the impacts of multiple climate disasters including severe drought, extreme heatwaves, earthquakes, catastrophic wildfires, and now several back-to-back Atmospheric Rivers. Climate change will only continue amplifying the risk that Californians face from natural hazards. We can’t keep doing business as usual philanthropy to meet the scope of our current reality.
Over the next 20 years in the U.S., $35–70 trillion in wealth will transfer from one generation to another in the largest generational wealth transfer in history, mostly moving within wealthy white families. The policies that make possible this protection and accumulation of wealth are situated within the legacy of land theft, genocide of Native people, enslavement of Black people, and exploitation of natural resources. This context of racial capitalism has also given rise to wealth accumulation that, in part, birthed the philanthropic sector. Paradoxically, many of us working within philanthropy aim to contribute to changes in systems, structures, and outcomes that address the harms of interconnected systems like racial capitalism that favor some at the expense of others and the planet.
My first executive director position was with MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana in San Jose, CA. I distinctly remember the day I started, it was May 7th, 2003 and I had just taken on the role with all the energy and confidence of an almost 28 year old, artist and recent youth center leader can and should have.
How can corporate philanthropy be responsive to the demands of this moment? It's a question rooted in the very nature of a capitalist economic system, where corporations focus on maximizing returns exacerbates inequities. Into that mix, corporate foundations and champions of social responsibility mobilize their companies’ resources and talent to restore community balance and advance social good.
Sharpening the Edge 2.0 is a 4-part learning and collaboration series that will help philanthropic grantmakers sharpen their power-building strategies by engaging in 501c(4) funding and complementary 501c(3) funding strategies.
Interested in joining NCG? Apply for Membership now using our easy online form!
I am so invested in Black liberation work and always trying to figure out how to move my institution towards this vision. In particular, I keep hearing recently that philanthropy has a role in the reparations movement. My question is where do I start to engage my institution (a small and mighty family foundation) on reparations and the land rematriation efforts. All the questions- who, what, where, when, how?