GIA Blog

Last year, 2018, was a milestone year for Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA). We relocated our operations from Seattle to The Bronx, and we had a new President & CEO in Eddie Torres, with a new team eager to build on the work of our predecessors. We had a unique opportunity to take stock of EVERYTHING that we were doing.

Marcus Walton, the new president and CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), previous co-director of Racial Equity Initiatives (REI) at Borealis Philanthropy, reflected recently on some of the learnings from his work at Borealis that he hopes to bring with him to GEO.

Corporate leaders, explains an article in Harvard Business Review, "need to focus on diversity and inclusion efforts that take an intersectional approach to identify barriers that women of color face, due to the impact of their race and gender."

"As more and more cultural philanthropists face scrutiny over the sources of their wealth, the economic scaffolding supporting American museums is being tested, and artists are facing difficult questions about complicity in the system," details a recent article in Artsy.

Films like Roma, A Fantastic Woman, and Spotlight and Ava DuVernay’s scripted series When They See Us were produced by Participant Media, a production company founded "on the mission of using visual storytelling to amplify social issues and to spur equitable social change," as a recent article at the Stanford Social Innovation Review points out.

Ford, Hewlett, MacArthur, Open Society, and Packard, five of America’s wealthiest foundations, pledge "to do more to help grantees pay for rent, decent wages, technology, and other overhead," The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported.

For the month of September, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Colorado Creative Industries.

The Plough Foundation announced it will close down operations within the next four years, The Associated Press reported. The Memphis, Tennessee-based foundation informed in a news release, it will grant its remaining assets to local nonprofits.

Philanthropy New York is piloting a new leadership program for experienced program officers and directors tailored for those who have chosen to work in philanthropy to help bring about change and want to push themselves to be effective champions within their roles, as the initiative's webpage explains.

Many leaders support their organization’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, details an article in Harvard Business Review, "but are stumped when it comes to having constructive conversations with colleagues about police brutality, sexual harassment, or LGBTQ+ issues."