Jaime Sharp's Blog

From Bonfils Stanton: In her artist statement for her work “Minding the Cycles” (commissioned for the Foundation’s offices) Jandel Allen-Davis says “Where are we now and how do we know? We are experiencing some of the greatest turmoil we have had in centuries, perhaps millennia. The sense of insecurity that this evokes can leave us unsettled and unmoored…Our task is to discern where we are and what is required of us in this time.” We as a foundation have thought deeply about what is required of US in this time, and our new Strategic Framework charts that course.  

From A Blade of Grass: We are pleased to announce and welcome Lu Zhang as the organization’s new Executive Director. Zhang will officially assume the position on June 20, 2023.

Zhang currently serves as the Initiatives Director of United States Artists (USA) , a national arts funding organization headquartered in Chicago, where she launched a department dedicated to expanding holistic support for artists and their communities. Prior to joining USA, Zhang was Deputy Director of The Contemporary , a nomadic, non-collecting art museum in Baltimore, Maryland, where she provided strategic and operational oversight, and led resource initiatives for local artists.

While The Presser Foundation is a new member to GIA (since July 2022), they are excited to learn more about equity in arts funding and connect with other arts funders, particularly those funders supporting music organizations in order to learn more about incorporating DEI across music traditions and the nonprofit sector.

Former GIA Board Member Ken Grossinger announced his new book, Art Works: How Organizers and Artists Are Creating a Better World Together: An inside look at the organizers and artists on the front lines of political mobilization and social change.

An artist’s mural of George Floyd becomes an emblem of a renewed movement for racial equality. A documentary film injects fuel into a popular mobilization to oust a Central American dictator. Freedom songs course through the American civil rights movement.

From Philanthropy Together: Addressing injustices in our giving circles and in our communities is complex, challenging, yet necessary work — and we need each other to keep learning and growing, wherever we are in our journeys.

The Equity and Justice in Collective Giving Webinar Series offers monthly content to explore themes that deepen our field’s shared commitment to equity.

"On Inauguration Day in January 2021, many were left spellbound by Amanda Gorman’s 'The Hill We Climb.' As the youngest inaugural poet and first national youth poet laureate, Gorman’s words were both poignant and powerful." said Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario, Word in Black, for Afro News. "However, as the social media buzz surrounding her delivery began to subside, a critical question arose: how can we ensure that the next generation of Amanda Gormans have the resources they need to succeed?"

From Integrated Rural Strategies Group: Foundations are increasingly considering impact investing as a philanthropic strategy to complement their grantmaking and more fully align their philanthropic assets with their mission-based work. Indeed, supporting foundations to “liberate philanthropic assets” is at the core of NFG’s Theory of Change. Impact investing is a powerful tool to do so, and is a focus of praxis within the NFG and Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions foundation CEO cohort program, Philanthropy Forward. Rural America is home to the highest rates of persistent poverty in the United States, coupled with a history of low philanthropic investment. 

From The Chronicle of Philanthropy: A new report on giving to LGBTQ+ organizations found that, from 2015 to 2019, they received just 0.13 percent of overall philanthropic support but grew their giving faster than non-LGBTQ+ groups during that time. Donations to LGBTQ+ groups increased 46.3 percent, while contributions to non-LGBTQ+ nonprofits grew just 24.9 percent. Researchers ended their study in 2019, the most recent year they could access near-complete tax filings from organizations. The findings come from Equitable Giving Lab, a research project of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy that digs into how philanthropy serves historically marginalized communities.

From Integrated Rural Strategies Group: Foundations are increasingly considering impact investing as a philanthropic strategy to complement their grantmaking and more fully align their philanthropic assets with their mission-based work. Indeed, supporting foundations to “liberate philanthropic assets” is at the core of NFG’s Theory of Change. Impact investing is a powerful tool to do so, and is a focus of praxis within the NFG and Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions foundation CEO cohort program, Philanthropy Forward. 

From The Center for Effective Philanthropy: Across four research studies the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) has conducted in the past two years, we’ve noticed two concerning trends emerge for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Native American nonprofit leaders and communities (trends that we do not see for nonprofit leaders and communities of other races/ethnicities).

This report is co-authored by Ellie Buteau, Katarina Malmgren, and Hannah Martin.

Read the report here.