Philanthropic practice

"Minnesota is known for its lively arts and culture scene, but a strong arts culture doesn’t just happen by accident. It takes loyal audiences and organizations that support the arts," Angela Davis and Maja Beckstrom for MPRNews. "One of the key funding organizations for artists in Minnesota is the Jerome Foundation, a private foundation that's been around since the 1960s. Hundreds of Minnesota filmmakers, playwrights, choreographers, poets and other artists got a boost early in their career through a Jerome Foundation grant."

From Funders' Committee for Civic Participation: The census doesn’t end when the counting stops. Planning for the 2030 Census is well underway. The census has disproportionately undercounted people of color, immigrants, young children, and low-income households, among others. Ongoing engagement from philanthropy—to convene, educate, advocate, and invest—is critical to help ensure that Census Bureau policies and operations center the insights and lived experiences of historically undercounted communities.

From Justice Funders: In 2020, philanthropic institutions in the U.S contributed over 13 times the amount of money to extractive global stock markets as they did to all of their grantmaking focus areas (Source: Climate Justice Alliance).

In response to this horrific imbalance of capital allocation in philanthropy, movement and philanthropic leaders came together to develop a Just Transition Investment Framework that offers a strategy for how philanthropies can shift capital and power to frontline BIPOC communities who are building local regenerative economies.

From Philanthropy Together: Sara wants to invite you over to dinner at her house. In this loud, chaotic, loving environment, Sara shows you how to build power in your community through the power of collective giving. In the process, Sara and her friends – along with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide – are part of a global giving circle movement ushering in a new era in philanthropy that is diverse, democratic, and joyful.

From USC Norman Lear Center Media Impact Project: Interest in narrative change approaches has been increasing over the last several years in the advocacy and philnathropic worlds. 

With support from the California Health Care Foundation, the USC Norman Lear Center embarked on a learning project to:

From Nonprofit Quarterly: "At GEO’s 2022 National Conference, hosted in partnership with Forefront, grantmakers and other practitioners had the opportunity to come together in Chicago, Illinois to explore challenges and uncover solutions with fellow grantmakers who are continuing to lean into transformational change in order to create a just, connected, and inclusive society where we can all thrive.

"At United Philanthropy Forum’s 2022 Annual Membership Meeting on July 19, 2022 in Seattle, WA, the Forum’s membership elected five new members to the Forum’s Board of Directors for three-year terms," which include GIA President Eddie Torres.

From authors Shaena Johnson and Marni Rosen for The Katalay Foundation: "Participatory grantmaking can be a powerful tool to center the experiences and expertise of people who have deep knowledge of the issue areas in which grants are being made. It is also a process that comes with unique needs for support. Foundations that are engaging with participatory grantmaking must be aware of how their institutional practices do — and do not — set participants and grantees up for success."

"There is no denying that over the last three years our world has been fundamentally reshaped by a worldwide pandemic, urgent climate collapse, widening inequality, rising authoritarian threats, and increasingly violent reactionary culture backlash," said Richael Faithful for Peak Grantmaking. "The peril of this moment is defined by precarity of many of the systems, norms, and order that we have known. It is an inherently stressful time. The fact is that as our world has been reshaped, we—as people—have been, too."

Media Impact Funders hosts the Member Briefing, "Recommendations for documentary impact funders," on May 24 at 1pm ET. The hour-long zoom meeting features Denae Peters (Perspective Fund), Daniel Forkkio (Represent Justice), and Shaady Salehi (Trust-based Philanthropy Project). It is open to all funders.