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I’m sad to report that Niki Jagpal, NCRP’s senior director of research and policy, has decided to move on and seek new opportunities. Yet I’m excited to see what she’ll do next and what new contributions she will make to help build the progressive movement this nation so desperately needs.

Niki was my first key programmatic hire as I began rebuilding NCRP. She joined the team late in 2007, shortly after the board adopted a new strategic plan.

Niki is the primary author of Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact, which remains one of NCRP’s signature publications. Criteria caused a real stir in philanthropy when we released it in 2009. The 18 months Niki, I and the board spent developing it were incredibly intense. We were attempting to synthesize 30 years of NCRP’s work, and the best research available in the field, into a relatively easy-to-follow set of benchmarks and recommendations. Paul Brest, then CEO of the Hewlett Foundation, widely circulated a critique of Criteria. But the publication succeeded beyond our greatest hopes in sparking debate in the sector about what matters most. And despite his critique, Brest acknowledged that in Criteria “NCRP makes the most comprehensive case I’ve seen for what might be called ‘progressive’ or ’social justice’ philanthropy.”

Niki was the lead on our incredibly popular High Impact Strategies in Philanthropy series. We produced five reports in that series from 2010 to 2013. The first four reports were intended for issue-specific audiences of education funders, health funders, arts and culture funders, and environment and climate change funders, respectively. Each report was authored by an external thought leader, working under Niki’s guidance. One report from that series, Fusing Art, Culture and Social Change, authored by Holly Sidford, is still being used and talked about nearly five years after its release. The series culminated in a piece that Niki co-authored with Kevin Laskowski titled Real Results: Why Strategic Philanthropy is Social Justice Philanthropy. Real Results synthesizes lessons from the first four pieces and argues that to truly have lasting impact, those who practice strategic philanthropy must adopt some of the approaches traditionally used in social justice philanthropy.

More recently, Niki co-authored both reports in our two part series about how to break down silos in philanthropy. Smashing Silos in Philanthropy: Multi-Issue Advocacy and Organizing for Real Results makes the case for the importance of funding multi-issue grassroots organizing, noting the crucial role those groups often play in advancing particular issue campaigns. Cultivating Nonprofit Leadership: A (Missed ?) Philanthropic Opportunity explores the importance of investing in leadership.

Niki curated last year a special issue of our quarterly journal, which focused entirely on implicit bias in philanthropy. That issue of Responsive Philanthropy is one of the most popular in recent years, and we’ve received feedback that grantmakers and others found it helpful to their work. For example, Philanthropy New York asked her and Dr. john powell to lead a training for its members and key stakeholders. Other regional associations have also requested staff training in tackling implicit bias.

Niki was the staff lead as NCRP sought to evaluate the impact of its work. She worked closely with Jared Raynor of TCC Group to help TCC produce rigorous evaluations in 2010 and again in 2014. Each has been essential to our strategies and implementation of our work.

At conferences, webinars and other public forums, Niki always represented NCRP excellently. Those of you who have co-presented or attended events she was at know that her passion for social justice and the progressive movement is impossible to miss at these forums.

Her commitment to ensuring that the movement have excellent new leaders is evident in her mentoring of several newer movement members, including current and former NCRP staff.

The list of Niki’s contributions to NCRP could go on and on. She did amazing work for us, and we will miss her. Please join me in thanking her for her service to NCRP and to the field. Feel free to add your own stories or notes of appreciation in the comments section.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of NCRP.

Early this month, progressive changemakers gathered together at the 2016 NCRP Impact Awards reception to celebrate the inspiring work of this year’s awardees: Consumer Health Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Patagonia and Sandler Foundation. The stories of these grantmakers encourage all of us to continue fighting for improving the lives of the underserved and underrepresented, and to be bold and fearless in this struggle.

The featured articles in this edition of Responsive Philanthropy highlight the continuing efforts of others in philanthropy who are taking up the challenge head on.

In “Join us on the leading edge of social change,” Roz Lee of Arcus Foundation, shares the story behind the Global Trans Initiative, a newly launched partnership with NoVo Foundation to promote acceptance and understanding of transgender people and improve their quality of life. She invites other foundations to look through a “prism” to see how a variety of issues such as health care, poverty and employment intersect with the challenges faced by transgender communities nationwide.

Ed Cain of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation writes about the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals and how these intersect with the work of numerous foundations across the country. In “Why U.S. foundations should take the global Sustainable Development Goals seriously,” Cain highlights how the SDGs apply to the U.S. and the chance to move the needle on the critical issues that grantmakers are tackling.

Next, NCRP’s Yna Moore had the opportunity to interview Geri Mannion of Carnegie Corporation of New York. In “How national foundations can support state-level policy and civic engagement,” Mannion shares her thoughts about the biggest challenge facing the country this election year and the role of capacity building in supporting civic engagement. She also offers practical tips for funding state-level efforts to change policy and engage communities.

And in “Learning what worked to support women and the community organizations that serve them,” The New York Women’s Foundation’s Erin McDonald and Elizabeth James share lessons from the RISE-NYC! initiative. They identify key “dimensions of impact” and offer three specific recommendations for other foundations that seek to effectively partner with underresourced grassroots organizations and the communities they serve.

Finally, we highlight the work of the National Housing Resource Center in “Member Spotlight.” This Philadelphia-based nonprofit mobilizes the housing counseling community to advocate on affordable housing and credit issues.

We hope that you find this and other editions of Responsive Philanthropy useful resources for your work. I encourage you to share this journal with your colleagues and invite them to do the same.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from NCRP Executive Director Aaron Dorfman’s keynote speech to the 2016 Central Minnesota Nonprofit Summit, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits on May 5, 2016. Read the entire speech here.

In the short time we have together this morning, I promise you two things. My first promise is that you’re going to get mad, maybe even really mad, about how, in spite of the noble efforts of many, there is still a chronic under-investment in rural communities by the vast majority of our nation’s grantmaking foundations. My second promise is that I’ll suggest a handful of ideas about how we can all help turn around this terrible situation.

It’s no secret that outside America’s cities people are faring worse than their urban counterparts. Rural Americans are more likely to be poor on nearly every measure. Rural children are poorer, rural senior citizens are poorer, rural single mothers are poorer, and rural people of color are poorer. One in five children in rural America are living in poverty. One in three Black Americans in rural areas is living in poverty. Nearly half of households headed by a single mother in rural America are living in poverty. And perhaps the most distressing statistic: fully 85 percent of the counties designated by the USDA as “persistently poor” over the last 30 years are rural counties. We know this is just the tip of the iceberg. The rural poor are likelier to have less access to healthcare, to quality education, to fulfilling work, to healthy food and to all the other opportunities that contribute to economic mobility and general well-being. Nowhere are those conditions worse than in places with concentrated, decades-long entrenched poverty. The Great Recession reversed the trend of improving rates of poverty in rural areas. To put it bluntly: Our rural communities are being left behind in an economy and a political environment that has not prioritized their needs.

And what are the nation’s grantmaking foundations doing about it? Sadly, not much.

In fact, we face chronic under-investment in rural communities by philanthropy. The philanthropic community could help begin to address the challenges in rural American but hasn’t. It is an issue that is important to many of you who work in rural Minnesota, and one that NCRP has been calling attention to for years. Unfortunately, since we released our report Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue from Within in 2007, very little has changed. The philanthropic sector continues to neglect rural communities. A changing national economy, entrenched racial inequity and foundations’ reliance on a strict interpretation of strategic philanthropy has meant philanthropic resources for rural communities are few and far between, just when the opportunities for change are most urgent. This has to change if we want to see progress on the issues we all care about.

So how much funding do rural organizations get from foundations? Not very much. A previous study by NCRP found that only about one-half of one percent of all foundations in the U.S. make any grants that even have the word “rural” in the grant description. That means that 99.5 percent of all foundations make zero grants where the word “rural” is in the grant description. A rigorous study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture released in 2015 estimates, generously, in my opinion, that about 6 percent of all grant dollars given by U.S. foundations primarily benefit rural populations. Six percent might sound not too bad until you consider that 19 percent of the U.S. population resides in rural areas. My sense, and I think other observers agree, is that the amount of funding for rural communities has probably been declining in recent years, in spite of some much publicized conferences on the subject sponsored by the Council on Foundations.

…

As the editorial board at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Gazette put it, “There’s a compelling case to be made … that answers to some of our biggest collective issues – climate change, clean energy and global food security – will be found not in a city center, but farther afield.” Our rural communities are full of potential. I know it, and you know it. It’s time for the philanthropic sector to realize it, too.

Keep reading.

Aaron Dorfman is NCRP’s executive director. Follow @NCRP on Twitter. Read the entire speech here.

This piece first appeared on The Huffington Post’s Impact Blog on December 3, 2015.

Congratulations to Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan on their new baby girl, Max, and on their enormous charitable gift to launch the new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). By now everyone has heard that the Chan Zuckerbergs announced they will give away 99 percent of their stock in Facebook during their lifetime to the new philanthropic initiative, a sum currently valued at $45 billion, and which will likely grow much larger in the decades to come. Their generosity and commitment to putting their billions to use while they’re living sets an impressive example for other people of great wealth.

In an open letter to his daughter, Mark expressed that that he and his wife will be following an approach to philanthropy consistent with best practices that the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), which I lead, and others have been promoting for decades. These include making long-term investments in social change, engaging with the people and communities served to understand their needs, participating in public policy debates and advocacy, and taking big risks on visionary social change leaders.

But this is not enough to ensure that the billions in charitable giving from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will actually solve the tough issues they outlined in their letter: to advance human potential and promote equality. To succeed and have maximum impact, I offer five pieces of advice:

1. Be a serious funder of advocacy and community organizing – The Chan Zuckerbergs have already stated their intention to support policy and advocacy work. They should make it a cornerstone of their charitable giving and learn from other funders who have successfully invested in these high-leverage strategies. To be successful, the CZI must elevate and amplify the voices of those affected by injustice in debates about policy solutions. It must listen to marginalized communities and fund advocacy that speaks to their experiences and empower the oppressed to determine and implement the policies that will improve their lives. Zuckerberg is right that too many philanthropists hesitate to engage in advocacy, and his letter’s mention of building movements for change is heartening. The CZI must follow through.

2. Share power – The CZI isn’t yet fully formed, but initial reports indicate it will be controlled entirely by Zuckerberg himself, and his letter makes clear the priorities will be set by him and his wife. However, for the family’s philanthropy to truly achieve its goals of advancing human potential and promoting equality, power must be shared. Concentrating authority in one person can lead to social change work that is nearsighted, narrowly focused and ultimately ineffective. Zuckerberg is no longer just the CEO of a multi-national corporation whose bottom line is his top priority. His work at the CZI will deal with important issues that affect everyone in society in profound ways. He must be willing to share his power with issue experts, philanthropic veterans and community leaders if he wants to effect long-term change.

3. Be transparent – American philanthropy has long been the target of mistrust from the public it serves, largely because philanthropic institutions concentrate power and money in private hands for public work. Philanthropists betray the public’s trust and undercut their important work when they fail to be forthcoming about their goals, strategies and means. The CZI chose a very public birth – in more ways than one. We hope transparency is a core value throughout the Initiative’s life. Because the CZI is incorporated as an LLC, Zuckerberg is allowed to be totally un-transparent if he wants. He should avoid that impulse and share openly with the public. He should share at least as much as would have been required by law if he had chosen instead to form a private foundation.

4. Learn from your mistakes – This isn’t the first time the Chan Zuckerbergs’ philanthropy has made headlines. In 2010, the family donated $100 million to Newark, New Jersey’s struggling school system, a generous effort that has been largely marked a failure. The gift didn’t create the transformational new teacher employment structure they had hoped for because the effort ignored the public policy reality in New Jersey that made it almost impossible to radically change teacher contracts. It didn’t seed a vibrant, equitable charter school ecosystem in the city because Zuckerberg and his partners ran roughshod over community desires and needs. And it alienated grassroots activists, parents and teachers by channeling $20 million of the gift to expensive consultants while failing to follow through on promised teacher merit pay. Zuckerberg ought to remember these mistakes, and work to ensure the CZI doesn’t repeat them.

5. Use a racial equity lens – Racial injustice is entrenched in the United States (and in many other countries where the CZI might work), and a movement is building to reckon with the structural racism that endangers and impoverishes communities of color. The CZI must incorporate a racial equity lens in their work to advance human potential and promote equality or its efforts on both will ultimately fall short. A failure to recruit and retain people of color has been an issue at Facebook for years; this blind spot must not be carried over to CZI’s work. It’s notable that the open letter announcing the gift never once mentions race.

The Chan Zuckerbergs welcomed new life into their family recently, with all the excitement and anxiety that comes with it. Like their daughter, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has terrific potential to do great things during its lifespan. I hope the Chan Zuckerberg family approaches their ambitious philanthropic endeavors with as much care and compassion as they undoubtedly will their new role as parents.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Ryan Schlegel, research and policy associate at NCRP, contributed to this article. Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

CC image by Neeraj Kumar.

Who doesn’t like innovation? In fact, this message was made possible by the revolutionary inventions that many of us are so dependent on these days: electricity, computers, email … internet!

Knight Foundation is well-known for its embrace of risk and innovation. From its challenge grants to pursuing new media technologies, it shows other foundations the rewards of supporting those groups and ideas that are not the usual suspects.

But as noted in our latest Philamplify assessment, “John S. and James L. Knight Foundation: Can It Look Beyond #ShinyBrightObjects and Do More to Promote Equity?” innovation without a targeted benefit can be problematic.

Here are a number of our findings:

  • Knight does not have clearly articulated goals and strategies, nor does it explicitly state a commitment to equity, leaving many of its constituents guessing about its intended impact.
  • More than a quarter of Knight’s grant dollars are intended to support marginalized communities, but this number has been declining over time.
  • Constituents’ perspectives of the foundation as a partner vary greatly, from glowing to frustrated.

Knight collaborates extensively and has had notable impact on many arts and culture, urban planning and revitalization efforts around the country. And it is helping journalism survive in the digital age. But it can do more to boost its impact.

We urge Knight Foundation to:

  • Keep embracing risk and innovation, especially through its challenge grants.
  • Have explicit goals and strategies for each program area and explain how innovation will lead to long-term systemic change.
  • Make an explicit commitment to increase grantmaking that benefits and engages marginalized communities, and describe how Knight seeks to advance racial and other forms of equity.
  • Communicate clearly to grantees and applicants about how and when the foundation uses general operating support, capacity building and multi-year funding to achieve impact.

Read about our full findings and recommendations now.

What do you think of our findings and recommendations? Agree or disagree, and comment on the report. Also, don’t forget to take our latest poll and share which foundation you think we should Philamplify next. Remember, you can do all these anonymously!

Together, we can provide foundations with the feedback they need to help make this world a better place for all.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter and join the #Philamplify conversation.

Have you ever spent time with men or women who are incarcerated? When I was growing up, my mother served as the chaplain at the women’s prison in Shakopee, Minnesota. Getting to know the women and their stories helped me realize at an early age how horribly misguided and unfair our nation’s criminal justice system is. More than 2.3 million Americans are incarcerated, and our system is particularly unjust for people of color. Recently, I’ve been encouraged by the growing intersectional criminal justice reform movement, with campaigns to reform policing, prosecution policies, reentry opportunities and more. While it cannot cover the entire breadth of the subject, this edition of Responsive Philanthropy is a special issue devoted to what philanthropy can do to support these efforts.

In our cover story, the Common Counsel Foundation’s Alex Saingchin and Project Linked Fate’s Connie Cagampang Heller provide a framework for understanding criminal justice reform in “Building the Road to Belonging: Three Ways Philanthropy Can Help End Mass Criminalization.” By telling the story of the Ban the Box campaign’s growing success, Alex and Connie share a map for grantmakers to support the movement.

Next, in “The South and Criminal Justice Reform,” Grantmakers for Southern Progress’s LaTosha Brown discusses the regional outlook on criminal justice reform in a conversation with Niki Jagpal, NCRP’s senior director of research and policy. The interview touches on the changing culture in the South, the economic impetus for prisons and more.

In “The School-to-Prison Pipeline’s Role in Criminal Justice Reform,” Kyle Bacon draws on his years of experience in after-school programming to explain how our schools push many young people from school to jail. He explains how putting students and families most at risk at the center of creating intervention programs is key to their effectiveness.

Janay Richmond, field associate at NCRP, discusses the financial realities behind mass incarceration in “Following the Money: Why We Must Divest from Mass Incarceration.”

Black Benefactors’ Amoretta Morris brings in the perspective of the Black Lives Matter Movement in her op-ed, “Moving Money, Making Change: Funding the Movement for Black Lives.”

Our Member Spotlight looks at Faith in Florida, a PICO National Network affiliate working to unite communities of faith to advocate on systemic racial and economic issues, such as rights restoration for formerly incarcerated individuals.

The issue also provides key terms about mass incarceration and a resource list sharing criminal justice reform funders.

As always, we hope Responsive Philanthropy is a useful resource for everyone in philanthropy. We are always trying to improve – let us know how we’re doing at readers@ncrp.org.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

Why am I so excited to announce the release of our latest Philampify assessment, “The Kresge Foundation: Will this Bold Grantmaker Become the Next Great Social Justice Foundation?”

Let me count the ways …

  • Kresge Foundation fully embraces risk, and teaches other grantmakers that it’s never too late to change.
  • It exceeds most of NCRP’s criteria for effective social justice philanthropy to address systemic issues like poverty, health and climate change, demonstrating how foundations can prioritize the needs of underserved communities and find equitable solutions across many program areas.
  • The foundation uses a multi-disciplinary approach to their work, showing how breaking down issue silos can be beneficial for both foundations and the communities they serve.
  • It has shown a commitment to learning and improving their work by being open to feedback, and encourage other foundations to follow their lead.

Don’t get me wrong … our assessment also showed that Kresge can do more to meet its full potential. We urge the Kresge Foundation to:

  • Incorporate racial equity explicitly in all operations and strategies.
  • Prioritize collaboration with neighborhood and nontraditional leaders in Detroit.
  • Increase overall spending on staffing and grants to meet its ambitious goals.
  • Increase mission investing and divest from fossil fuels.
  • Continue to be a public leader, but also provide a platform to its grantees and partners.

Read about our full findings and recommendations now.

Our Philamplify video on Kresge shows how the foundation is supporting PUSH Buffalo, a grassroots community organization in upstate New York that’s working to prevent sewage-contaminated water runoff from flowing into the Niagara River. PUSH Buffalo also combines resident organizing, affordable housing, jobs and climate resilience to revitalize a low-income neighborhood it calls the “Green Development Zone.”

What do you think of our findings and recommendations? Agree or disagree, and comment on the report. Also, don’t forget to take our latest poll and share which foundation you’d think we should Philamplify next. Remember, you can do all these anonymously!

With your help, we can provide foundations with the feedback they need to be more effective partners of nonprofits and communities in making this world a better place for all.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter and join the #Philamplify conversation.

Today, I’m proud to announce the release of a new white paper analyzing social justice philanthropy among family foundations, building on NCRP’s Philanthropic Landscape series. Families Funding Change: How Social Justice Giving Honors Our Roots and Empowers Communities explores the trends in social justice grantmaking from family foundations, and makes the case that family funders are uniquely equipped to fund equitable, long-term systems change work. It is our hope it will provide valuable insight for family funders into the challenges they may face when they consider adding a social justice lens to their work.

The numbers are in!

  • Between 2004 and 2012, unfortunately only 9 percent of grant dollars from family funders was categorized as being for social justice purposes, including support for grassroots advocacy, community organizing and public policy change work.
  • Family foundations lag behind the sector as a whole, which gave 14 percent of its total grant dollars in that period in support of social justice efforts.

Some foundations, however, encounter challenges when they consider a shift to strategic social justice grantmaking. Foundation size, location, type and issue focus can all add hurdles to a foundation’s path toward socially just philanthropy.

USEFUL TOOLS TO START SUPPORTING SOCIAL JUSTICE

Funders Funding Change includes useful tools and tips for foundations that are ready to boost their impact:

  • A discussion guide for grantmakers: Seven key questions to consider when developing strategies, recognizing perceived barriers and solutions to overcome them.
  • Profiles of family foundations: Recognizing that each family foundation will find a different entry point to invest heavily in advocacy, organizing and civic engagement, learn from three different family philanthropies that went through the process of explicitly deciding to engage in social justice work: Hill-Snowdon Foundation, the Needmor Fund and the Surdna Foundation.
  • Additional resources: A handy list of resources to help family philanthropies understand the nuts and bolts of how to effectively incorporate a social justice lens into their work.

Social justice grantmaking is an important aspect of many family foundations’ strategies. Funders such as Unbound Philanthropy, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and the Melville Charitable Trust all gave more than half their grant dollars as social justice funding in the nine years surveyed.

Family foundations are in a unique position to leverage their reputational and financial capital for systemic reform. I encourage you to read the report, engage with your families and peers to discuss the findings and join the conversation on our blog and social media. Check out Families Funding Change and start the discussion in your organization!

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter and join the #FamiliesFundingChange conversation!

I am extremely pleased to announce that NCRP elected four exceptional new nonprofit leaders to its board of directors yesterday. The new directors include:

Bill Dempsey has 25 years of experience managing innovative social change organizations that empower low-income families and working class communities to advance economic and racial justice. He co-founded CtW Investment Group, which advises public and private sector pension funds sponsored by unions affiliated with the Change to Win Federation. He also previously worked for the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock and Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Cristina Jiménez was recently named among Forbes’ “30 under 30 in Law and Policy,” one of “21 immigration reform power players” and one of five nonprofit leaders who will influence public policy by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She has spent the past nine years organizing immigrant youth and workers to pass pro-immigration policies.

In her role at Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock, Molly Schultz Hafid is responsible for managing the organization’s program and leadership within the broader philanthropic sector. She is the lead author of a recently published article in Foundation Review on how eliminating budgets can improve due diligence and increase the value of grants. Additionally, she plays a leadership role in Funders for Justice, a coalition of funders formed recently to advance racial justice.

In addition to his work making child well-being a civic priority in the St. Louis region at the Deaconess Foundation, Rev. Starsky Wilson has been a pastor at Saint John’s Church (The Beloved Community) in St. Louis since 2008. In 2014, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Rev. Wilson co-chair of the Ferguson Commission to study the underlying conditions and make policy recommendations following the police shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. The commission released its findings and recommendations earlier this month.

The board also voted to make board member Vivek Malhotra, director for equality and justice at the Ford Foundation, the new treasurer on the board’s executive committee. Chair Sherece West-Scantlebury, Vice Chair Gara LaMarche, Secretary Priscilla Hung and At-Large member Cynthia Renfro were all re-elected to the executive committee.

Meanwhile, board Treasurer Judy Hatcher, and board members Marjorie Fine and Ana Garcia-Ashley have stepped down from their positions. Everyone at NCRP is thankful for the passionate leadership and commitment to responsive philanthropy Judy, Margie and Ana demonstrated as members of the board. Their efforts have made NCRP a better and more effective organization. We will miss them.

Stay tuned to our blog for forthcoming reflections from Judy, Margie and Ana on their experiences as members of the NCRP board of directors. A complete list of NCRP’s current board of directors and brief biographies are available on our website.

Aaron Dorfman is executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Follow @NCRP on Twitter.