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For many nonprofit leaders, relationships with foundation heads, wealthy donors and other philanthropic leaders can be difficult and complicated to manage. Below are 4 lessons that I have gleaned from my unlikely partnership over the years with Larry Kramer of the Hewlett Foundation that might be helpful for these leaders and the donors who want to assist them beyond this current moment of activism. 

Honest Feedback: Respond candidly to philanthropic leadership when they ask for candid feedback about their grantmaking. Many nonprofits are reluctant to be candid because they assume that it might jeopardize future funding. If the request for feedback is not authentic, they were not the right foundations anyway. What do you have to lose? 

Seizing the Moment: Be bold in your ask of leaders. Timidity is not always a virtue. We have countless historical examples of people being in the proverbial right place at the right time. I have another quick example of a philanthropist giving me much more than I expected. It was 2007. I had met the founder and CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, Dr. T.J. Rodgers, in 1998 at a power breakfast for about 500 people at the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara, California. It was focused on the nascent field called STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and how to build a pipeline. T.J. loved the STEM program I had co-founded in 1998 and became an avid donor. When my new board chair arrived in 2006, he suggested that we go back to T.J. to ask for a bigger investment. We created a PowerPoint that described my vision for growing the STEM program. When we got to the part about facilities, T.J. asked me how much room we needed. We were there to ask T.J. to host our upcoming board retreat at his company headquarters, not to ask for space. I had to think quickly and told him just enough to accommodate 60 students in cubicles with networked computers. T.J. said, “I have the perfect space for you at Cypress. I will take care of that. What else is on your list?” Three months later, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony with T.J., other local dignitaries, our STEM scholars and their parents with new laptops, cubicles, storage space and more. We lived at Cypress rent-free from that month until March 2021 when the pandemic shut down the company. 

Position Your Network: Leverage the relationships of those philanthropic leaders. When Larry Kramer asked me to meet with him in Dec. 2013, I agreed on the condition that he would help me. One of my main asks was for a connection with Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. Larry was more than happy to oblige. Who gets a meeting with Darren Walker just like that? I do because Larry paved the way! 

Step into Your Power: Sell your passion packaged in excellence. I take tremendous pride in A Black Education Network’s brand. We strive to always put our best foot forward and have garnered countless awards for this uncompromising commitment to high quality. When I met with Larry, I had a bound, full-color proposal to share with him. Funders appreciate well-prepared people. 

At the end of the day, you are your best salesperson. When I first started in the nonprofit business in 2001, one of the first adages that I learned is that people fund people.  

How you show up will determine whether or not you get funded. I have been blessed to garner dozens of funders who read like a Who’s Who in Silicon Valley and beyond. You deserve to be well-funded. Go for it! 

Debra Watkins is founder emerita and director of strategic partnerships for NCRP nonprofit member A Black Education Network. 

I invite donors to act as boldly as the Black and brown women whose bodies are the front lines of change.   

In Georgia, long before the 2020 elections were part of the national news cycle, Nse Ufot, Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown, Phyllis Hill and many other Black women saw the threat that was coming for their families.   

They activated their vast networks, at first with very few resources to support the work, and they did the slow, tedious work of building a base of everyday people.   

Their successful efforts will reverberate to benefit millions of families. In Arizona and Nevada, Latinas including Alejandra Gomez, Alicia Contreras and Denise Lopez changed the course of history, generating record election turnout numbers.  

Yet still too few foundation dollars are being devoted to centering the leadership of Black and brown women.     

My colleague Aaron Dorfman, president and CEO of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, and I met in 2003 when we were both organizers in Florida.   

In an early conversation about my upcoming book Thriving in the Fight: A Survival Manual for Latinas on the Front Lines of Change, he encouraged me to include a list of tips for donors who want to support the leadership of Latino women. Most of these tips also apply to investing in leaders of color more broadly. 

Here are 7 tips to help you be wildly successful at supporting the leadership of Latinas.   

1. Trust Black and brown women. Nikole Hannah-Jones reminded us in The New York Times’ 1619 Project that “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true.” Black women have been calling our country to live into its fullest self since before we were a country. When in doubt, lean on the wisdom of women who self-identify as Afro-Latina, Black, Indigenous, Hispanic – all women of color who are closest to the community.  These are the people who will continue the fight when no one is looking.   

2. Don’t wait for us to call you. We’re usually overworked and very busy. Reach out to us by phone or text and be willing to talk to us while we’re on the move (or with kid noise in the background). I believe that Black and brown women bear outsized responsibility both at work and at home. We often don’t have the commensurate resources, recognition or room for reflection to get the job done. Yet, we usually get the job done anyway. Sometimes this happens at the cost of our health, psyche, careers and families. That is why it’s critical to deeply invest in our leadership.   

3. Invite us many times. If you reach out to us and you don’t hear back, it’s because we’re usually overworked and very busy. If you invite us to present at a conference and we say no, persist. I know many Latinas who have declined invitations to speak or be honored for their work because of the lessons we’ve been taught about humility and leading from behind without expecting any recognition or reward. It’s also a huge sacrifice every time we leave our chosen families and families of origin to attend ‘extra’ events even if they’re virtual.   

4. When we do call you, we’ve needed your help for a long time. Listen intently to what we need, and do your best to help us out. Sometimes when you are used to doing your work with limited financial resources, it becomes hard to imagine what it would be like to have lots more money. I have watched white women leaders advocate for 3 times the resources as their Latina sisters for the exact same work.   

5. Make it easy for us to access funds. Remember, many of us have complicated relationships with money. When you come from poverty, asking for money is terribly  As an example, instead of asking a close family member for a loan to support my exorbitant Harvard tuition, my parents chose to rent out their house and go live with family, work overtime, deliver Domino’s pizza and damaged their credit. Do your best as a donor to make it simple for us to access resources.   

6. Give us other ways to communicate with you.If you find that we are delaying at the point of the process where we need to submit something to you in writing, it’s likely we worry that our writing isn’t good enough. So instead of sending it over, many of us will wring our hands and avoid. To combat this, consider accepting information in many modalities: PowerPoints, YouTube videos, listening into a meeting via phone, events, phone conversations, newspaper articles, etc. Or, you could even offer to pay for a writing consultant or firm. Remember, worship of the written word is one of the symptoms of white supremacy, so do your best to break down that norm in your role as a donor.   

7. Ask us how we are investing in our own development and consider paying for it in some way. Always take a moment to ask Latinas and women of color more broadly how they’re investing in their own development. So often, women stay so busy doing the work that we put our own needs last. Ask what they’d love to learn but haven’t had time for. Seek additional ways to support the leadership of women. A prestigious K. Kellogg Foundation fellowship includes funds for self-care that can be used for things like acupuncture and massage. Before COVID-19 hit, the Ford Foundation began investing in convenings that can be built around radical self-care. These are the kinds of supports that can rejuvenate Latinas and all women of color. Ask about the organization’s leave and parental benefits policies, and ask how they’re preparing themselves and their employees for retirement. There are many ways to support the development of Latinas. Sometimes we’re too busy to imagine what could be. 

This country is in a moment that requires accountability. I am grateful for groups like NCRP who are calling for greater accountability for donors who are seeking to do the most good. By following these 7 steps, funding partners can help create environments in which women of color thrive. When Black and brown women thrive, we all thrive.  

Denise Collazo is a social justice leader, mentor to fellow women of color and family work integration innovator. She is senior advisor for external affairs and director of institutional advancement at Faith in Action, the nation’s largest faith-based community organizing network. Pre-order copies of her book before February 23, 2021 here. Net proceeds from the sale of the book will go to a fund for Latina community organizers that is administered by Latina community organizers.   

This post was originally published on NCRP’s Medium page.

On Jan. 5, my home state of Georgia made history. Georgians chose to send Rev. Raphael Warnock to Washington, making him Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, the country’s 11th Black senator ever, and the second Black senator from a former Confederate state since Reconstruction. They also chose to elect Jon Ossoff, Georgia’s first Jewish U.S. senator and the body’s youngest sitting member. 

Georgians did what many thought was impossible because grassroots organizers – especially Georgians of color, and most especially Black women – fought tirelessly. They responded to absurd levels of documented voter suppression in 2018 by helping register over 800,000 new voters. And when many of November’s white voters stayed home in January, voters of color showed up. 

On Jan. 6, Georgians’ choice became even more important. Months after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security labeled white supremacist groups as “the most persistent and lethal threat” to the country, far-right terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol in a blatant attempt to stop the legal certification of votes for the presidency. In the chaos, 5 people lost their lives. 

The president, the majority of House Republicans and several Republican members of the Senate incited and emboldened the insurrectionists. Congress and their staff were forced to flee.  

And in the wake of a poorly coordinated and at times sympathetic Capitol Police response, we saw once again how law enforcement so often props up white supremacy and far-right extremism.   

Like Georgia, D.C. has long been my home. As I sat awake in my bed barely 2 miles from the attack, hearing sirens late into the night, I felt in my bones what so many Southerners know: This week wasn’t a surprise. This is America. A country of progress and backlash, Reconstruction and Redemption. It’s a history that rhymes, with many more chapters ahead.  

Our NCRP team has family who have lived through armed civil conflict around the globe, and we know that we embrace American exceptionalism at our own peril. After all, America has suffered a far-right coup before.  

White supremacists in Wilmington, N.C., responded to the 1898 election of a progressive inter-racial coalition by overthrowing the local government and massacring at least 60 people. That coup was successful. It became one of many brutal, anti-democratic acts of terror that laid the groundwork for Jim Crow to flourish long past the end of slavery and into the current day. 

That’s why in moments like these – and there will be more in the days and years ahead – I look home for guidance. Whether our history books acknowledge it or not, the beautiful organizing for justice and liberation in Georgia and across the South has always been there, waiting for the rest of us to wake up, to listen and to join the call with our voices, our bodies and our dollars.  

This is all the truer for liberal white men like me, who are tempted to distance ourselves from whiteness as if we’re one of the special ones, rather than recognizing our complicity in the violence. 

The oppression so often pioneered and refined in the South, like the resistance to it, always shapes the nation. In NCRP’s joint As the South Grows initiative with Grantmakers for Southern Progress, we pointed out that Southern activists have long known how to overcome regressive policies and unjust rules of the game, despite receiving just 56 cents per person in foundation funding for every $1 invested elsewhere.  

So, as we prepare for what comes next, this is a good time to honor the people who have worked for generations to make Georgians’ January choice possible and who will be hard at work long after 2021 ends. Stacey Abrams has a great list to follow.  

Here at NCRP, we want to shout out our own nonprofit members based in Georgia fighting daily for a better future:  

  • Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute – Led by long-time NCRP friends LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, and headquartered in Atlanta, Black Voters Matter needs little introduction. Black Voters Matter increases the power of marginalized, predominantly Black communities through year-round relational organizing, voter registration, policy advocacy, organizational development, authentic messaging and a deep respect of local infrastructure. Black Voters Matter recognizes that Black women are the MVP’s of systemic change and invests accordingly.  
  • Blue Institute – For too long, the staff on electoral campaigns have failed to represent the demographics of our communities. The Blue Institute provides trainings, education and advocacy so youth of color across the South can lead and thrive in progressive politics. When campaign staff of color are compensated and trained at the levels they deserve, fights for public office are stronger, wiser and more effective. 
  • Georgia ACT – Georgia Advancing Communities Together works to ensure that all Georgia families have safe, decent housing in strong, vibrant neighborhoods. As a statewide coalition of nonprofit housing and community development organizations, Georgia ACT combines policy, coalition work and civic engagement to fight for fair, affordable housing for all. 
  • Georgia Appleseed – The Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice is deeply dedicated to justice for all of Georgia’s children, especially children of color, children with disabilities and children experiencing poverty. They combine pro bono legal expertise and top-notch research with grassroots engagement, policy advocacy and nonpartisan civic engagement. This Swiss Army knife approach enables progress on everything from equitably funded schools and healthier homes to juvenile justice reform and access to the polls.  
  • Inner-City Muslim Action Network – IMAN Atlanta has its roots in Atlanta’s West End neighborhood, where they’ve organized for years around criminal justice reform, refugee rights, children’s rights, community arts, mental health and holistic wellness, and so much more. IMAN’s relational organizing and advocacy enables them to work alongside marginalized communities in Georgia to upend structural and systemic barriers at the root of injustice. 
  • Southeast Immigrant Rights Network – With roots in Georgia and North Carolina, SEIRN is an incredible network of grassroots, immigrant-led groups across the rural and urban Southeast. SEIRN promotes collaboration, connection, leadership development, political education and collective action throughout the network. They’re a trusted voice and a much-needed resource to build just and inclusive communities in Georgia and across the South.  
  • Welcoming America – Headquartered in Decatur, Welcoming America fosters inclusive, welcoming communities for immigrants and refugees in Georgia and across the country. They’re well known for their trainings and regional plans with city and county governments. They also have a savvy understanding of narrative and communication and work closely with other organizing partners in the pro-immigrant movement. 

We also want to thank a few local and regional funding efforts that have been in it in Georgia for the long haul: 

  • Grantmakers for Southern Progress – Based in Atlanta under the leadership of Tamieka Mosley, GSP is a crucial resource for any Southern or national funder who wants to invest accountably and effectively in Southern-led social justice. NCRP has worked closely with GSP since our joint initiative As the South Grows, and they provide an incomparable wealth of connection and expertise.  
  • Latino Community Fund of Georgia – LCF Georgia is an all-star when it comes to funding, supporting, and advocating for Georgia’s Latino-led and -serving organizations across the state. They raise and move money, build capacity, amplify the collective voice of this powerful network and ensure that the narrative of Georgia’s Latino, Latina and Latinx communities is rich with beauty and complexity. They also co-host , a local funding collaborative for immigrant justice.
  • Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation – For decades, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation has invested in Southern social justice groups in Georgia and across the South, often providing stable, long-term funding before another funder would. Their shrewd investments are combined with a commitment to bring more foundations to the cause and work alongside marginalized communities to determine their strategies. 
  • Sapelo Foundation – With an abiding belief in a “just Georgia,” the Sapelo Foundation makes grants across the state to protect the environment, build civic power, and create healthy communities. The foundation is also embarking on a mission investing plan to align 100% of its capital with these values. 
  • Southern Partners Fund – Headquartered in Atlanta, SPF provides grants to social justice organizations in Georgia and across the rural South. Their model is all about building power by sharing power: Grant decisions are made with dynamic input from the grantees themselves. They organize year-round, think long-term and respond quickly to crisis.  
  • Southern Power Fund – Created in 2020 by 4 Southern pillar organizations, Project South, Alternate Roots, The Highlander Center and Southerners on New Ground, this fund is moving millions to Black, brown, Indigenous and queer leaders and organizers across the South with brilliant plans for change. The fund is also supported by Grantmakers for Southern Progress and Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ fantastic Out in the South initiative. 

Last but not least, the rest of the South deserves love too. We owe a debt of gratitude to our amazing nonprofit members throughout the South:  

This year will offer us many more choices. Will we honor what’s been sacrificed with words, but move slowly in our actions? Or will we choose that just, more beautiful future faster? For America’s sake, this displaced Southerner prays for the latter.  

Ben Barge is NCRP’s field director. He, alongside Research Director Ryan Schlegel, Senior Associate for Movement Research Stephanie Peng, voting rights activist LaTosha Brown and staff of Grantmakers for Southern Progress and the Institute for Southern Studies were instrumental the creation of As the South Grows. The 5-part series exploring the fundraising challenges and other obstacles faced by those organizing in the South, can be found here. 

Image by John Ramspott. Used under Creative Commons license.

As calls to #defundthepolice reach the budget proposals of local and state decision-makers, we are reminded of the prescient call of NCRP members like the Ella Baker Center. In the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2014, the Oakland, California-based nonprofit started a national campaign that has grown to hundreds of community events in more than 30 cities to reimagine the meaning safety and security.

Ella Baker Center Executive Director Zach Norris, with a community member, at the 2019 Night Out for Safety and Liberation in Oakland. Photo by Brooke Anderson, courtesy of Ella Baker Center.

Ella Baker Center Executive Director Zach Norris (right), with a community member, at the 2019 Night Out for Safety and Liberation in Oakland. Photo by Brooke Anderson, courtesy of Ella Baker Center.

The Night Out for Safety and Liberation was an alternative take on the National Night Out, an effort that started in the 1990s that encouraged vulnerable communities to work together and stand up against violence and crime.

This year, the main sponsors of the event, the National Association of Town Watch has put off the annual August event in light of social distance constraints of COVID-19. While it’s a decision that Ella Baker Center Executive Director Zach Norris generally agrees with, he can’t help but wonder whether the nation’s COVID-19 crisis would be limited if we approached safety “with public health in mind instead of ‘see something, say something’ vision.”

We asked Norris to tell us a little bit more about the National Night Out for Safety and Liberation and what it means to boldly reimagine safety in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the uprisings against police brutality. A much longer written piece about this can be found here.

Elbert Garcia: Why do you think we need a public health safety approach to safety?
Zach Norris: A public health approach to safety recognizes that all of our safety is tied to each other. It is the idea that our overall community health can only ever be as good as the health of our most distressed communities. For example, a public health approach to safety would empower first responders who are trained to deal with mental health issues, drug use and abuse, homelessness and school discipline rather than sending in armed police.

Community members reimagine what safety is at the 2019 Night Out for Safety and Liberation event hosted by Poder in Action in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo courtesy of Poder in Action.

Community members reimagine what safety is at the 2019 Night Out for Safety and Liberation event hosted by Poder in Action in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo courtesy of Poder in Action.

EG: Why is the current National Night Out problematic?
ZN: The vision of safety promoted at National Night Out has been more grounded in fear and suspicion than in this public health orientation. Don’t get me wrong, the spirit of everyday people coming together to ensure their communities are safe is laudable. But the silence of National Night Out event organizers in the face of the exposure of a long history of police violence in communities of color is deafening. The event website does not mention police violence, nor police brutality, nor any statement acknowledging the ongoing trauma police have caused Black communities.

The main message from police to community members is “you are the eyes and ears of the police.” When police promote these messages, they tap into centuries of social conditioning that lead white people as well as people of color to believe that Black and brown people constitute a threat. An overwhelming focus on watching our neighbors with suspicion, rather than seeing them, can be deadly.

EG: What message do you instead want to deliver with the National Night Out for Safety and Liberation?
ZN: At these events, we remind people that they don’t just have eyes and ears, that they also have hearts, hands and minds. We describe the myriad ways and reasons people feel unsafe; restaurant workers who can’t put food on their own tables, transgender women who are afraid to walk out of their homes. We also describe the many ways people contribute to community safety, that mentoring a young person, providing a job to a formerly incarcerated person and participating on the local water or school board are all ways to contribute to community safety.

EG: What are some places that should get funded, instead of law enforcement heavy tactics?
ZN: There are so many viable, effective safety solutions that are under-resourced or nearly unknown. In California’s East Bay, Restore Oakland is a new community center that demonstrates what public safety looks like by making job training, restorative justice and organizing resources available to the public. In Richmond, California, Advance Peace is a highly effective gun-violence prevention effort which can and should be replicated in every city in the country.

Universal health care and child care are also public safety interventions that would help stem the spread of illnesses such as the coronavirus while also providing families with the support they need to help break cycles of poverty, addiction and incarceration.

Click here to read more about Zach’s vision for Night Out for Safety and Liberation

Top Photo: A young boy performs at the 2019 Night Out for Safety and Liberation in Oakland, California, a national event organized by the Ella Baker Center on the first Tuesday of August. Photo by Brooke Anderson, courtesy of Ella Baker Center.

Many of us have been forced to work from home for the first time in response to the coronavirus. NCRP nonprofit member Define American has 11 best practices for organizations dealing with this new reality:

As organizations of all shapes and sizes move online, in an effort to unite around our collective health and safety, we must also remain mindful of the communities we serve and uplift. Many of our organizations balance on-the-ground and digital organizing every day. Moving rapidly to a remote world — hopefully for a short time — does not have to be as daunting as it seems. Define American is an intentionally remote organization and has been since 2013. We have discovered the challenges and benefits of building national movements with distributed teams. As much of the workforce moves to remote working, many have reached out for advice on staying connected and focused while continuing to impact the national conversation in this new era.

Read the entire post here.

 

Over the last several weeks, COVID-19 has further exposed the gaping holes in our social safety net that many NCRP nonprofits work tirelessly to address on a daily basis.

As communities begin to craft solutions to help keep Americans economically and socially afloat during the immediate weeks of this crisis, it’s important that decision makers listen to those closest to ground to ensure that the current crisis doesn’t amplify existing inequitable distribution of philanthropic resources in the nonprofit sector.

Meeting payroll and community needs

Nonprofit members who reached out to NCRP say they are foremost concerned with their ability to stay financially afloat and serve their communities.

Small organizations that are led by members of historically marginalized groups who are dependent on grassroots membership networks are especially worried about coping with the brunt of the increased demand for their work as their face-to-face capacity decreases.

Debra Watkins, founder and executive director of A Black Education Network, points out that unless it is directly addressed, those who have been historically left out by foundations and other grantmakers will bear the brunt of the immediate and long-term economic and social impact of the pandemic.

“There is an old adage that states: ‘When white folks get a cold, Black folks get the flu.’ This virus is wreaking havoc on the world, but it is poor people who are suffering the most,’ said Watkins. “While some non-white-led organizations have been around for decades, they’ve never had the full support to be able to build up their cash reserves. Sadly, that is primarily due to racism in philanthropy. The question for us now is whether we will continue that narrative or have the courage to deliberately create a new one.”

Amy Sausser, director of development at the Advancement Project of California, is grappling with the fact that, as each day passes, so does the chance that additional costs will eat into shrinking revenues. Practically speaking, that means having to worry about losing security deposits for revenue generating events that might be canceled or seriously impacted by the response.

“If, heaven forbid, the virus is still impacting gatherings, we will lose our security deposits,” said Sausser. “I suspect many orgs are struggling with this, especially for events happening this spring.”

Adrianne Johnson, vice president of development for Faith in Public Life, agrees that there is a need for more support to absorb the financial losses that might come from canceling events to non-refundable business expenses like travel or conference registrations.

She and others like Ohio Voice Executive Director Gavin DeVore Leonard are also concerned about meeting grant deadlines and deliverables particularly as it relates to programmatic work that is dependent on person-to-person meeting and organizing. Census outreach efforts face an especially daunting task as small under-resourced community efforts try to pivot quickly to digital or alternative solutions.

“Our core programmatic work – census, harm reduction, voter mobilization and all of our state-based work – is relational. We hold in-person gatherings, meetings, trainings and disseminate information and messages to other people in faith gatherings (church, mosque, etc.),” said Johnson.  “Nearly all of the tactics, not just ours but across the Census Get Out the Count stakeholders, are based on in-person contact either at community gatherings, events or going door-to-door. Even if coordinators and pastors are disseminating information and providing places for people to do the census online at churches, it won’t be impactful if people stop going to their places of worship.”

“We’ve heard concerns about whether funders will hold organizations accountable to goals on programs they don’t feel are safe at this moment, so we’re hoping that funders will come out clearly and ease those concerns to ensure health and safety are put first,” said Leonard. “Our hope is that funders will consider rapid response investments to help ensure field-necessary programs like voter registration, ballot signature gathering, and election protection can still reach goals, as well as resources to aid the transition to digital – hardware like tablets, phones and computers, as well as software, apps and more.”

Tech worries & costs

In additions to staying open, many organizations were struggling with the equipment and training costs of operating remotely and, in some cases, having to digitize their work.

Bambie Hayes-Brown, president and CEO of Georgia Advancing Communities Together, says that one of her biggest needs is around technology. Not only does she need funds to cover everything from laptops and tablets to microphones and web cams, but she also needs money to cover the infrastructure costs for hosting virtual staff and community events.

“We have had numerous meetings and events canceled in Georgia, primarily in Atlanta,” said Hayes-Brown. “We are researching virtual meeting platforms and this past week had to cancel an in-person annual membership meeting. Our budget is taking a hit because of the unexpected expense of having to find a virtual platform.”

For many organizations, some of this tech has been seen as needed, but just simply out of reach. Sausser empathizes with organizations who are now scrambling to pay for additional tech costs that they could never really afford.

“Unlike many organizations, we are well set up for this, “said Sausser. “But if we weren’t, there would be a huge unanticipated equipment and IT consultant costs [to absorb]”

Having the technology to work remotely doesn’t automatically mean that all staff know how to use it in their daily workflow. It’s one thing to attend a webinar, it’s quite another thing to conduct your whole work routine via Zoom. It’s also one thing to work from home if you are single and quite another if you are managing a household that may have several kids attempting to virtually learn.

“We are still looking for resources to help our staff and network adapt in this crisis,” said Johnson. “How will parents with kids at home be impacted and how will our workflow over the next 2 weeks or longer need to shift? Just as important for us is how can we adequately support our network of faith leaders in their advocacy efforts and their mental health as more people practice social distancing and isolation.”

And that’s assuming that everyone literally speaks the same language or has the same hearing or visual capabilities.

“There is definitely a need for training around best practices for creating inclusive, multilingual conference calls and other virtual gatherings,” said African Communities Together Executive Director Amaha Kassa. “Providing this alongside mini-grants for tech needs like teleconference equipment, captioning and premium conference call service instead of freemium options will help ensure that we can continue to communicate and collaborate past the immediate moment.”

What should grantmakers do?

Just like #COVID19 poses the gravest threat to the vulnerable among us, it will have the gravest impact on nonprofit organizations who serve and are led by vulnerable people. As foundations assemble their response plans, they must ask themselves: How many small, under-resourced nonprofits will have the support – financial and otherwise – to sustain an all-remote workforce, to meet the health care needs of their staff and their staff’s families, to cancel events and weather other disruptions to their work for several months?

This is an opportunity for philanthropy to make up for the past. NCRP’s Pennies for Progress report showed how in the decade that ended in 2013, foundation support for America’s marginalized communities grew just 15% as a share of all grantmaking.

Support for long-term change strategies proven most effective at improving the lives of the poor did not increase at all. Among the nation’s largest 1,000 grantmakers, less than half the impressive growth in grantmaking between 2003 and 2013 was directed to underserved communities, and just 1 out of every 10 of those new dollars was for long-term systemic change strategies.

For many members, doing better this time starts with reaching out to your grantees to see how you can support them over the next several months. Reassurance might also mean being flexible around grant deliverables or even allowing funds to be used to cover tech costs and other general operating costs. It might also mean leveraging your community influence to ensure that local government provide the same kind of spending flexibility that sector grants should also provide.

Fortunately, leading foundations are listening and uniting to encourage practical solutions. As NCRP’s President Aaron Dorfman writes with Ellen Dorsey of the Wallace Global Fund, now is the time for philanthropy to give more, not less.

Updated Oct, 7, 2019 to include additional information about the Rikers Public Memory Project and the David Rockefeller Fund’s involvement.

A collaboration between criminal justice reform advocates, storytellers and a pair of funders has birthed a new project to support the growing movement to close New York City’s Rikers Island jail, and serves as a model for how grantmakers can support reparative justice work.

The Rikers Public Memory Project: A Community Truth and Healing Process was started by NCRP member Create Forward, JustLeadershipUSA and Humanities Action Lab to record and make visible the stories of those impacted by Rikers.

The Rikers Public Memory Project arose from the broader #CLOSErikers campaign, a coalition of more than 170 organizations across New York City who demanded in 2016 that Mayor Bill de Blasio close Rikers Island.

For more than 80 years, the jail nicknamed “Torture Island” has been synonymous with violence and corruption.

A  Justice Department report found that a “deep-seated culture of violence is pervasive” at the facility, with corrections staff routinely using excessive force and solitary confinement to control the jail population.

Within a year, de Blasio, an independent commission and everyday New Yorkers alike called for Rikers Island to be closed.

The mayor’s plan to do so still has many contentious steps ahead, but the will to build some kind of a more just alternative is mighty.

The Rikers Public Memory Project will ensure that whatever the future of Rikers Island, the city will not forget its history. The community-based, participatory initiative will answer:

  • What should we remember about Rikers Island?
  • How should we remember Rikers Island?
  • Why should we remember Rikers Island?

The project has 3 core components:

1. An oral history archive of 95 stories, which offers a people’s history of Rikers Island.

2. A mobile exhibit that documents the history and impact of Rikers Island.

3. A public health initiative that will research the public health consequences of Rikers Island on the neighborhoods that have been most impacted in order to make the case for reparative justice and a reinvestment in the communities most harmed.

The idea is to use this process of collective memory as a strategic organizing tool in the movement to close Rikers Island.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation provided the project with a planning grant, which allowed the coalition to get input from community members, form an advisory council and solidify the partnership between the 3 organizations.

In providing the time and resources for the project to better collaborate with this variety of stakeholders, the partners were able to be more intentional in designing the project than they would have been with less flexible funding.  

The David Rockefeller Fund is investing in the building of an oral history archive that will include 95 stories of people impacted by Rikers and the design of a mobile exhibit on the history and impact of Rikers.

The fund has introduced the project to other potential funders and networks and invested in its success beyond the money it has contributed to the collaboration.

This holistic investment in the work means not just that the immediate project is funded. It also provides oxygen for the vision of using a collective memory process to pursue reparative justice beyond the #CLOSErikers campaign. 

Funders interested in similar practices should check out NCRP’s Power Moves sections on sharing power and wielding power.

Troy Price is NCRP’s former membership and fundraising intern. Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

Image by Tim Rodenberg, used under Creative Commons license.

Editor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series of posts featuring NCRP nonprofit members.

The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) will argue to the Supreme Court this month that voters should pick their politicians and not the other way around.

The organization fights structural racism and oppression in North Carolina and across the South through a combination of legal advocacy, community organizing, research and communications.

Its long list of wins have protected voting rights, combatted discrimination in the criminal justice system and advanced more equitable discipline practices in schools.

SCSJ promotes civic engagement for the marginalized

This spring, SCSJ will help represent a mix of organizations and individuals challenging North Carolina’s unconstitutional gerrymandering of its electoral districts.

If they’re successful, it will go a long way toward securing the full participation of communities of color and low-income people in our elections.

But there will still be plenty of work left to be done. Late last year, North Carolina passed a voter ID law that would disproportionately exclude Black and Native Americans, while making it harder for all to vote. SCSJ filed suit minutes after the law was enacted.

Every vote matters to SCSJ. Years ago in the mayoral race of tiny Mount Gilead (population 1,100), poll officials incorrectly told at least 4 long-time black voters they were not eligible to vote. The margin of victory was only 2 votes. SCSJ stepped in and won a new election for the citizens of Mount Gilead.

SCSJ breaks down obstacles for re-entering citizens

Various laws and policies make it difficult for the formerly incarcerated to move past their mistakes.

That’s why SCSJ organized for a “Ban the Box” policy in Durham County that removed questions about previous convictions or incarcerations on initial job applications. Its white paper on the experience is a handy guide for similar campaigns.

SCSJ helps with the “collateral consequences” of criminal convictions, like difficulties finding housing, employment or occupational training.

It hosts clinics with free legal services to help people receive certificates of relief – a judicial solution SCSJ fought for to help eliminate these collateral consequences.

SCSJ helps marginalized kids succeed

The organization also works to make sure people stay out of the criminal justice system in the first place. SCSJ’s Youth Justice Project takes steps to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

SCSJ was an important part of a coalition to raise the age of juvenile court in North Carolina, which was the last state to automatically charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults. That win goes into effect this year.

Youth Justice Project also conducts research on the state of North Carolina’s schools. It published The State of Discipline in NC Schools last year, and puts out regular report cards on how well each of the state’s 115 school districts are doing on racial equity.

Takeaways for philanthropy

Systems change takes time. It’s likely we will still be struggling for voting rights, criminal justice reform, and other means of inclusion and justice for people of color and low-income people years from now.

Knowing this, funders should ask themselves:

  • Do your grantees know you have their back for the long term? Are you supporting them through multi-year funding?
  • Groups like SCSJ are busy doing important work. Are your reporting requirements holding space for only the most meaningful and essential reflection, or are they burdening your grantees with laborious paperwork?
  • If you’re uncertain about your answers to either of the above, take a look at the sharing power section of our Power Moves toolkit. 

Troy Price is NCRP’s membership and fundraising intern. Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

Editor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series of posts featuring NCRP nonprofit members.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) has pushed banks to provide $84 billion in lending and philanthropy for low-to-moderate-income communities and communities of color in the last 2 years.

The organization leverages a 600-member network of community institutions to build equal access to credit, capital and banking services for marginalized people.

But big numbers haven’t given NCRC a big head: All of its work remains grounded in grassroots organizing.

Banks are funding communities they’ve traditionally ignored thanks to NCRC

NCRC was born in 1990 to protect the renewal of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), the landmark bill that outlawed redlining in marginalized neighborhoods.

NCRC continues to pursue a just economy where all can prosper in several different ways. The big-ticket item has been 6 community benefit agreements with 6 different banks the organization has signed since 2016.

These agreements are specific, measurable increases in lending, investments and services for communities that financial institutions have traditionally ignored. For example:

  • Fifth Third Bank committed $30 billion to mortgage lending, affordable housing development, small business loans and more for low- to moderate-income communities and communities of color. It also agreed to open 10 new branch locations to serve these communities.
  • Huntington Bank pledged $16 billion for community development between 2017 and 2022. This bank also committed to opening 10 new branches in marginalized neighborhoods.
  • Louisiana-based IBERIABANK will put $6.7 billion towards mortgage lending, small business lending and community development, with an eye for hurricane-impacted areas.

NCRC takes advantage of public comment periods to get banks to meet with communities

These bank wins didn’t come out of thin air. They’re the fruit of a distinct commitment to grassroots community organizing.

Many of the community benefit agreements arose when the banks were purchasing other banks, during which time the public could comment on the acquisitions.

NCRC saw these openings and burst through the door. They set up more than 200 meetings with community stakeholders with the 6 banks alone.

The organization understands that a large share of a person’s identity is connected to where they live: It’s where they shop, where their friends live and where their kids play.

By seizing on strategic opportunities at the neighborhood level, NCRC is leveraging individual community investment to create systemic financial reform.

NCRC also convenes other nonprofits

The organizations supporting these communities have bought in too. Nonprofits of different stripes, like housing developers, community development corporations and financial institutions, and civil rights and advocacy groups have all joined NCRC’s large network of members.

Every year they convene for the Just Economy Conference and an annual Hill day, where they lobby members of Congress. The conference drew in more than 1,100 attendees earlier this year.

NCRC offers trainings and workshops for organizations that want to study the Community Reinvestment Act or boost their financial service offerings for low- to moderate-income communities and communities of color.

Taken altogether, the community benefit agreements, Just Economy Conference, and trainings and workshops are putting neighborhoods in the driver’s seat of the economic justice movement.

Takeaways for Philanthropy

So what does this mean for philanthropy?

1. When local communities have opportunities, they can hold big businesses accountable.

2. NCRC and its allies have demonstrated an ability to create such opportunities.

3. If funders want to see neighborhoods lead the fight for social change, they should partner with NCRC and its allies.

Troy Price is NCRP’s membership and fundraising intern. Follow @NCRP on Twitter.

Editor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series of posts featuring NCRP nonprofit members.

What would you do if one day your utility company came by and ripped out all of the streetlamps on your block, leaving your sidewalks in total darkness?

When this happened in struggling Highland Park, Michigan, local leaders turned to ioby.

ioby is an online platform that partners with first-time community leaders in disinvested neighborhoods to secure local funding for their project and knock down any barriers that might stand in the way of the project’s success.

By raising the money directly from the communities benefitting from the project, ioby builds in a kind of neighborly accountability. 100% of funds raised on ioby are disbursed to the project leader, not to an incorporated group. This accountability and the leaders’ commitment to positive change helps ioby feel comfortable taking this risk.

Others have clearly bought in too: Everyday people have contributed more than $5 million to almost 1,700 ioby projects – three-quarters of which either directly or indirectly work to dismantle systems of oppression.

Believing in community expertise

ioby’s core belief is that communities are experts in their own experience and are best suited to tackle the problems they face. As long as the idea is legal, community-focused and brought from a community member, ioby is on board.

Many of these projects are quite small, but that doesn’t make them trivial.

Several ioby campaigns have been started by mothers whose young children have died in traffic accidents. The woman who helped bring a new streetlamp to Highland Park had lost her toddler in an unrelated hit and run a few years before, and was galvanized to rebuild her community. She and her partners raised $25,000 with ioby.

Taken together, these small projects constitute a broad, national movement of neighborhood change. ioby’s task is to clear out as many hurdles as possible so this movement can reach its full potential.

More than just a fundraising platform

This process can take on many different forms. At first blush, parts of ioby’s site look a lot like GoFundMe or Kickstarter. But there’s more to it. ioby also serves as a:

  • Fundraising coach who helps craft the campaign, fundraising plan, timeline and budget.
  • Fiscal sponsor that makes donations to a project tax deductible.
  • Networker who can help project leaders connect with volunteers and subject experts.
  • Liaison who can go between the project leaders and local government.

Increasingly, ioby is moving from a transactional platform to a national peer-to-peer network. That way the group behind new solar-powered streetlamps in Highland Park can share their model with another team in nearby Parker Village.

Growing the movement

This year, ioby aims to launch 600 projects. By 2022, it wants to help with 5,000. That would mean tapping into $32 million in otherwise dormant citizen philanthropy and training 45,000 people to raise resources in their communities.

These small projects aren’t only intended to teach digital storytelling techniques in Pittsburgh, fill backpacks with school supplies for kids in Detroit or replace streetlamps in Highland Park. For the majority of project leaders, this is their first foray into civic engagement.

Take Binh Dam. New to Atlanta, he decided to add temporary bus schedules to downtown bus stops and partnered with ioby to raise money for printing 52 schedules.

Empowered by this experience, he became a founding member of MARTA Army, a volunteer group in Atlanta that works with city transit to improve rider experience.

United initially around posting bus schedules at every bus stop in Atlanta, this volunteer network was crucial after Interstate 85 collapsed last year and thousands of new riders entered public transit for the first time.

ioby’s growth and success is igniting new community leaders all over the country.

Next steps for philanthropy

Here’s what philanthropy can do to keep it going:

  • Believe that neighborhoods are filled with people who want to and can transform their communities and invest in them.
  • Support organizations like ioby as they help neighbors organize local resources.

Troy Price is NCRP’s membership and fundraising intern. Follow @NCRP on Twitter.