Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Post

Notwithstanding my clumsy physics analogy, what do you think? How is this affecting your work? How would you like to see Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) hold space for conversation and action on this topic? "Newton’s Third Law of Motion says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This immutable relationship between physical objects makes productive activity like forward motion by walking, swimming, tires rolling or wings flapping possible. Depending on the makeup of the two objects that are interacting with each other, it can also have destructive results, like a wrecking ball meeting a wall of bricks and mortar, a windshield meeting a flying bug, or much worse. (I was definitely not a science major, by the way.) Does this law hold for society and our interactions as people? It seems like some actions get no reaction at all, while others get reactions that are wildly out of proportion. Maybe some of the action/reaction dynamic is tied up in the long arc of the moral universe that Martin Luther King Jr spoke of. Maybe with each action/reaction event over time, the moves toward justice go just a little farther than the moves away from justice, bending that arc whether we can see it from our current vantage point or not. Philanthropy and the nonprofits you support are grappling with the implications of this summer’s Supreme Court decision limiting the use of race-based factors to achieve greater racial equity in college admissions. The effects of this decision will reach every area of society where affirmative action policies have begun to disrupt, if not repair, structural inequities. I wonder whether the USDA anticipated this decision when it evaded the efforts of groups like the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to fight the legal challenges to the Black farmer debt relief program in court last year, when they swapped it for a race-neutral debt relief provision in the Inflation Reduction Act. It makes me think about the way the Third Law of Motion, the equal and opposite reaction, operates with the First Law of Motion, which most of us know as inertia, that says an object will keep moving until a force works on it to stop it. In the action of a pendulum, the swing in one direction is countered by the reaction of the force of gravity to bring the pendulum back towards the center, eventually slowing the back-and-forth movement to smaller and smaller increments until the pendulum is still. The distance of reaction swing stops a little bit short of fully matching the previous one, slowly bringing the forces into equilibrium, unless a new force pushes the swing further. How far will the actions of society, of nonprofits, of philanthropy, of your organization, go to counter this most recent reaction? How far will our actions go to dampen the counterattack, the reaction swing, and, despite what feels like a setback, continue pushing that arc just a little bit more towards justice?"

I'm proud to have co-authored this op-ed in today's Chronicle of Philanthropy with PRE executive director Lori Villarosa and fellow PRE senior fellow Gihan Perera. In the past few months, we've been hearing an alarming number of stories from grassroots leaders and program officers being pressured to obfuscate or constrain racial justice grants in response to far-right attacks on everything from affirmative action to diversity. These trends "have enormous consequences and represent an extreme overreaction by philanthropy to a Supreme Court decision that had nothing to do with them. ... Grant makers need to draw a clear line between inoculating themselves against attack and giving up at the first serious challenge. ... The most important question to ask isn’t 'How can we protect ourselves?' but 'What are our values?' Supporting people of color as they pursue freedom and self-determination should top the list." https://lnkd.in/gEmcTmeY

Acknowledging that philanthropy and its grantees can unintentionally perpetuate systemic racism and implicit bias, AFN supports our members and partners in actively addressing racial bias in the philanthropic sector through several initiatives. One initiative is a "Shared Language Glossary". This is a glossary of terms to promote shared language within our network. Too often, work around racial equity is confusing and misunderstood because the terms we use mean different things to different audiences. Explore the Glossary today: https://loom.ly/E-ZiPXY

Can philanthropy competitions be equitable? 🤔 YES 🙌 We believe we provide a rare opportunity for organizations, particularly those with proximate or BIPOC—Black, Indigenous, and people of color—leadership, to compete based on their potential for impact rather than access to a funder’s network. Learn more about our approach in this Inside Philanthropy penned by our CEO: https://lnkd.in/gF5q6At

Just as the racial wealth gap persists, so too does the racial funding gap. Structural racism and implicit bias within philanthropy limit the amount of power and resources allocated to the work led by people of color, even though this is where our resources could have the greatest impact. AFN's Realizing Economic Justice's (REJ) Funder Guide, On the Road to Racial and Economic Justice, helps asset funders expand their commitments to racial and economic justice and offers a shared framework for action. READ MORE: https://loom.ly/Kzpgebw #RacialWealthGap #EconomicJusticeForAll #Philanthropy #Funders

A timely Op-Ed from the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity team. As always, their insight is spot-on. "Grant makers need to draw a clear line between inoculating themselves against attack and giving up at the first serious challenge... Grant makers who claim to advance racial equity while using hyper-cautious race-neutral language and censoring grantees’ protest signs are giving up before they’ve even lost. Instead, they need to deepen their defense of equity and justice, following the lead of foundations that have remained committed to explicitly supporting specific racial groups. The most important question to ask isn’t “How can we protect ourselves?” but “What are our values?” Supporting people of color as they pursue freedom and self-determination should top the list." - Lori Villarosa https://lnkd.in/etPACQAV

During Black Philanthropy Month, AFN would like to bring focus to an initiative of our Realizing Economic Justice platform: Equity Amplifier (EA). EA is a series that highlights organizations focused on building economic security/asset building in communities of color. EA enhances philanthropy's ability to amplify the voices of organizations led by people of color, reduce systemic biases and barriers within philanthropy, and encourage AFN membership to broaden and deepen their commitment to supporting economic security and asset building strategies that target diverse communities. The Equity Amplifier Directory (EAD) helps connect grantmakers with diverse organizations and communities in their region. This searchable directory leverages the connections of the AFN network to expressly highlight AFN member grantees focused on building economic security/asset building in communities of color. Learn more about Equity Amplifier and the EA Directory: https://loom.ly/J48nChw #funders #philanthopy #changemakers #AssetFunders

**NEWS FROM THE FIELD** ABFE Presents Two-Part Workshop Series for Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities Framework ABFE’s Responsive Philanthropy in Black Communities Framework represents a unique opportunity to make the SDG framework more relevant and urgent. You are invited to hear how staff, trustees, and donors representing diverse funders from across the country are applying the SDGs to advance a bold racial equity agenda. Part 1 of the series will cover foundational knowledge of the UN SDGs and its parallels with ABFE's RPBC Framework, including implications for racial equity efforts. This session will feature Dr. Helen Bond, co-chair of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN USA). Part 2 of the series will allow participants to see how the SDGs can be applied in their respective organizations, using two community foundations as case studies. Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4aa3rf8

Can philanthropy competitions be equitable? 🤔 YES 🙌 We believe we provide a rare opportunity for organizations, particularly those with proximate or BIPOC—Black, Indigenous, and people of color—leadership, to compete based on their potential for impact rather than access to a funder’s network. Learn more about our approach in this Inside Philanthropy penned by our CEO: https://lnkd.in/gF5q6At

Watch the complete video of our President and COO, Diallo Smith, alongside other panelists in the full discussion "How Justice Demands Are Changing Philanthropy Dynamics" at the recent Mackinac Policy Conference. https://lnkd.in/gabsk__4