Foundations aren’t helping anyone if they’re not serious about social justice
Philanthropy needs to become more diverse and fund fight for political change
The National Interest: Once a month, this column is tackling broader questions about what the country should do about gaps in achievement and opportunity, especially for boys of color, in a partnership with The Root.
There are wealthy, white philanthropists in every city saying they want to change urban education, but few are able to save their own organizations from whiteness. That’s because few funders are serious about social justice. And taking their money erodes the seriousness of those who take it.
What makes an organization serious about social justice? Show me the board members, executive staff and the grant recipients. They better look like the public school students they allegedly serve.
Funders are not the experts – communities are. Nonprofits that take money from wealthy donors who aren’t serious about taking on the values of the communities they fund are a major reason why the rich continue to hold on to more power than they deserve while urban schools stay in reform mode.
“Funding practices that get in the way of infrastructure-building for social change need to be confronted,” the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) says in its new “ten-year strategic framework.” Translation: black and brown people must resist people who give money to our causes but aren’t really down for our struggle. But let’s not be quick to label people sell-outs. The problem is less about who takes money as much as it is about who gives. The NCRP framework is meant to guide philanthropic organizations in how to Foundations aren’t helping anyone if they’re not serious about social justice - The Hechinger Report:
