Thank you for registering for the Small Family Workshop, June 15, 2023. Please watch for login credentials two days before the event, with a link to the pdf book of funders and code for a free trial of the Access Philanthropy database of funder profiles
Native American Funding
Inside Philanthropy Sites Six Funders (including 2 Minnesota Funders) As Stand Outs in Native American Funding
Inside Philanthropy reports Native Americans represent 2.9% of the U.S. population and receive just 0.4% of philanthropic support. But, according to the Funding Map at Investing in Native Communities, that’s improving.
The map is a data visualization application developed by Candid in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy. It launched three years ago and averages 5K visits per week.
According to the Funding Map, six foundations stand out:
- Ford Foundation provides funding for a wide range of organizations that support Native Americans, including specific support to Indigenous land protection
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation has made grants to several Native-focused orgs, including Native Women Lead, which works to improve pay equity for Native women
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds a range of Native American causes that tackle issues like food and housing insecurity, unemployment, and poor healthcare, and- in one case- to restore Lakota language and traditions
- Northwest Area Foundation directs 40% of its annual grant dollars to supporting Native-led organizations, with funding focused on efforts that produce good jobs, thriving businesses, and restructured systems to strengthen Native communities
- NoVo Foundation has provided $110 million to 362 organizations since 2016 (the most current data is from 2019). The Foundation has been thinking about/planning new funding priorities, though
- Bush Foundation started issuing Native Nations Investment Reports in 2017 that review its investments in the 23 Native nations in MN, ND, and SD. Among its support: improving the juvenile justice system in Ramsey Co.; working to restore the buffalo population on an SD reservation; and addressing the racial wealth gap across the region. Also a funder for the Funding Map.
7 Mistakes New Philanthropic Foundations Make
Kris Putnam-Walkerly writes in her “Confident Giving” Newsletter: “Drawing from my conversations with thousands of foundation leaders, spanning 23 years, here are seven prevalent missteps. By paying attention to these mistakes, you can avoid them and ensure your foundation’s success.”
- Being stuck in overwhelm
- Restricting your potential through a mindset of scarcity
- Letting it go to your head
- Assuming you have all the answers
- Operating without a strategy
- Failing to hold yourself accountable
- Not seeking help.
New Terms: 2023
- This guide from Disability: walks through the general dos and don’ts when interacting with individuals who identify as disabled
- The term “meanwhile spaces” refers to disused sites leased or loaned for a certain period of time by the public sector or developers to local community groups, art organizations, start-ups, and charities. These sites may be vacant or under-used shops, buildings, open spaces, or land. Temporary contracts allow community groups, small businesses, or individuals to pursue economic activity at below-market rates to generate social value for the neighborhood and its inhabitants
- According to stylist.co.uk, Diversity Dishonesty is hiring a ton of diverse people, putting diverse people on company photographs and advertising assets, but not valuing them in the organization, and then gaslighting when the issue is raised
People are turning away from the most common term, “homeless,” in favor of alternatives like houseless, unhoused, unsheltered, each one has a slightly different meaning.
“Generosity Experience” is your new term for the online solicitation process, as in How to Design a Magical one on Your Nonprofit’s Website
The Communications Network (the association of grant maker communications people) has a dedicated website directed at how foundation and nonprofit communicators can improve racial equity through their work.
The site includes tools to craft relevant messaging that centers diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the results of the 2019 survey of DEI experts. Some of the findings:
- The terms “race” and “racism” rarely appear in organizational DEI definitions, even for organizations focused on justice and equity.
- Respondents rated their organizations’ staffs as more diverse than their boards, and their boards as more diverse than their senior leadership.
- Less than half (42%) of respondents said they had a strong understanding of DEI concepts.
- Over half (57%) saw the impacts of implicit bias present in social good communications.
- Almost half (46%) recognized unintentional reinforcement of stereotypes and an overall lack of understanding of what language should be used in racial equity messaging.
- About one-fifth (21%) of respondents said there was a lack of support for DEI initiatives within the organization.
BIMPOC – Black, Indigenous, Multiracial, People of Color. This more inclusive term is becoming more popular in philanthropy trade journals
Third Places – Read the Walton Family Foundation’s opinion piece on funding “third places,” including non-work and non-home places, commercial and public indoor places like bars, restaurants, cafés, barber shops, beauty salons, museums, and libraries, as well as outdoor places like trails and bike paths.
Latine – There’s a growing debate about the use of “Latinx” as an all-inclusive term for people of all the folks who used to be included in “Hispanics” and “Latinx”. We each get to choose our own names.
Canopy Gap and Tree Grief – The Star Tribune recently had a piece on how poor neighborhoods have so many fewer trees and shrubbery than wealthy neighborhoods. Evidently, there are some very serious problems when we don’t have enough trees which we call “canopy gaps” or “tree grief”.
Virtue Signaling – Another old term that’s resurfaced – Mostly intended for corporations or powerful people, “virtue signaling” implies actions taken only to improve their moral reputation. In the early 1990s, it was overused by folks who were pointing out politicos or businesses who did something that looked great that was also hugely visible. It’s back and for good reason.
Revisiting Capacity Building and Strategic Philanthropy – One of my favorite opinionators, Sara EchoHawk, wrote a nice piece for Nonprofit Quarterly in 2019 on “capacity building” and how many funders use “strategic philanthropy” as code for “overly prescriptive grantmaking”. Both capacity building and strategic philanthropy are back in style. Maybe it’s good to think what each term really means.
Narrative Change – We debated whether to put this item here, in the Toolbox section or the Survey Says area. Narrative change is a becoming more popular as a distinct and successful tool for advocates and human service people alike. Critical Race Theory and Climate Change stories are two key examples of narrative change. This report, Funding Narrative Change, defines terms, delineates benefits (e.g., funders want to learn), and provides “how to” examples. An important read for people who need to open minds.
Small family foundations workshop guest registration
Date: June 15, 2023
Time: 1- 4 PM
Where: Virtual (live)
Register Below
Now in its 11th year!
Small family foundations are defined as giving less than $1M, annually. More than 1,000 of these foundations support Minnesota nonprofits.
The Small Family Foundation Workshop is a three-hour Virtual Live/Online Event with Access Philanthropy president Steve Paprocki.
Steve will deliver information and insight on Small Family Foundations that fund in MN: What they are funding. What they want from you, and how to approach them – first steps, strategies, and building relationships.
This event includes:
- A complementary pdf book of 100 funder profiles
- A downloadable Powerpoint presentation
- 2-week Free Trial of the Small Family Foundation funder profiles
What Past Workshop Attendees Had to Say:
“Steve had a lot of great knowledge and expertise that really helped me understand the position and thinking of small family foundations.”
“I am always impressed with Steve’s (and his team’s) depth of knowledge of the various foundations.”
“Wide ranging content!”
“The best part was learning the nuances of connecting and maintaining relationships with small family foundations.”
“I liked the encouragement to keep it simple and keep going! Be personal.”
“I like getting the booklet of information on small family foundations, and the conversations about how to gain the attention of small family foundations and maintain a relationship.”
“Everything was valuable. I enjoyed listening to and learning the details of each family foundation, including their priorities, giving history, and background on the individuals who run them.”
“The book and the verbal info about specific foundations is pure gold, saves so much research time.”
“I took lots of notes, which to me is one sign of a worthwhile webinar.”
Small Family Foundation Workshop Guest Registration
Edgar Villanueva, CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital had a problem with the request for pluralism, published in an op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy in April. The authors* asked for readers to stop expecting foundations and philanthropists to pledge allegiance to narrow sets of prescribed views.
Villanueva’s letter to the editor, titled “Debunking the Myth of Philanthropic Pluralism” (April 26, 2023), begins by saying “the idea that philanthropy’s biggest challenge is divisiveness reflects a level of fragility that impedes social-justice work.” He has plenty more to say about that. Link to the letter.
*Op-ed authors:
- Kathleen Enright, Council on Foundation President
- Sam Singh Gill, Doris Duke Foundation President
- Darren Walker, Ford Foundation President
- Brian Hooks, Stand Together Chairman
- Elise Westhoff, Philanthropy Roundtable President.
Diversity in Philanthropy: Are We Making Any Progress? 2022 DAPP Insights
By Laura Wilson
This spring, CHANGE Philanthropy released the 2022 Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals (DAPP) report, the third iteration of a wide-reaching survey originating in 2018. The DAPP report provides a much-needed snapshot into the diversity of grantmaking organizations in the United States. In February, I attended a webinar to get the author’s perspectives on the findings. Read the full report here.
An overview of the survey results is included beneath the graphic. My takeaways? The philanthropy sector has made some positive strides in diversity over the past four years to be certain. Women are slowly inching their way to men-dominated supervisory and board roles. Disability and Indigenous representation are also on the rise.
However, there are still holes, primarily centering around a workplace’s perceived safety to marginalized communities (specifically those with disabilities, uncertain immigration status, and LGBTQ+ identifiers). If the coordinators of this survey are able to reach more foundations that fill out the statistical weaknesses, this report will become even more valuable as a diversity snapshot tool.
Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals Survey Results |
||
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77 Foundations (38% decrease from 2020 Survey) |
2,199 Individuals (8% decrease from 2020 Survey) |
43% Response Rate (9% decrease from 2020 Survey) |
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LGBTQ |
Disclosure of Disabilities |
People of Color |
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Only half of LGBTQ people working in philanthropy are out at their workplace |
More than 9 in 10 of people with a disability in philanthropy are not out about their disability to all or most of their co-workers |
43.2% people of color
|
This year’s survey reached 77 organizations (with 48 returning from the previous 2020 DAPP) with a 43% response rate—a decrease from the 2020 survey which reached 124 organizations with a 54% response rate. Nevertheless, this year’s DAPP reveals important information on the state of diverse philanthropy, particularly concerning people with disabilities and non-heterosexual sexual orientations.
The first major shift noted by the report’s authors was a significant increase in people identifying with a disability. Those responses “nearly doubled over 2020 findings, from 12.6% (n=302) in 2020 to 34.2% (n=509) in 2022” with the majority of that increase attributable to an increase in mental health disabilities.
However, with that increase, disclosure of disabilities in the workplace still remained quite low: more than two thirds. All other identities surveyed saw some manner of increase in disclosure over the cumulative six years of the DAPP survey.
The authors noted a rise in the use of “decline to state” and “multiple” identities” in both the disabilities section as well as the sexual orientation section indicating increasing complexity and cross-sections among identities.
Other shifts include a drastic increase in the percentage of Indigenous individuals serving as board members (1.3% in 2020 to 6.6% in 2022). There was also an increase in women in supervisory staff roles—a 10% increase from 2020.
Notable categories that remained steady include the number of LGBTQ+ identifying people who remained “in the closet” at work and the selection of “decline to state” category when referring to immigration status (remaining near 12%).
In terms of type of foundations, across most sectors, public funders lead the way with the most diversity in all roles with the best POC, genderqueer, and disabled representation. Corporate funders reach the top with the best representation of people born outside the US. Left behind in second and third are community and private organizations.
During the webinar, the authors acknowledged there are clear data weaknesses when it comes to organizations in the south and corporate organizations (out of 77 total foundations, five were based in the south and three were corporate) that may skew the gains or losses of both categories. In their survey distribution for the 2024 DAPP, they hope to reach more organizations that fit these descriptors to get a more accurate picture of geographic and organization type trends.
Graphics from the report
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