What It Looks Like When a Multigenerational Family Foundation Makes All Voices Equal
Ade Adeniji | April 13, 2023 Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on the many forms of family philanthropy, in...
We are committed to continual learning about imbalances of power and intersecting forms of oppression in our country. We attempt to address systems of injustice directly through our grantmaking practices and in our internal work. Here are some of the practices we utilize:
We fund organizations within communities that are most directly impacted by systemic and structural marginalization, as well as imbalances of power and wealth.
We fund organizations that empower young people to lead social change in their communities. We do not determine which types of change should be made with our grants. We trust the grantees to determine which issues are most pressing in their communities.
We make multi-year general operating commitments to our grantee partners so that we can work to develop partnerships grounded in trust. Grantees can count on funding and focus on their organizational building and programmatic work. This also allows us to collaborate with grantee partners to develop community-informed grantmaking and refine existing programs.
We offer additional funding to grantee partners engaged in organizational development work, both in the traditional aspects of capacity building, as well as areas such as restorative justice and staff mediation.
Our application and reporting processes are centered around our grantees' needs and are sensitive to their time and priorities. We do not require lengthy applications or written reports. We know that grantee partners are the experts in their work and our role is to learn how to best support them.