The original question in the title of this article (reposted below) is “Can Philanthropy Make Black Lives Matter?” Our reaction at TWI is that philanthropy alone probably cannot wholesale shift hundreds of years of institutional racism and prevalent cultural attitudes. That would take an intersectional, coordinated set of movements from all sectors. We do believe…
For the past ten years, TWI has explored bringing people together in authentic, unconferencey ways. In early October, we are bringing together over one hundred partners for a weekend of “trust in practice.” As we turned our attention toward this convening, I reviewed the feedback and lessons learned from last time. I came across…
We at TWI are in full agreement with Vu Le‘s recent post about 12 Things Funders Do right. In fact, many of the 12 show up on TWI’s own compendium of 9 Practices of Trust-based Investment. In a side by side comparison, it’s clear that respect, transparency, partnering in a true spirit of service, feedback…
Recently I found myself around a table of philanthropic leaders in California, many seasoned funders who’ve funded social change and civil rights for years – if not decades. We were gathered around the compelling question of how to support the emerging and powerful movement(s) for racial equity that have gained so much prominence nationally. The…
I ended my most recent post by saying I thought the field of philanthropy would benefit by hearing more from small foundations about how they practice grantmaking. Shortly thereafter I was directed to a monograph that strongly underscored that point. Trusting What We Don’t Know by Maribel Alvarez is both an insightful reflection on philanthropy…