As 2024 comes to a close, much of the nonprofit world is focused on the backlash against those leading the fight for racial equity, including legal threats targeting race-conscious funding. But there is danger in focusing only on the pushback and not the success that inspired such intense opposition: It robs us of the opportunity to continue to build upon the wins.
Toni Morrison once wisely said that “the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.”
So that is where we find ourselves at this moment.
Black Lives Matters co-founder Alicia Garza, now a senior vice president at the Freedom Together Foundation (formerly the JPB Foundation), put it this way in a recent conversation with fellow criminal justice activist Brittany Packnett Cunningham:
“There have been a lot of victories. We have changed the landscape of this country and everything that it thought it was. That is why we are experiencing what we are experiencing right now. Because we were so successful in changing people’s hearts and minds around race and gender and class, the people in power wanted their power back. So that’s what they’re doing — a power grab.”
This isn’t to say we can ignore the very real threats. More than ever, organizations leading the work on racial equity need philanthropy to wield their full power — financial resources, voice, influence, legal support — to block the oncoming blows. Philanthropy also needs to stay mindful that those blows are felt disproportionately by organizations led by and focused on people of color, trans people, and women.
The assignment, then, for this current period of pushback is to push forward — to reward the wins by continuing to do the work. As we close out the year, let’s make a sectorwide New Year’s resolution to remain undaunted, determined, and dedicated to the long-term work that equity requires.
To live into that idea, Bridgespan recently released a special collection, “Building a More Equitable Future,” designed to help philanthropy and nonprofit leaders push forward in their commitment to advance equity. In releasing multiple pieces at once, our intent was to show that the ambitious work of building an inclusive and more equitable world demands enormous attention. Individual pieces in the collection are intended for distinct audiences — leaders at the forefront of movements for equity and justice, DEI professionals, donors trying to make sense of what it means in practical terms to advance equity in their organizations.
Retrenchment Isn’t an Option
Although the project was in the works long before we knew the results of last month’s election, it feels especially necessary now. The next four years will be full of harm, full stop. Pushing forward is even more urgent because retrenchment is an indulgence we can’t afford. John Palfrey, CEO of the MacArthur Foundation, made that declaration plainly in his open letter in June confirming the foundation’s commitment to racial equity: “This is not a time to step back from the pursuit of racial justice, and we do not intend to do so.”
Certainly contending with pushback will be challenging. A new report from CFLeads, a national network of community foundations, and the Public Equity Group, lays out those challenges — and the strategies for addressing them. The research found that “most community foundations working on equity issues have experienced some form of pushback” — a sobering statement in and of itself. But despite such pushback, community foundations also managed to attract new donors, partners, and board members while focusing their efforts on racial equity. A remarkable win.
Of course, saying that equity and impact are linked is not an ideological statement but a giving strategy that simply follows data showing that some of the largest disparities in life outcomes can still be traced to race and are often exacerbated by gender. In just one example, consider that infants of white women with a high school diploma or a GED have lower mortality rates than those of Black women with a master’s degree, law degree, or Ph.D.
Words Matter
I’ve heard from those working in philanthropy circles that during this time of backlash, some donors are now saying they find the phrase “structural racism” triggering. Hearing that, a Black friend quipped: “Try living under structural racism — how triggering is that?”
Indeed, if we can’t even name the problem anymore, how can we be expected to fix it, much less empathize with those harmed? Navigating in such an environment takes a toll on leaders of color and allies trying to push forward. Admittedly, I have found myself wasting time, just as Toni Morrison warned, contemplating alternative word choices for structural racism in my own writing.
Cornell University historian Lawrence Glickman studies retrenchment and writes that the first time the term “backlash” really took hold was in 1963, when white resentment of the Civil Rights movement became palpable. While we might think of backlash as a fundamental tool of efforts to maintain the status quo, he found that progressive movements have repeatedly been constrained by their own fear of setting off backlash. Hence, my undaunted, determined, dedicated call to action for the sector.
To fuel the journey ahead, here’s something I heard this summer from Amardeep Singh, vice president at the Proteus Fund, at a gathering of leaders of color in philanthropy: “We need to develop a culture that is not weighted by where we’ve been but liberated by where we are going. What would it mean if our American identity was not bound by a shared past, or desire for a shared past, but a shared destination — a shared future?”
As we step into the New Year, I invite all of us to build on the wins and push forward to embrace that shared future.
