The hard work of achieving racial justice is beginning anew.
Many nonprofit and foundation leaders took a brief pause after Derek Chauvin was convicted on Tuesday of murdering George Floyd so they could strategize and heal after nearly a year of trauma.
But as our colleagues Alex Daniels, Maria Di Mento, Olivera Perkins, and Nicole Wallace reported this week, continued pressure from activists and strong foundation funding for organizing and activism will be key to building on the protests that ramped up public pressure for Chauvin’s punishment.
Vangela Wade, CEO of the Mississippi Center for Justice, told Nicole that she knows the fight for racial justice has been hard and long and some people think they can take a break now. “But we can’t. That’s how we got to this point in the first place, because we stopped. We went through the civil-rights movement and the movements prior to that, and we stopped. Many of us became complacent.”
Foundation support will be vital, said activists and experts on criminal justice.
“This work takes people, it takes resources, it takes a lot of different things,” Rashad Robinson, head of Color of Change, told Nicole. “We have to continue to do the work to attract people who want to stand with us, who believe change is possible.”
Nick Turner, who heads the Vera Institute, told Maria he especially hopes that the legacy of the Floyd case will be new funding that leads policy makers to change the nation’s policing system.
“In the past five or six years, we’ve seen big swings in institutional and individual philanthropy towards justice reform generally, addressing mass incarceration, bail reform, issues like that. But in that context, policing has largely been one that has really remained unattended to,” Turner said.
He added: “We’re seeing the wins in deeper investment, and the advice for philanthropy today is, yes, we understand you’re a little bit wary about policing, but it’s not going to change without substantial investment and durable investment.”
The Floyd murder renewed attention not only to criminal justice but also to the question of who decides where philanthropic funds should go as foundations seek to do more to improve the lives of marginalized people.
Alex Daniels this week took a look at one foundation that is using both grants and investments to boost groups in areas that have been shut out of the economic mainstream — and then make sure any investment returns stay in those neighborhoods.
The $445 million Kataly Foundation, co-founded by Hyatt Hotels heiress Regan Pritzker and her husband, Christopher Olin, does that largely by financing small organizations led by people of color, an approach not often taken by foundations.
More unusual is the way it is working to distribute all its assets in the next decade and do that in ways that help grantees and the people they serve build wealth and power. “I’m interested in using philanthropy as a vehicle to build power outside of philanthropy,” says Pritzker.
