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Join your peers to learn more about the Disability & Philanthropy Forum and the Disability Inclusion Pledge in a session facilitated by Sarah Napoli, Learning Services Director for the Forum. Current signatories will share their progress as pledge signatories and how the Disability & Philanthropy Forum can support your journey to implement accessibility in your work. This is a great opportunity to come with questions if you are interested in becoming a pledge signatory or are a current pledge member. This will also offer some informal learning on disability fundamentals and allow space for Q&A.
This session is a part of our Grantmaker Toolkit Series in collaboration with The Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, New York Funders Alliance, Florida Philanthropic Network, Wisconsin Philanthropy Network, Maryland Philanthropy Network, Philanthropy West Virginia, Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia, and the North Carolina Network of Grantmakers.
The Disability & Philanthropy Forum mobilizes philanthropy to dismantle ableism by increasing funding for disability inclusion, rights, and justice; amplifying the leadership of disabled people in the philanthropic sector; and educating philanthropy to build a culture of inclusion.
Speaker: Sarah Napoli is the learning services director at the Disability and Philanthropy Forum. From 2019-2023, she acted as the lead disability inclusion project officer within the people and culture Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity team at Open Society Foundations (OSF), where she developed and facilitated disability inclusion learning and embedded proactive disability inclusive practices throughout the global network. In addition to OSF, she has over 20 years of experience teaching and conducting training on social justice and advocacy in higher education and nonprofits, most recently as the director for the inaugural Center for Inclusion at Manhattanville College and as the assistant head of Goodricke College at the University of York, England. She specializes in facilitating engaging workshops and designing curriculum that challenge and encourage participants to foster a culture of inclusion.
She holds two MA degrees, one in social justice in intercultural relations from the SIT graduate institute and one in applied human rights from the University of York. She identifies as a proud disabled person and enjoys chatting about Geek culture—all things fantasy and sci/fi and her former life as a hip hop researcher and dancer. Her research on how hip hop creates human rights identities was recently published in the University of Michigan press text, For the Culture: Hip Hop and the Fight for Social Justice.
She has conducted workshops and training all over the USA and in the world, including Japan, Guatemala, throughout Europe, South Africa, and Canada. Click here to read Sarah’s story, “The Disabled Mindset: Embracing My Disability Identity.”
Cost: Free for CNJG Members; $50 for Non Member Grantmakers
Foundation leaders have a unique opportunity to serve as powerful champions of their missions. Partnering with your grantees can amplify your impact. The following guide is designed to help you start having an honest conversation in the boardroom; a conversation about your foundation’s goals, approach, and, most importantly, vision for the future.
Food is essential. But how often do you consider where your food comes from?This issue of What Funders Need to Know from the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers explores the stages of the food system, from production all the way to disposal. Why is this important to philanthropy?
Because hunger, food insecurity, nutrition-related chronic disease, the health of resource lands and waterways, wages, and equal opportunity in the food economy all converge in our regional food system.
For 2024, CNJG will help promote Change Philanthropy’s Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals survey. This differs from CNJG’s own demographics survey that we just completed in 2023. While ours asked one person to complete the demographic profile, Change works with organizations to have staff and board self complete the survey resulting in more accurate results as it’s anonymous. It’s a better way for individuals to relay their identities. Then Change also is working to share this data right with Candid for their Demographics Via Candid project, which Craig/CNJG were considering deferring the demographic survey to in 2026. DAPP is done every two years, so the next time this will be done will be in 2026 when CNJG is scheduled to do our benefits survey again.
CNJG encourages our members to participate and complete CHANGE Philanthropy’s 2024 Diversity Among Philanthropic Professionals (DAPP) survey.
How do I/my organization participate?
Only grantmaking institutions can sign-up. This survey is designed to specifically assess foundations, grantmaking institutions or intermediaries whose primary work (over 75%) is dedicated to grantmaking. Individuals, consulting firms, or nonprofits who don’t primarily award funding are not eligible to participate.
Each participating foundation commits to sending a brief survey link to their staff and board. The survey is completely anonymous and confidential so no single respondent will ever be identified. Participating foundations will receive survey dissemination instructions, communications templates, and an organizational specific dashboard.
Sign up for the 2024 DAPP here.
What is the DAPP?
The DAPP Survey and Report aims to help the philanthropic community better understand its workforce and leadership. While grantmakers have a number of resources to assess what issues, geographic areas, and populations are being supported by grant dollars, there is far less data on who works in the field of philanthropy.
The DAPP report is a landmark tool for analyzing the philanthropic sector’s ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, helping grantmakers accurately assess the culture and climate of their institutions, and provides a temperature gauge for progress toward a more inclusive sector.
About the DAPP
The DAPP is unique in that it solicits anonymous, self-reported information directly from individuals working in philanthropy. The Reception of Identity Index (RII) is a first-of-its-kind form of sentiment analysis that provides insight into the feelings and experiences of survey participants related to their institution’s response to various identity factors. The seven-minute survey allows respondents to self-identify their race, national origin, age, gender expression, sexual orientation, and disability status, and perception of safety, well-being, and happiness in their workplace.
SMU DataArts’ online platform and proprietary survey protect the data of individuals while collecting detailed information. In addition, respondents may choose to skip any question in the survey. SMU DataArts will create a workforce report for each institution that receives enough survey responses to meet a statistically significant response threshold.
How does this differ from CNJG’s demographic survey that we completed last year as part of the benefits survey?
The DAPP’s data is collected through self-reported means, unlike CNJG’s data (which is still a good, valid, and valuable data set) that was reported by one person at the organization. The DAPP also collects different and valuable information, including the Reception of Identity index. Depending on how many CNJG members we can get this year to complete the DAPP survey, CNJG may discontinue our demographic survey, which has been part of our Benefits Survey, and rely on the DAPP going forward.
Who is CHANGE Philanthropy?
CHANGE Philanthropy is a coalition of philanthropy-supporting organizations working together to strengthen bridges across funders and communities. CHANGE Philanthropy is transforming philanthropy from within by building knowledge, fostering diversity, and creating connections. CHANGE Philanthropy and CNJG are both members of the United Philanthropy Forum, a network of nearly 100 philanthropy-supporting organizations.
Participation and Benefits
• Participating grantmakers commit to sending a brief survey link to their staff and board. The survey is completely anonymous and confidential so no single respondent will ever be identified.
• Participating foundations will receive survey dissemination instructions, communications templates, and an organizational specific dashboard.
• Participating in this study can help your organization better understand the diverse makeup of your staff, board, and volunteers to remain relevant to and representative of our changing society.
• If you have ten or more staff and board participating and reach statistical significance to meet SMU DataArts’ threshold for anonymity, you qualify for a free aggregate summary of the demographics of your institution.
• As with previous DAPP surveys and reports, individual responses are completely anonymous and confidential. The findings will only ever be reported on in aggregate form.
• The report includes recommendations from the CHANGE partner organizations on how to support your staff and deepen connections to communities.
• Drawing on the aggregate findings, CHANGE Philanthropy will produce a series of reports and infographics on the demographics of the philanthropic workforce.
• If CNJG members (and nonmembers) help recruit 500 individual survey participants (staff and board) from New Jersey, CHANGE Philanthropy will provide CNJG will a detailed infographic of findings in the state.
Important Dates
• 2024 DAPP Recruitment Period January 10 - March 15
• 2024 DAPP Survey Period April 14 - May 24
• 2024 DAPP Reports Quarter 4, 2024
Important Links
• DAPP Landing Page
• DAPP Mailing List Sign Up
• Frequently Asked Questions About the DAPP
• DAPP 2022 Report
• DAPP 2020 Report
• DAPP 2018 Report
For any questions, please contact Craig Weinrich, CNJG’s Director of Member Services, or email Tenaja Jordan, Research and Communications Director, CHANGE Philanthropy.
Adopted by CNJG”s Board of Trustees in October 2023, these eight Principles offer philanthropy a source of direction for their own equity journey. Each principle begins with a common understanding followed by developmental steps, and the aspiration for each principle. These principles are intended to promote continuous learning, vulnerability, and reflection for how philanthropy can evolve from its historical roots to a more trusting, accountable, and equitable model.
When considering how to improve health outcomes for low-income individuals, most people think about providing access to good medical care and keeping the cost of that care as low as possible. What people rarely think about is the connection between good health and quality affordable housing.
Adopted by the CNJG Board of Trustees October 20, 2023
Each principle begins with a common understanding followed by developmental steps for members beginning to look at these principles as well as the aspiration for each principle. These principles are intended to promote continuous learning, vulnerability, and reflection for how philanthropy can evolve from its historical roots to a more trusting, accountable, and equitable model.
The principles include:
1. Ethical Leadership
2. Stewardship
3. Values
4. Equity & Justice
5. Community Engagement
6. Public Voice
7. Continuous Learning
8. Transparency & Accountability
1. Ethical Leadership
Understand:
We believe that ethical leadership is required to build and maintain community trust in philanthropy. This is achieved through adherence to laws, good governance and community- informed decision-making.
Begin:
We serve our partners and communities in a way that engenders trust. We adhere to all applicable laws and take seriously our fiduciary duties. In order to maintain trust, we seek to continuously improve our governance, decision-making processes and organizational culture.
Aspire:
We actively engage the community in our governance and decision-making, balancing donor intent and community need. We strengthen community trust by including new and diverse voices on our governing bodies and decision-making teams.
2. Stewardship
Understand:
As philanthropic entities established for charitable purposes, we operate with a privileged tax status. We recognize that, in addition to money, foundation assets include investments, relationships, human resources, connections and networks, knowledge and expertise, and stature.
Begin:
We recognize our roles as funders, employers, economic entities and community members. Through each of these roles, we use the wide range of assets held by philanthropy to create positive benefits and impact with our communities.
Aspire:
We use all of our assets to build equity and strengthen communities, as defined by the communities, themselves. We use all available tools such as values-based investing, impact investing and giving beyond any minimum requirements, to generate community benefits.
3. Values
Understand:
Having clear and transparent goals, missions and values allows us to be purposeful in philanthropy and facilitates accountability with communities and stakeholders.
Begin:
Our missions and goals are clearly stated and are transparent to the community. We hold ourselves accountable to them. We periodically examine our missions and goals for relevance, impact and alignment to our values.
Aspire:
We seek to understand and incorporate the values of our stakeholders and the communities we serve into our missions, values and goals. The community participates in examining our mission, values and goals for relevance, and holds us accountable to them.
4. Equity & Justice
Understand:
We recognize two truths. Philanthropy is created to promote the welfare of others. Our commitment to equity requires us to dismantle disparities in access to power, money and resources. At the same time, philanthropy is a system that is built on historical structural inequities and systemic racism. These inequities create a resource gap and power differential between philanthropy and the community.
Begin:
We are in a unique position to promote equity and justice. We seek to understand how intersectional inequities and racism manifest in our philanthropy and our communities. We work to become anti-racist individuals and organizations. In order to advance equity and justice, we listen to the community, honor their story and rely on their lived experience to inform our grantmaking.
Aspire:
We acknowledge our privilege in resources and resulting power. We commit to increase power sharing with our community, especially with communities that have been historically marginalized. We believe in trust and shared power in decision-making, which increases community access to philanthropic resources. This increases equity and makes progress toward dismantling racism and eliminating systemic inequities.
5. Community Engagement
Understand:
Philanthropy works best when it builds long-term community relationships rather than focusing on short-term transactions. Positive impacts increase when we hold mutually respectful, direct relationships with the community. As a result of community engagement, philanthropic efforts become more relevant and donors/grantors more accountable to our community.
Begin:
We listen to the desires of the community and we interact with the community in culturally appropriate, meaningful and respectful ways. We engage in continual and reciprocal listening and learning, cultural curiosity and humility. In our relationships, we respect the community’s time and resources and strive to give more than we receive.
Aspire:
We take time to understand our relationships with the community, align our aspirations and actions, and adjust our work, as needed. We solicit community critique and feedback. We strengthen our grantmaking through power sharing, joint decision-making and funding of solutions defined and led by the community.
6. Public Voice
Understand:
Philanthropic organizations and individual donors enjoy power and influence that we must use responsibly, both individually and collectively, for the greater good. Our public voice augments our grantmaking to demonstrate partnership in communities and to advance our goals.
Begin:
We form our public voice by listening humbly to those with lived experience on issues we seek to influence. We use our collective voice to share knowledge, educate ourselves and others, and impact change on issues that advance equity and strengthen our community.
Aspire:
We amplify the voice of communities that have been historically marginalized. We use our collective voice to impact change in public policy and public opinion on issues important to our communities. We use our resources to amplify community voices and support grassroots organizing and advocacy.
7. Continuous Learning
Understand:
We have unprecedented access to information from local and global sources including science, research and community networks. Our communities offer rich information about the human impact of policies and resource distribution. We are obligated to use various information sources to actively learn and strengthen our practice and allow for vulnerability and openness to the evolution of our work.
Begin:
We are curious about our work and engage in activities that help us to consider new viewpoints and address individual biases. Through a range of learning activities including research, self-assessment, evaluation, professional development and community engagement processes we seek and use information that improves our grantmaking and expands our understanding of the community.
Aspire:
With the community, we engage in ongoing learning and jointly define funding priorities. We respect many cultural ways of learning and knowing and work to achieve individual and organizational cultural competency. We promote continuous learning with our teams and alongside our grantee partners. We improve our work by offering and using peer feedback and being open and vulnerable in the process.
8. Transparency & Accountability
Understand:
Transparency builds trust and strengthens our accountability to the community. By being transparent, we are accountable to our mission, values and goals.
Begin:
We exhibit transparency by being clear, consistent and timely in our communications, decisions and commitments. We share information publicly in order to meet regulatory requirements and uphold community expectations, in the context of our missions. We demonstrate accountability by learning from community feedback and critique.
Aspire:
We consider state and federal regulatory requirements to be the minimum standard of transparency. We excel at transparency and accountability by engaging the community in decision-making and external evaluation of our work