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Nonprofits can and should play an active role during elections, particularly by educating and activating voters. However, with important local, state and federal elections coming up this fall, nonprofits should take the time to remind their staff about appropriate activity during a political campaign or at any other time. This overview developed by Donors Forum provides important tips and examples of activities that are permissible for nonprofits during an election cycle.
United Philanthropy Forum is committed to advancing racial equity in philanthropy. We provide space for our members to connect, learn and share together on how to effectively address racial equity in their work as philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs), and works to share our members’ learnings with the broader philanthropy field. As part of these efforts, we are pleased to share case stories from our members about their racial equity work.
Case Story
Funders Together to End Homelessness: A Racial Equity Learning Journey
Funders Together to End Homelessness began its racial equity journey in 2016. Its case story explains how the PSO named racial equity in its strategic plan and embarked on a learning journey together with its board, staff, and members to normalize the conversation about structural and historic racism and how it contributes to disparities in the homelessness system. The story also describes how Funders Together created a two-year community of practice, called Foundations for Racial Equity (FRE), that has been a critical part of its journey, and how its codified its racial equity work through the creation of its Commitment to Racial Equity.
Read Funders Together’s Case Story
Listen to Funders Together’s CEO Amanda Misiko Andere talk about her organization’s racial equity journey on an episode of the ForumNation podcast.
Case Story
Southeastern Council of Foundations: An Experiential Racial Equity Journey
In early 2018, the Southeastern Council of Foundations (SECF) along with its board undertook a racial equity learning journey in order to develop an Equity Framework that would describe and define SECF’s character, what it stood for, and what its leaders were willing to fight for. The decision to develop the Equity Framework was the culmination of years of work. SECF’s case story explains how the organization used data to inform the development of its Equity Framework, created an Equity Task Force to lead the effort of developing a Framework, and engaged board, staff and Task Force members in a racial equity learning journey.
Listen to SECF’s President & CEO Janine talk about her organization’s racial equity journey on an episode of the ForumNation podcast.
We are pleased to share the Newark Philanthropic Liaison's latest Report to the Field. In 2023, we were proud of the multiple opportunities we had to spotlight the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers' leadership in starting and continuing this innovative model. Partners from across the country, from Philanthropy Serving Organizations (PSOs) to state and local governments, are considering the creation of a role similar to the Newark Liaison. Now more than ever, it is through partnerships that we will achieve our biggest collective goals in our sector.
Our Report to the Field for 2024 showcases an array of examples of public private partnerships launched in Newark with the collaboration of multiple partners. The Liaison led efforts to secure new funds for innovative solutions to homelessness, new approaches to economic security, increased access to programs for residents, and enhanced equity and access in our educational system. The Newark funding community took advantage of our Newark Funder Affinity Group meetings to structure an exciting new program to support Newark nonprofits through the lens of trust-based philanthropy. We remain fortunate to work in an environment of collaboration and alignment in Newark.
This advocacy and civic engagement toolkit is designed for community and public foundations that want to educate and encourage their grantees about getting involved in civic and policy activities to increase organizational capacity and impact. While its primary focus is on the grantmaking activity of these foundations, the toolkit also addresses rules and guidance for policy involvement by foundation officials acting on behalf of their foundations.
These articles are curated from news sources, philanthropic-focused publications, philanthropy serving organizations, and other places found on the internet. We encourage philanthropic organizations to read, share, and use the strategies suggested in these articles for your own diversity, equity, and inclusion learning journey. If there are others that you feel we should include, please contact us.
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Philanthropy Pours More Money Into Advancing Economic Wealth of Latinos (10/13/2022)
ABC News: Two New Jersey towns illustrate the race gap in the COVID pandemic (5/13/2022)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: General Operating Support Is Vital to Advancing Equity, Strengthening Nonprofits, Say Leaders (4/18/2022)
MacArthur Foundation: Movement to End Philanthropy’s Complicity in Anti-Blackness (4/18/2022)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Nearly 500 Foundation Leaders Unite to Push for More Support of Asian Americans (3/26/2021)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: As Violence Against Asian Americans Intensifies, the Moment for Philanthropy to Act Is Now (3/17/2021)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: How One Family Foundation is Evolving to Refocus on Racial Equity (3/16/2021)
HealthDay.com: Many Adults Do Not See Link Between Racism, Poorer Health (1/27/2021)
Stanford Social Innovation Review: How to Begin Considering a Gender Lens Investing Strategy (12/10/2020)
Nonprofit Quarterly: How to Welcome Native Leaders to the Philanthropic Sector (12/3/20)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Opinion Piece: Diversity Mandates from Foundations Maki It Harder for Nonprofits to Do Their Jobs Well (12/2/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Invest in and Strengthen People of Color: A Corporate Grant Maker Explains How (11/17/2020)
Nonprofit Quarterly: White House Declares Ban on Federal Racial Equity Trainings (9/14/20)
Nonprofit Quarterly: White Supremacy: Call It By Name (9/14/2020)
Denver Post: How Donors Can Advance Racial Equity (9/14/2020)
ROI-NJ: NJ to recognize Juneteenth as official state holiday (9/11/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: The 'Warping Effects' of Philanthropy (8/25/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Companies Lead Philanthropic Response to Calls for Racial Justice, but Will It Last? (8/25/2020)
Exponent Philanthropy: Moving Towards Racial Equity in Philanthropy: Introducing an Anti-Racist Intersectional Frame (8/25/2020)
Inside Philanthropy: “A Moment of Reckoning.” How Can Funders Support an Equitable and Inclusive Arts Sector? (7/16/2020)
Generocity: Uprising in Philadelphia: A to-do list for the next six months (7/9/2020)
Boston Globe: The Problem is White Supremacy (6/29/2020)
Inside Philanthropy: Amid Demands for Change, Here’s How Philanthropy Can Back Underfunded Black-Led Group (6/18/2020)
Nonprofit Quarterly: This Moment Shows Us Why Philanthropy Should Reinvent Itself by Gislaine Ngounou, of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (6/17/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Who Holds Philanthropy Accountable for Racial Justice? by Lisa Pilar Cowan, vice president of Robert Sterling Clark Foundation (6/16/2020)
Creative New Jersey: Summary and resources from their statewide conversation on Racial Justice (6/10/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: 64 Black Foundation Leaders Tell Philanthropy to Go Big in Response to Pandemic and Police Killings (6/10/2020)
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Mass Decarceration, COVID-19, and Justice in America by Deanna Van Buren co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces and F. Javier Torres-Campos, Thriving Cultures Program Director at Surdna Foundation (6/9/2020)
Communications Network: Crowdsourced Anti-Racism Resources and Tools
NonprofitAF.com: Privilege, power, and personal conflicts: The forces preventing change in nonprofit and philanthropy by Vu Le (6/8/2020)
Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia: Articles and Resources from the webinar: The Crisis of White Supremacy in America: What’s Philanthropy’s Role (6/4/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Dismantling Racism Might Require Philanthropy to Dismantle Itself by Lisa Pilar Cowan, vice president of the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation (6/2/2020)
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Why All Grantmakers Should Seek to Fix Democracy by Suzette Brooks Masters, senior strategist at the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council (6/2/2020)
Southern Poverty Law Center: Authoritarian State or Inclusive Democracy? 21 Things We Can Do Right Now by Eric K. Ward, Senior Fellow (6/1/2020)
Nonprofit Quarterly: Dear Philanthropy: These Are the Fires of Anti-Black Racism by Will Cordery of Leverage Philanthropic Partners LLC & Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice (6/1/2020)
NonprofitAF.com: Have nonprofit and philanthropy become the "white moderate" that Dr. King warned us about? by Vu Le (6/1/2020)
Library Journal: Books on Anti-Racism (5/31/2020)
Stanford Social Innovation Review: Overcoming the Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding by Cheryl Dorsey, Peter Kim, Cora Daniels, Lyell Sakaue, & Britt Savage (5/4/2020)
Stanford Social Innovation Review: For a More Equitable America, Understand Race and Racism as Actions We Do and Can Undo by MarYam Hamedani, Hazel Rose Markus & Jeanne Tsai (5/1/2020)
Jacobin Magazine: The Perils of Liberal Philanthropy by Karen Ferguson (11/2018)
Smithsonian Magazine: The 1968 Kerner Commisssion Got It Right, But Nobody Listened by Alice George (3/1/2018)
Continuum Chart on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization by Crossroads Ministry (2013)
The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture from Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups (2001)
Resource Generation: Guidance for Giving to Black-led Organizations for Black Liberation (undated)
Prison Policy Initiative: Prison Gerrymandering Project how the Census Bureau counts people in prison (undated)
This advocacy and civic engagement toolkit is designed for private foundations that want to educate and encourage their grantees about getting involved in civic and policy activities to increase organizational capacity and impact. While its primary focus is on the grantmaking activity of foundations, the toolkit also addresses rules and guidance for policy involvement by foundation officials acting on behalf of their foundations.