Perspective and Scale: Reflections from #NCG2024
On the rooftop of the Oakland Marriott where Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) had their post-conference reception, there is a large, outdoor chess board. As Dwayne Marsh, NCG’s President and CEO, and I watched two attendees play, he turned to me and said, “Playing at this scale changes the perspective.”
What an apt reflection to describe what Dwayne and his team curated for this year’s NCG Annual Conference, “Imagine and Act” in June. More than 400 funders gathered at the Oakland Marriott at the same time nearly 800 movement leaders gathered in St. Louis, MO, for the Rising Majority Congress, however, in many ways the movement-wide Vision 2050/10, was brought into the NCG conference:
“Regenerative Economy: We unite for an anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and pro-feminist regenerative economy that allows for a mutually beneficial relationship between humans and the planet. This economy centers solidarity, worker power, radical democracy, and organized communities;” and
“Radical democracy, Governance and Political Power: We unite for an anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and pro-feminist governance system that embodies democratic practices at every level of society. Decisions are made, as much as possible, by the people whom those decisions impact. This governance system is capable of anchoring a people and planet centered economy.”
During the opening keynote, Malkia Devich Cyril of Media Justice, wove beautiful intersecting narratives together to ground philanthropy in mourning and grieving the loss of Black life on the eve of Juneteenth, while simultaneously bringing funders’ attention to the fact that “in 2020, philanthropic institutions in the U.S contributed over 13 times the amount of money to extractive global stock markets as they did to all of their grantmaking focus areas” (Climate Justice Alliance, Just Transition Investment Framework). Malkia deftly anchored us towards a vision of the future where we:
“Expand voting rights, institutionalize abolition, so that the 22nd century isn’t a century of profiling and punishment . . . Public health is a system that delivers reproductive justice and gender-affirming care to every person living in this country … Build solidarity economies at scale … End inequality and poverty that drives corporate and ruling class control of our cities and governments . . . Return the land, open the borders, protect the seas, reduce our carbon footprints and energy reliance.”
Following Malkia’s invocation to funders to join the “freedom side,” Daniel Lau of the Democracy Frontlines Fund and Camille Llanes-Fontanilla of the Sobrato Foundation painfully reminded those of us in the room during the “Great Debate” that progressive philanthropy hasn’t been a good friend to social movements — from what Megan Ming Francis has described as “movement capture,” chronic underfunding, aversion to risk . . . and more! (They came with receipts!)
Similarly, Maurice Mitchell of the Working Families Party offered this sober reflection, “Historically, philanthropy has been the PR firm of capitalism, which has steadily reduced the commons in service to privatization.”
After lunch, I was fortunate to moderate a breakout session on “Reimaging Our Relationships,” a conversation between movement leaders and funders. Panelists reflected on the choices made at an individual or interpersonal level that had transformative impacts on their institutions. One of these examples went back nine years, when Mateo Nube of Movement Generation invited Regan Pritzker, then of the Libra Foundation and me to a Just Transition for Philanthropy retreat that Movement Generation was organizing. At the end of that retreat, Mateo, good organizer that he is, asked me, “How are you going to implement Just Transition from your perch?”
What followed that moment has been a series of big and small acts that transformed the Bay Area Justice Funders Network, a regional network focused on social justice into Justice Funders (JF), a national organization working to advance a Just Transition in philanthropy. As part of our transformation, JF has embodied the core values and principles of a Just Transition, which includes being in right relationship with each other as we strengthen our mycelial organizing efforts. Mateo, now Co-Chair of JF’s Board, is, per our by-laws, also my supervisor. However, as a Worker Self-Directed Nonprofit organization, the board has passed a resolution giving organization governing power to staff, which breaks the conventional board-to-staff power dynamics. JF’s practice of being in right relationship with each other facilitates interconnectedness in our work. Thus, Mateo, despite his role as a Board co-Chair, is also an advisor, coach, strategist, and fellow Just Transition practitioner.
Similarly, Regan recounted the Just Transition principles that led to her ceding power as a practice of the Kataly Foundation, illustrating the embodiment of the second part of the conference theme — the importance of taking action. In the Q & A portion of the breakout session, we also talked about challenging ourselves to reimagine how we can be in relationship with each other, how we relate to one another — especially in relationships of power, and in the stewardship of resources — is an important component to facilitating a Just Transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. Personally, I am learning a lot from the Just Transition Integrated Capital Fund’s Governing Body comprised of representatives from Climate Justice Alliance, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, Right to the City, Monsoon Fund, and Equitable Food Oriented Development about non-extractive and reparative ways to steward capital.
Maurice called all of us to utilize the power we have to realize the visions our movements have for a multi-racial democracy governed by working class people. As so many of the speakers reminded us of what is at stake: philanthropy cannot continue “to play a spectator role” (Maurice), per the Great Debate, “Philanthropy, don’t be that friend!” (Daniel and Camile). Instead, let’s take these moments of inspiration to scale our deployment of capital to the scale of the visions our movements are working to manifest. Hopefully our time at NCG, like the large outdoor chess board, helped to calibrate the perspective of those of us in philanthropy to scale our response to support our movements/Rising Majority to “build the united front necessary for long-term economic, political, and social power.”
Dana Kawaoka-Chen is Co-Executive Director of Justice Funders, a worker self-directed nonprofit organization that partners and guides philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world.
