Reflecting on our first 10 years, Part 2: A Just Transition for Philanthropy
When Justice Funders was founded 10 years ago as the Bay Area Justice Funders Network, the philanthropic sector had been having conversations for nearly a decade about how to increase diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the field. From the beginning, we knew we wanted to be having a very different conversation: one about creating and promoting a shared framework for social justice philanthropy, deepening transparency and mutual accountability with social justice organizations, and organizing within philanthropy to mobilize increased resources for social justice movements.
Over the last decade we’ve seen some promising shifts in grantmaking practice, with more funders adopting trust-based approaches and mobilizing resources to movements for justice than ever before. The 2016 election, the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprisings for Black liberation sparked by the murder of George Floyd this summer have certainly helped to accelerate these shifts.
At the same time, the conversations in philanthropy in response to these flashpoints remain predominantly focused on how to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the field.
Meanwhile, our movements are calling for something much more radical, much more transformative. It has become increasingly clear that DEI efforts — particularly those limited to internal organizational changes — are insufficient to address the ills of white supremacy and anti-Black racism that have long plagued our society. There is a growing recognition that the extractive, capitalist economic system is at the root of many of the injustices that Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities have experienced for the last 500 years, and the only way to dismantle those systemic injustices is to radically transform our economy along with the systems that allow the tax shelter of philanthropy to exist.
As our movements organize for a Just Transition from an extractive economy based on extraction, exploitation and the privatization of wealth and power to a regenerative economy rooted in cooperation, care and collective well-being, it has never been more clear that philanthropy — a field that has contributed to and benefited from the current economic system — has a moral obligation to follow.
“Justice Funders’ amplification of the Just Transition framework…is bringing visions from social movements to philanthropy and acculturating people to it…This kind of language [like the Ibram X. Kendi quote] is needed in philanthropy and it is affirming to see it come from Justice Funders. It empowers me more to bring that language and frame to my institution.” ~ Philanthropic partner
For Justice Funders, our initial moment of clarity about the need for a Just Transition in philanthropy came in 2015. In our early years, we had worked mostly with program staff at philanthropic institutions to make meaningful, yet incremental, shifts in grantmaking practice. Funders in our network and those participating in our programs were successfully making concrete changes to align their practices with social justice values including streamlining grantmaking processes, building greater trust and open communication with grantee partners, and moving more resources to social, racial and economic justice movements.
During those same years, our movement partners were beginning to popularize the Just Transition framework. As we began engaging in these conversations, we started to understand how the modern field of institutional philanthropy is built upon the extractive economic system that is fueling the injustices that our communities face. A whole host of philanthropic practices — from how wealth is accumulated and privatized within tax-sheltered institutions, to how the vast majority of philanthropic assets are invested in harmful industries in order to maximize returns, to how decisions about resource allocation are tightly controlled by those with the least proximity to communities — are reinforcing the very injustices that our movements are working to dismantle and that philanthropic missions purportedly seek to address.
So when our movement partners called on us to adopt a Just Transition framework for our work to transform philanthropy, we knew we had to respond. We evolved our scope of work, expanded our programming and adopted a new vision for philanthropy: to redistribute wealth, democratize power and shift economic control to communities. Co-created with some of the most visionary and forward-thinking movement and philanthropic partners we have ever worked with, Resonance: A Framework for Philanthropic Transformation is the articulation of this vision, our new North Star.
“The Resonance frame is another way for us to continue to ask questions together about how we can align and redistribute wealth…Engaging in collective conversation always changes how I think. That is important. I am appreciative of a group of people who are changing the practice of philanthropy.” ~ Philanthropic partner
The Resonance Framework has been Justice Funders’ offering of a new vision for philanthropy as we push the field beyonds its current orientation toward DEI. We believe that Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are a means to an end, rather than an end in and of itself, and are working to shift the narratives, mindsets and practices in philanthropy to understand that a much for fundamental transformation of our field is necessary if we are to have any chance to actualizing a just and thriving world. As stated in the framework:
“We believe that diverse, equitable and inclusive practices in philanthropy must serve the ultimate purpose of addressing one of the field’s most challenging dynamics: that decision-making and control of resources rests with those in organizational positions of power and privilege, who uphold the status quo. Therefore, DEI practices must result in a shift in decision-making towards communities most impacted by our extractive economy. These practices must also challenge our current extractive economic system, rather than existing within them.”
Since launching the Resonance Framework and evolving our programs to align with our new vision of philanthropic transformation, we have been thrilled to see such enthusiasm from our philanthropic partners to figure out how to put its principles into practice. For example, two of our member organizations are doing so by actively leveraging both grants and investments to support local and regional efforts that build shared prosperity and economic power in BIPOC communities.
Arch Community Fund, of which a trustee and program consultant participated in our Maestra pilot cohort, utilized the lessons and resources from the program to develop a new Investment Policy Statement that includes a decision to fully divest its assets from the stock market and a commitment to seek out investment opportunities that democratize capital and wealth. They have adopted a mission-aligned, integrated capital approach that de-prioritizes a maximum financial return from their investments and actively employ anti-oppression strategies through the management of their endowment. Specifically, they are moving investment capital into BIPOC-led, democratically governed Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and loan funds that practice non-extractive finance and invest in projects that build local, regenerative and just economies. They are now one of the few foundations nationally committed to integrated capital strategies toward a Just Transition.
Ceres Trust is another philanthropic institution that is breaking the status quo on foundation spending and investing. As a spend-down foundation, they were already spending far more than the mandated 5% payout rate prior to this year. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to significantly increase their grantmaking by over 30% from 2019 to 2020. They are giving rapid response funds to organizations supporting frontline communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including Black, Indigenous and rural communities. They have also begun divesting funds from public equities and re-investing in mission-aligned investments that support Native-led CDFIs, worker owned cooperatives and independent farmers including women, people of color, and immigrants.
Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and the uprisings for Black liberation, a recognition about the harms and failures of the extractive, capitalist economic system is reverberating beyond our movements and into the consciousness of mainstream society. As this shift in mindset begins to permeate philanthropy, we must go one step further by acknowledging our own role in the extractive economy and make a difficult but necessary decision: will we continue to double down on changing the faces around the tables without changing the systems that govern wealth and power? Or will we break free from conversations limited to the recruitment and retention of diverse staff to radically expand our imaginations about what is possible, and to follow the lead of movements to embrace a Just Transition?
“I feel much more confident in having Resonance as a Framework and a tool to actually point to…I use it as a tool and bring it into all of my conversations: ‘There is a way that this money that you didn’t earn and that should rightfully be put back into community can be put back in to community.’” ~ Philanthropic partner
We invite you to read the other two posts in our 10th Anniversary series:
