Achieving Equity: We Need a New Approach to Funding

Giving Compass' Take:

• Larger foundations are putting equity at the forefront of their work, but there are considerations to think about such as educating staff and board members, aligning equity to their mission, and investing in equitable infrastructure rather than just programs. 

• Why are more foundations taking the time now to focus on equity instead of when they started? Will it be more difficult to achieve if they didn't originally start valuing equity before now? 

• Read some major lessons in equity for organizational leaders. 

Lately there has been a lot of focus on the issue of equity. "Equity" is obviously a broad term that encompasses a range of issues including income and wealth inequality, as well as economic opportunity. But at its core, equity is ultimately about creating a level playing field and ensuring that everyone has an honest chance at achieving their potential regardless of their race, gender, economic status, or zip code.

A number of large foundations and organizations including the Ford Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, Kellogg Foundation, and Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, among others, have announced new focus areas designed to address the equity issue. They are changing their grantmaking priorities, program areas, and hiring practices, and are pooling resources to advance one of the most vital issues of our time.

But this is not just a "funder issue." If nonprofits continue using the same kind of thinking that promotes organizations spending 90 cents out of every dollar on programs--while starving the organization and its necessary infrastructure--we will get the same kind of results.

To push forward on the issue of equity, funders and donors must do more than simply change whom they fund; they must work together to take a more holistic look at the organizations tasked with holding together the increasingly frayed social safety net.

• Engage in open, transparent conversations with grantees about what it honestly takes to deliver on mission both now and in the future.
• Educate boards and program and grants management staff.
• Recognize that investing in equity means investing in capacity, infrastructure, and leadership development, not just programs.