Giving Compass' Take:

• Edgar Villanueva, vice president at the Schott Foundation for Public Education, discusses how philanthropy can get serious about racial healing in America. 

• How can this article help funders recognize and understand this dynamic to help use money as a tool to facilitate healing, connectedness, and balance?

• Learn more about how philanthropy can support racial equity. 

Today, as a member of the Lumbee Tribe and a foundation official, I plan to join with people across the United States to observe the third annual National Day of Racial Healing. Started by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, this national day is designed to bring Americans together to demonstrate solidarity and work toward healing our racial divides. But what does it take to truly heal?

When historians and sociologists document the legacy of imperialism and slavery, we sometimes question whether travesties that occurred centuries earlier still influence the world today. As the saying goes, "Time heals all wounds." And yet, how can time actually heal absent concrete and specific plans to permit victims of suffering to voice their pain, receive an acknowledgment of their suffering, or restitution?

In reality, time is not an elixir, nor does it, alone, have the power to heal.

One of the ways society has responded to communal suffering is through charitable giving. We see a problem, and we reach in our wallets or foundation coffers to give.

Read the full article about racial healing by Edgar Villanueva at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.