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Health Funder Puts Women of Color Front and Center

Southern California Grantmakers
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Health Funder Puts Women of Color Front and Center Giving Compass
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Giving Compass’ Take:

• Southern California Grantmakers (SCG) reports on the California Wellness Foundation’s investment in supporting improved health for women of color.

• The issues tackled (including a jobs initiative for formerly incarcerated women of color) have been underfunded in the past. How can the nonprofit world better focus our efforts to this population?

• Women of color still need more access to checkups and health screenings. Here’s one effort to help in that area.


The California Wellness Foundation is putting up $13 million over the next five years to better health outcomes for women of color through two distinct initiatives tackling issues that disproportionately affect nonwhite women.

Part of the funding will go toward treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. The rest will support a reentry and jobs initiative for formerly incarcerated women of color. Neither field is new to attention from philanthropy, but California Wellness is a rarity in focusing on the effects of these plights on women of color in particular.

As we’ve often reported, funders have tended to zero in on different parts of a sprawling criminal justice system that’s entangled millions of people. Cal Wellness is a case in point. All its work, including in this issue area, has been focused in California. The foundation has been part of a coalition of funders working to improve the state’s juvenile justice system. It is on the leadership team of a grantmakers group that’s led the work called California Funders for Boys and Men of Color.

Now, it’s putting money into another important niche. Despite the growing number of funders working on criminal justice issues, few focus on formerly incarcerated women or women of color specifically. But women are the fastest growing sector of the population behind bars, which includes jail, according to organizations that track those numbers. Women of color are overrepresented at every level of the prison system — federal, state and local.

Read the full article about the health funder prioritizing women of color by Caitlin Reilly at Southern California Grantmakers.

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Since you are interested in Race and Ethnicity, have you read these selections from Giving Compass related to impact giving and Race and Ethnicity?

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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    How Funders Can Address the Gentrification of Movements

    Gentrification is infuriating and, for the communities and cities we love, heartbreaking. The gentrification of cities involves affluent white people moving in, sometimes because they are attracted to the culture, i.e., the “ethnic” food, etc. The trouble is, they often don’t like the people of color who created that culture. The gentrification of movements is no different. In recent months, I have noticed it picking up steam as, particularly in this treacherous political climate, strategies that have been used for decades by people of color are finally gaining the attention of funders. Women of color are running for office in record numbers – and winning – with some of the most courageous platforms we’ve seen, dispelling the myths that candidates must water-down their messages and pander to white swing voters in order to win. Now, should white-led organizations working for justice engage people of color? Yes, particularly if they want to win. Are there some that are doing so in authentic and respectful ways and that are even deserving of funding? Certainly. But to say it is highly problematic for white-led organizations to be the majority of what philanthropy supports in order to reach communities of color is an understatement. It is a stark manifestation of white supremacy. What can funders do or avoid doing? Direct at least half of the dollars in your portfolio to bold and courageous social justice organizations that are deeply rooted in communities of color and that have majorities of people of color – particularly women of color – in leadership positions at the staff and board levels.  Recognize the difference between organizations with an extractive approach that seeks to use people of color as a means to an end and those with a collaborative and generative approach that see and treat people of color as partners in long-term work. Stop offering people of color-led organizations small amounts of funding to hand their ideas and innovations over to white-led organizations who are deemed “capable” of taking them “to scale.” Build your muscle to work against implicit bias and structural racism and misogyny on a daily basis. Let’s stop bankrolling the gentrification of movements. Let’s fund toward the liberation of all people. And when it comes to freedom, liberty and potato salad, let’s enjoy the real deal. Read the full article about how funders can address the gentrification of movements by Vanessa Daniel at National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. 


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