Giving Compass' Take:

• The Neighborhood Funders Group hosted the NFG 2018 National Convening, Raise Up: Moving Money for Justice and Manisha Vaze, senior program manager, shares key insights from the conference. 

• How the shifting economy impacts communities of color through exclusion was one overarching theme. Will funders be inspired to implement changes in the way they fund certain issues? Will they look toward financing projects intentionally headed by people of color benefitting specific communities affected by wealth inequality? 

• Read about the role philanthropy should play as the economy shifts power and wealth and the execution systems change work that needs to happen to address these shifts. 

In June 2018, Neighborhood Funders Group convened hundreds of local, regional, and national funders for the NFG 2018 National Convening, Raise Up: Moving Money for Justice. Here, Manisha Vaze, Senior Program Manager of NFG's Funders for a Just Economy, reflects on funder strategy discussions for building worker power.

There were several standout moments for me during the conference related to the Funders for a Just Economy’s (FJE) goals and objectives as a network. This year, our network wanted to explore shifts in the economy, the rise of political power in the financial sector (a process called financialization), and the moves the worker justice movement was taking in reaction to Supreme Court decisions that were going to be announced during the conference.

One of the financialization workshops provided a phenomenal overview of how the economy and the financial sector were built from a history of slavery, genocide, racism, and sexism. Speakers from the Action Center on Race and the Economy, Americans for Financial Reform, Grassroots Collaborative, and the Partnership for Working Families shared how communities of color and women of color in particular have been excluded from opportunities for wealth creation and have been targets of wealth extraction.

The NFG conference reaffirmed for me what we can do together to push the boundaries in our powerful roles as funders, and foster long-term partnerships with community organizations that are building momentum and shifting power. It was a call to action: our communities cannot wait for us to get it right.

Read the full article about NFG conference by Shannon Lin at Neighborhood Funders Group