Taking Steps to Tackle Systemic Racism in Foundations

Exponent Philanthropy Nov 24, 2020
This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
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Taking Steps to Tackle Systemic Racism in Foundations Giving Compass

Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are three questions that foundations can ask their investment managers to further scrutinize their institutions on equity and combat systemic racism.

• How do you interrogate systemic racism in your charitable giving practices?

• Check out this resource page for donors on increasing knowledge about systems change and solidarity for Black communities.

While charitable foundations regularly leverage grantmaking to advance their missions, the potential impact of their investments is not always similarly scrutinized.

To begin exploring your foundation’s effect on Black, Indigenous and communities of color in the U.S., here are three questions you should ask your investment manager:

  1. Who is managing my portfolio’s underlying investments? Only 1.3% of assets in the U.S. are managed by firms that are majority owned by women, or Black, Indigenous and people of color. How does your portfolio fare? Are the managers diverse?
  2. Do the companies I’m invested in reinforce systemic racism? Black, Indigenous and people of color face significant barriers climbing the corporate ladder and filling high-ranking positions across corporate sectors. Consider, only three CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are Black. As asset owners, foundations can help influence the companies they invest in through shareholder engagement.
  3. How are my investments affecting Black, Indigenous and communities of color? As a high-level starting point, investments that hurt Black, Indigenous and communities of color include private prisons, immigration detention centers and payday lenders. Investments that could potentially help include companies that advance access to quality education, affordable housing, business loans and home financing, and upward career mobility.

 Read the full article about tackling systemic racism at Exponent Philanthropy.

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

  • This article is deemed a must-read by one or more of our expert collaborators.
    Click here for more.
    Small Foundations, Big Impact: The Essential Guide to Impact Investing

    Giving Compass' Take: • Arabella Advisors, Exponent Philanthropy, and Mission Investors Exchange provide a guide to impact investing for small foundations.  • Is your foundation ready to dive into impact investing? Who in your network is already involved in impact investing?  • Learn how to build an impact investing team.  Impact investing has the potential to enable every foundation, regardless of size, to pursue its philanthropic mission more effectively. It can help individual donors, families, foundations with few or no staff, and all sorts of giving entities put more and different types of capital to work for social good. Even better, it can deliver philanthropic impact alongside financial returns—which can enable reinvestment of those funds in pursuit of even more social good. We offer this guide with that opportunity in mind—and specifically to support small-staffed foundations seeking to use impact investing to further their missions. It provides a starting point, a review of key questions to consider and ways to answer them, and a variety of tools and connections to additional resources you may need. It aims to: Increase awareness and use of impact investing tools. We hope this guide will provide philanthropists with knowledge, tools, and resources that will help them increase the use of their capital and create more impact for social or environmental good. Supply technical know-how to foundations and grant makers. The information in this guide is meant to be actionable. While every funder has different capacities, goals, and circumstances, we aim to provide advice, guidelines, and suggestions that small-staffed foundations can apply to their work—today or in the future. Grow the field—and the impact investing community. The more impact investors doing good work, the stronger the field. To foster and build a community of investors, we have included case examples from other small-staffed foundations, so readers can learn from their experiences and connect with others who share your goals and challenges. Read the full article about impact investing at Arabella Advisors, Exponent Philanthropy, and Mission Investors Exchange.

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