This #Allianceat25 webinar exploring the power of black female leadership in philanthropy was guest moderated by Melanie Brown, interim deputy director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and senior Atlantic Fellow at the London School of Economics. It was produced in partnership with Atlantic Fellows and Voice. Vision. Value. Black women leading philanthropy.

The three panellists were Danielle Walker Palmour, Director of the Friends Provident Foundation; Moky Makura, Executive Director of Africa No Filter; and Toya Randall, Catalyst and Curator of Voice. Vision. Value. Black Women Leading Philanthropy and senior director at Casey Family Programs.

After the introductions, Melanie moved into the panel discussion segment of the webinar, asking: ‘what can institutional philanthropy learn from the way that you all are leading catalytic change in philanthropy today?’

Toya explained that in the US, there is growing representation of people of colour in philanthropy, including at senior levels: ‘right now we have the largest number of black women CEOs in the sector than ever before in history.’

She discussed how black women are using their positions of influence to ‘drive structural change’ and move the field away from a ‘charity model’ and it’s ‘paternalistic practices’ to a model that is ‘more equitable, inclusive and just.’ This must be done through mobilizing all resources, not just grant-making budgets, and ‘interrogating and investigating policies and practices’ within the sector which relate to operations, recruitment and investments. She finished by saying that the ‘conversation to centre equity is building momentum’ and that we are now beginning to see the true impact of black female leadership in the sector.

Read the full article about Black women leading philanthropy by Annmarie McQueen at Alliance Magazine.