Giving Compass' Take:

• Exponent Philanthropy spotlights Nat Chioke Williams, a lifetime advocate who has effectively made racial justice a philanthropic necessity.

• What are you doing to make racial justice a philanthropic necessity? How can you make sure your giving supports Black-led organizations and leadership?

• Read about the importance of investing in Black-led changemakers to make racial justice a philanthropic necessity.

As Executive Director of the Hill-Snowdon Foundation, Nat Chioke Williams is leading a family foundation to strategically move its assets to support racial justice.

Nat’s passion and thoughtfulness on racial justice issues has had a deep impact on the board’s understanding of anti-Black racism, and how philanthropy can create change.

He led the family board on a journey to define their values and priorities, and aligned the work and internal operations around those values. This included developing personnel policies and facilitating a thoughtful process to add non-family directors to the board, a first in the foundation’s 60 years.

Nat has long voiced the need for philanthropy needing to support Black-led organizing and leadership, and he’s played a leading role in forming numerous funder collaboratives. With the Association of Black Foundation Executives, Nat created the Black Social Change Funders Network.

In partnership with other social justice funders, Nat has been involved with the development of Grantmakers for Southern Progress, a network of local, regional and national funders committed to facilitating joint learning, collaboration and leveraging new resources to help build a vibrant and enduring infrastructure for social justice in the US South. He currently serves as co-chair of the group.

Nat is a strong advocate for trust-based philanthropy. He’s an incredible collaborator and partner for grantees and funding peers alike. Nat is always thinking of ways to further the vision of the foundation, whether through a new partnership, or creatively using funding.

Read the full article about making racial justice a philanthropic necessity at Exponent Philanthropy.