As an NCFP Fellow, I was given the opportunity to explore a question about family philanthropy with the goal of contributing to more effective practices in the field. I wanted to better understand how philanthropy could move beyond extraction toward practices of repair and return, incorporating a relational reparations framework. That journey began with questions about wealth, the responsibility wealth holders have, and how family funders might engage more honestly in conversations about the origins of their resources and the harm tied to that accumulation.

The process that unfolded for me in studying the relational reparations framework was something deeper than an inquiry into funding models. It was a shared journey into humanity, healing, and liberation—one that transformed how I think, how I give, and how I move through the world. While not every family funder will join a reparations cohort, I believe relational reparations has something to teach all philanthropists about the power of seeing each other’s humanity and being in right relationship.

Defining the Process of Utilizing a Relational Reparations Framework

When I use the word reparations, I mean the act of making a repair. It is about addressing harm that has been done and acknowledging that much of the wealth in this country was built through enslavement, land theft, exploitation, and exclusion. Reparations call us to return what was taken, and to rebuild trust by making amends.

From there, I began to explore a relational reparations framework, the idea that repair does not happen in isolation or transaction. Relational reparations requires entering into the long, often vulnerable work of repairing injustices of the past in the context of relationship. It asks us to stay present with one another, to practice together, to risk discomfort, and to return again and again as we build trust.

And when I speak of return, I mean returning funds to their rightful owners, to communities that were exploited in the accumulation of wealth. Implementing a relational reparations framework is an act that is both material and spiritual. It is not charity. It is a recognition that what was taken must be restored.

Read the full article about relational reparations by C’Ardiss “CC” Gardner Gleser at National Center for Family Philanthropy.