White Fragility and Racial Equity: What’s Stopping the Conversations [Audio]

A Philanthropy Assessment Guide for Equity and Justice

Giving Compass' Take: • In this PDF, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy lays out how and why organizations should use Power Moves to maximize their impact for marginalized communities by building, sharing, and wielding power for collective good.  • Is your organization ready to take the next step for equity and justice? What internal stakeholders do you need buy-in from to engage with Power Moves?  • Learn about one foundation's decision to use Power Moves to increase their impact.  Use Power Moves to increase your effectiveness and have greater impact on the issues and communities you care about. Examine how you are using power in your internal operations, grantmaking and external relationships. Incorporate timely input, tapping the knowledge and experience of your priority communities and of the nonprofits that work with them. Collect the information you need to think expansively and strategically about how to solve complex problems in partnership with others. Make intentional choices about how to leverage your power, privilege and resources with humility to advance equity and justice. For Power Moves to be truly helpful, the right time is when you are ready to ask yourself or your institution hard questions, ask your constituents the same hard questions, be ready to receive honest, perhaps tough, answers and make strategic changes accordingly. To determine whether it is the right time for you or your institution to use these resources, review the toolkit glossary and then take the brief Power Moves readiness assessment available on page 68 of the full guide. This toolkit offers funders a way to examine their use of power through a structured, reflective process. It is also a call to action for philanthropy to respond proactively to society’s power struggles around race, class, gender, age and disability, and to support the movements engaging in those struggles. Those who are most marginalized need every available resource and ally in the fight for equity. Philanthropy’s continued relevance depends on how you choose to respond. Power Moves is organized by each of the three power dimensions, including: A brief description of the topic. Best practice guidelines. Sample questions to gather internal data. Sample questions to solicit feedback from stakeholders. A discussion guide to help make meaning of the data and feedback, and reflect on progress. • A next steps tool, which can be used for one dimension or all three. Tips for implementation. It also includes Tools You Can Use, a set of resources that will help in your assessment journey, such as: Glossary of relevant terms. Readiness assessment. Sample assessment timeline and process. Tips on gathering feedback. Next steps worksheet. Additional materials on the website include: Examples of best practice for each power dimension. List of relevant resources. Sample worksheets, templates, and other assessment instruments.