In 2020, somewhere around 20 million people took to the streets in what researchers believe was the largest movement in U.S. history. During the summer of Black Lives Matter protests following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black Americans, Black-led organizations received a surge in funding and support. The corporate sector alone pledged $50 billion to racial equity, which would be donated to social justice organizations, invested in communities of color, and used to support DEI initiatives and overhaul recruiting and training. One year later, according to one recent analysis, only $250 million—or half of one percent—has actually been deployed or committed to a specific initiative.

That’s a distressing update…but take heart, the momentum isn’t lost, it’s waiting for direction. The philanthropic sector can help surface the most promising solutions for racial equity, to ensure that funding gets deployed immediately.

The solutions are out there, we just need to know where to look.

If we’re going to seize this moment of opportunity to re-architect the systems that perpetuate injustice, then we need to examine and redesign the core beliefs and mental models by which we operate. We need to shift the way we think about expertise.

In the for-profit sector, especially for tech and consumer products, an early and valued step in the design process focuses on investing time, talent, and money to learn the preferences, culture, and aspirations of the target customer base. The most successful companies don’t simply study and observe target customers, they are guided by their insights and feedback as they adjust their products.

When it comes to addressing social issues though, we flip that practice on its head and cut communities and constituents out of the design process. We invest and behave as if those most impacted by the systems we want to change are not knowledgeable and trustworthy designers and decision makers. What would happen if we began to invest and believe in their expertise.

In his book Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson talks about how proximity is at the core of justice work. In stirring remarks at the 2018 Skoll World Forum and the 2020 Inclusive Impact Action Summit, Stevenson celebrated the power of people who have meaningful relationships with marginalized groups to see leverage points to fix broken systems like the criminal justice system. At New Profit, we support proximate leaders. Being a proximate leader is about much more than being exposed to or studying a group’s struggles; it’s about actually being a part of that group or being meaningfully guided by that group’s input, ideas, agendas, and assets.

Read the full article about investing in proximity by Tulaine Montgomery at Skoll Foundation.