Bringing a Racial Equity Lens to Capacity Building

About

Grantmakers who provide capacity building support help nonprofits become more resilient so they can deliver on their missions over the long term. However, our institutions and systems were built to advantage some but not all, especially when we take race into account. To help nonprofits grow stronger and make progress in their communities, we must work to address the ways in which structural racism and our implicit biases influence our ways of assessing nonprofit capability, readiness and effectiveness. A racial equity lens can help us see capacities that were previously hidden and lead us to more strategically invest our capacity building funds.

Join us to discuss recent research that speaks to the systemic, institutional and individual biases at play in philanthropy. We will also hear from a nonprofit executive and a funder about efforts to bring a racial equity lens to capacity building along with the impact of those efforts.

This is the first of a two-part series. In early spring, we will convene a follow-up session for funders to workshop concrete steps they can take to bring greater racial equity awareness to capacity building work with grantees.