By Sindhu Knotz
Associate Partner, The Giving Practice
Philanthropy Northwest

At Philanthropy Northwest, we recognize that there are many philanthropic leaders committed to building more diverse and inclusive organizations in our region. Yet taking meaningful action to address diversity, equity and inclusion can be challenging work, even for those foundations that have been in the lead for many years.

This is why The Giving Practice, the consulting arm of Philanthropy Northwest, has partnered with the D5 Coalition on a research project to explore how foundations in the Northwest are addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and adapting to changing demographics. The D5 Coalition is a five-year, collaborative effort created to encourage and support philanthropists to build a more diverse and inclusive philanthropic sector.

Our research project is designed as a two-part study that includes a peer learning network, as well as a series of interviews with foundation leaders across our region. We’re interested in understanding how organizational culture and leadership practices can promote action towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion- and to identify any common barriers along the way. Our interviews will begin this spring, and our goal is to have a report to share with our membership and the broader field by the end of this year.

Foundation leaders and staff involved in this work have started to share interesting articles and resources with us. For example, Doug Stamm of the Meyer Memorial Trust recently shared More Than Words by George Penick, a report detailing one leader’s journey with his board and staff to create a more equitable and inclusive foundation. Richard Woo of The Russell Family Foundation shared a diversity-related blog post written following a site visit in rural Colorado. We encourage you to read these resources to get a better sense of the challenges faced by leaders today, and some of the approaches being utilized to increase diversity.

Stay tuned to the Philanthropy Northwest blog for updates on this project, and to be the first to hear about the report when it is released later in the year.

By Mandi Moshay
Communications Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

The Northwest Area Foundation (NWAF) of St. Paul, MN, awards grants across eight states to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable prosperity. NWAF has made grants to nonprofit organizations in the Northwest that support the African American Leadership Forum (AALF), a unified group that is creating a common agenda for launching bold policy initiatives to create social and economic well-being within the minority community. The AALF movement has shaped access to employment, community development, and transportation. We’re pleased to be able to share some of the successful outcomes of NWAF’s works with the AALF in Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, and Tacoma, WA, – these initiatives account for over $340,000 in grants from NWAF since 2009.

Portland, OR: Closing the Employment Gap
Struck by the inequities in white and black employment levels revealed in The State of Black Oregon report, the Portland AALF mobilized to close the employment gap.

“The report revealed chronic disparities in African-American unemployment levels at a time when the mainstream workforce was doing well,” said Portland AALF director Cyreena Boston Ashby. “We found elected officials were approving policies that were standing in the way of improvements, and in some cases, were making it worse.”

Armed with powerful numbers showing bias in hiring and promoting, Portland African-American leaders advocated for an equity officer to provide transparency and accountability. Their persistence influenced Portland to create a new bureau, the Office of Equity & Human Rights. Since then, PAALF members have been invited into meetings with municipal leaders where they’ve been given greater access to employment data.

Portland has adopted a new racial equity strategy and is working with Portland AALF members to increase African-American hiring rates and improve policies such as housing discrimination and police accountability. AALF leaders are expanding the discussions to include equity officers in public schools, regional government, and the Oregon Department of Health and Human Services.

Seattle, WA: Gaining a Voice in Development
Few things have as large an impact on housing, jobs, and economic development as transportation. Seattle is on tap for light-rail expansion over the next decade that will send trains through the heart of minority and immigrant communities and members of the Seattle AALF are participating in the planning and advocating for transit-oriented development so people of color can equally benefit from opportunities.

“When the current rail line was planned years ago, the construction displaced homes and businesses, and has now raised property values to the point that affordable housing is no longer available to many of those previously displaced,” said Liz Word, coordinator of the Seattle AALF. “We are working upstream, being proactive instead of waiting downstream to see what comes our way.”

Through broad networking, AALF members secured representation on the Equity Network Steering Committee of the Growing Transit Communities Partnership. Their goal is to increase involvement of African-Americans in transit-oriented development planning and policies by sharing information they’ve rarely had before. AALF members are working with the Puget Sound Regional Council to apply a social equity framework to development of transit stations and nearby neighborhoods.

Tacoma, WA: Raising Black Leadership to a New Level
The civil rights conflicts of the 1960s mobilized black leaders in Tacoma to action. The Tacoma Urban League and the Black Collective are two of the many organizations spawned from that movement. Over the years they’ve successfully advocated for better policies and representation on the local level. However, there’s never been a platform to break down the silos and increase their synergy – until now. The two are partnering to become the Tacoma African American Leadership Forum.

“The African American Leadership Forum will act as the convener to bring all the groups together under one umbrella,” said Victoria Woodards, president of the Tacoma Urban League. “We will be better equipped to make systemic change by increasing collaboration and harnessing all of our energies.”

The Black Collective, which has been meeting weekly for 43 years, is a volunteer leadership organization engaged in addressing equity issues affecting the Black community. The Tacoma Urban League, formed in 1968, is devoted to empowering African-Americans and other disenfranchised groups to enter the economic and social mainstream.  Backed by increased resources, the Tacoma AALF will work to build a unified policy agenda to address challenges within the community.

Philanthropy Northwest commends NWAF and the African American Leadership Forums they support for their remarkable achievements. To learn more about NWAF and the impact the organization is making in the region, visit www.nwaf.org.

By Kelly Brown
Director
D5 Coalition

At D5, we’re in constant conversation with philanthropic leaders working to advance diversity, equity and inclusion. We’ve been struck by a recurring theme: This is challenging work. Even the foundations that have been at the forefront of this movement for decades still struggle to advance this work inside and outside of their organizations.

It’s stories like those captured in Philanthropy Northwest’s most recent report, Journey into Indian Country, that give us heart about what’s possible. Yes, it’s hard. It’s slow. But it’s worth it.

Despite philanthropy’s long track record of working to advance diversity, many communities are still excluded from full participation in US philanthropy. As the report points out, less than half of one percent of foundation dollars are directed to Native people. When Philanthropy Northwest decided to promote more philanthropic engagement in Indian Country, it took the important step of recognizing how hard that would be, particularly with little knowledge of and few relationships with Native communities. In acknowledging that this journey would take effort, they prepared themselves for an in-depth exploration about how best to do it.

Byron Mallott explains that investing in diverse communities “is not just about putting dollars into programs.” It’s a long-term, relationship-building endeavor that begins with listening to the communities that you are trying to engage. Building the internal will within a foundation to invest in a community previously overlooked is the first, sometimes challenging, step. But it opens foundations to the important and enriching work of learning, understanding the unique need and figuring out the most impactful investment.

Philanthropy exists to serve the common good. For a regional association like Philanthropy Northwest, that means ensuring that those in greatest need in a given geography are being included by philanthropists—or at least that foundations are aware of this need and can then determine if meeting it fits with their missions. This effort to listen to and highlight ways to engage this underserved community is a fantastic example of the role an association can play: Helping its members make fully informed investment decisions that take into account the rich diversity of the people they serve.

The philanthropic world has been talking about diversity for a long time. People are often sensitive about it, and some grow weary when progress seems slow. Journey into Indian Country acknowledges that yes, progress is slow, but it is steady and there is so much to be learned along the way. And when we decide to be more conscious about who we include when we think about philanthropy, we build relationships and gain knowledge that help us become more strategic grantmakers—empowering both our institutions and the communities we serve.

Kelly Brown is the Director of the D5 Coalition, a five-year effort to grow philanthropy’s diversity, equity and inclusion. To learn more about D5, visit D5coalition.org.

By Ken Gordon
Consultant

The level of engagement between philanthropy and Indian Country is qualitatively and quantitatively different, and better, in the Northwest. The degree of these differences is beautifully documented in two recent reports from Philanthropy Northwest: Lessons for Philanthropy: A Journey to Indian Country; and Giving to Indian Country: Trends in Northwest Giving 2010.
These reports track the development of giving relationships with Indian Country that bisect the normal grantor/grantee relationship. A major learning for philanthropy was that in terms of working with Indian Country the most important thing is not to talk about money, but to instead focus on relationships.

In philanthropy it is hard to not have a focus on money as money so often defines what we do. When we talk about the biggest foundation in the world – do we think that they are the biggest because of their impact on the world, or because of their staff numbers, or because of the size of their buildings or because of the size of their endowments? The IRS perpetuates this focus on dollars, with payout ratios getting much more attention than impacts. Even the league tables published by groups like Philanthropy News Digest put dollars paid out front and center in their analysis. Ten of the 16 stories on the PND website’s front page on July 26, 2012 mention a dollar amount in the headline!  Only one of these headlines talked about the impact of a program in the world.

It’s an amazing truism that we have to learn and relearn that focusing on just dollars turns all relationships into transactions. That would be like saying, “I will love you, have children with you, grow old and die with you because there is a net present positive value to me from doing so.” The Philanthropy Northwest reports document how an effort to actually build real and rich relationships with Indian Country has broken through years of mistrust and abuse. The reports also note that gains from these relationships are mutual. The Philanthropy Northwest members that have participated in this dialogue have learned more about themselves, their communities, their local and national histories, and begun to think about their lives and their own places in the world in a different way.

This is not a short-term or easy process. Philanthropy Northwest’s commitment to this dialogue has stretched across the better part of a decade and has now permeated most every aspect of how the organization works. But the big question here is, “So what?” The “so what?” is that something different is happening in the Northwest. Native and Tribal communities are now looking to philanthropy as a partner they can work with to start to deal with some of the intractable issues that are an artifact of the vicious and genocidal colonization processes followed in the United States. A community that has had every reason to distrust people coming in to “help them” is now starting to co-create indigenous solutions. Philanthropy is joining this party because it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do because our wealth – our commonwealth – has been based on the gifts given to us by Native Americans. It is right because we have been blind too long to the injustices that have been carried out often in our own neighborhoods. It is right because it makes sense. We all want to make a difference in the world – and we can make the biggest difference in those areas where the need is the biggest.

I commend Philanthropy Northwest for these reports, and the commitment and leadership displayed in building a new way of giving to Indian Country.

By Mandi Moshay
Communications Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

On July 30th, President Obama signed into law the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership (HEARTH) Act. The legislation is a demonstration of the Administration’s commitment to strengthening tribal communities by giving tribal leadership the ability to control their own futures.

The HEARTH Act gives tribes the ability to create jobs and gain greater self-determination by allowing restricted lands to be leased for residential, business, public, religious, educational, or recreational purposes without the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. Tribes will now be able to quickly lease lands – a change that many believe will contribute to an increase in investment opportunities and economic development throughout Indian Country.

Read more about the HEARTH Act and additional accomplishments made for Native Americans and Native Alaskans by the Obama Administration on the White House Blog.

To find out more about the work that Philanthropy Northwest is doing in Northwest Indian Country, check out our recently released report: A Journey into Indian Country.

In an effort to facilitate conversation around the direction of our region’s philanthropic sector, Philanthropy Northwest has invited a number of representatives from foundations, corporate grantmaking programs, and related organizations to share their perspective on our 2012 Trends in Northwest Giving report. Check out our recently released infographic highlighting interesting findings related to giving to community improvement and capacity building.

By Kris Hermanns
Executive Director
Pride Foundation

Imagine you run a youth group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) kids in a rural community. Your group is part of a larger organization, but you have realized there is a need for your group to expand: to serve the growing number of youth coming through your doors; to leverage and increase your technical expertise to better engage in broader collaborations; and to run more independently in terms of your governance and your finances. Where would you begin?

For many leaders this is a tipping point. A decision like this can dictate the future course of the organization—whether you thrive or barely survive. And it is in moments like this that Pride Foundation wants our community partners to be able to turn to us.

At Pride Foundation, one of our underlying tenets is that we need a robust nonprofit sector for us to fulfill our core mission—supporting organizations and leaders who are creating equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families. This means that we must invest in our community partners’ efforts to develop, refine, and modernize their organizational strategies, internal systems, and staffing structures if we are going to hold them to high standards for delivering critical programs and services to our community. Pride Foundation’s capacity building grants, like the grants made by many of our colleagues’ and highlighted in Philanthropy Northwest’s Trends in Northwest Giving report, allow organizations to strengthen their infrastructure through training, consulting, and coaching.

NCBI Montana, one of the many youth groups supported by Pride Foundation

Luckily for all of us, and especially LGBTQ youth in the Northwest, the group mentioned above was indeed able to start their own

fundraising program, and is now well on its way to being self-sustaining. There is an expansive community leadership team in place. What’s more, they have new partnerships that will enable them to reach out to even more youth than ever before. All of this was made possible by one multi-year capacity building grant from Pride Foundation.

This is why Pride Foundation invests in capacity building—it pays even greater dividends down the road. It ensures that our community partners can respond to critical internal and external challenges in a timely and strategic way. It prepares our community partners to position themselves to diversify their funding streams. It means that the programs and services that our community has come to rely on will be there for those most in need.

As simple as it sounds, Pride Foundation is in the capacity building business because it is the right thing to do in support of our vision and values.

To learn more about giving to capacity building in the Northwest, be sure to check our Philanthropy Northwest’s Trends in Northwest Giving report and the accompanying infographic highlighting giving to community improvement and capacity building.

By Mandi Moshay
Communications Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

D5, a five-year coalition to grow philanthropy’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, recently released its 2012 State of the Work report, highlighting the efforts made over the past year by foundations to recruit more diverse leadership, increase funding in diverse communities, and become more transparent, specifically by collecting data related to diversity, equality, and inclusion. D5 intends for the report to be used by organizations to generate new strategies for improving the field.

Philanthropy Northwest is honored to have our work in Indian Country profiled in the report (pages 28 and 29). CEO Carol Lewis is quoted explaining Philanthropy Northwest’s commitment to partnering with Native organizations: “This is our home. That is why our commitment to partner with native communities is not just a special initiative, but a core value. Our work in Indian Country reflects our conviction that all Northwest communities, when properly understood, respected, and supported, have within them the capacity to create a vibrant, healthy future.”

In her guest post on the D5 blog, Carol talks about how Philanthropy Northwest has been exploring the role of funders working with Native partners. “I am much less interested in funders defining solutions to problems and much more interested in how funders empower communities to represent their own interests and to find their own solutions to the problems they face,” says Lewis.

Philanthropy Northwest will soon be releasing its own report, Journey Into Indian Country. Along with the work of the D5 project, we hope that stories of partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy, the Potlatch Fund, and many other Native leaders, will inspire funders throughout our region to imagine new strategies for grantmaking. Download and read the full State of the Work report to learn more.

By Mandi Moshay
Communications Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

Native Americans in Philanthropy recently hosted their 2012 Native Philanthropy Institute, and as part of its annual award ceremony, recognized Philanthropy Northwest as Partner and Ally of the Year. The Partner and Ally Award was given for the first time this year, and is designed to recognize non-Native organizations that demonstrate a leadership role in partnering with Native organizations. CEO Carol Lewis was on hand at the Native Philanthropy Institute to accept the award.

Philanthropy Northwest was nominated by Tommer Peterson of Grantmakers in the Arts. “Philanthropy Northwest seemed like a natural fit, given their history. At the core of this was Philanthropy Northwest’s approach to learning about working in Indian Country,” says Peterson. He cites intentional efforts to begin a journey into Indian Country by listening and learning – by finding opportunities to partner with Native Americans in Philanthropy and Native leaders in a variety of ways, creating spaces for funders and Native leaders to develop relationships, and featuring Native-led programming, including conference sessions, over the years. “This open-minded approach and willingness to learn is what made Philanthropy Northwest seem like an ideal nominee for the award,” said Peterson.

Philanthropy Northwest is excited to continue our work in Indian Country, making new connections, and deepening existing relationships within Native American communities. We look forward to sharing what we are learning and to promoting dialogue in our upcoming report Journey into Indian Country: Lessons for Philanthropy. We hope that philanthropists and foundations will be inspired to learn more about the good work happening with Northwest’s Native communities.

By Lyn Hunter
Senior Program Manager
Philanthropy Northwest

On April 2nd and 3rd, I was honored to participate in the first convening of its kind ever undertaken by a Presidential administration. It was the historic  White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) National Philanthropic Briefing in Washington DC. It convened over 200 philanthropic and community leaders for discussions with Cabinet members and ranking officials of the Obama Administration to explore ways to better leverage strategies, policies, and investments to benefit AAPI populations.

I was surprised by the presentation by Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, who stated that the “Hispanic and AAPI communities are the headlines for the 2010 Census.”   The AAPI population grew faster than any other racial group in the country between 2000 and 2010. (The Asian Population: 2010 Census Brief. U.S. Census Bureau). Yet only 0.3% of philanthropic resources have been allocated to the AAPI community, an increase of only 0.1% from 10 years ago. (WHIAAPI National Philanthropic Briefing).

Contrary to the prevailing model minority myth, we learned that aggregate data lumping of diverse AAPI communities masks serious challenges. For example:
- Education disparities: 40% of Hmong Americans and 35% Laotian Americans do not complete high school.
- Health disparities: AAPIs account for over half of the chronic hepatitis B cases and resulting deaths. Older AAPI women suffer from the highest suicide rate of all women over age 65 in the U.S.
- Home ownership: According to 2008 national estimates, all Asian ethnic groups have lower homeownership rates than the total population. Bangladeshi (48%), Cambodian (50%) and Hmong (50%).
Click here for more info.

Strategies to support AAPI communities will be most successful when governmental, private philanthropies and nonprofits collaborate to achieve complimentary goals. Many opportunities are ripe for public-private partnership and investment. Philanthropy Northwest members will be notified of a series of panels on emerging issues in Northwest AAPI communities presented by the Seattle/Puget Sound Chapter of AAPIP in the coming months.

As Luis Ubinas, president of the Ford Foundation, stated “Closing the gap between the children of opportunity and the children of want must be our rallying cry.”

I look forward to learning more about how our members’ funding strategies in partnership with our federal partners can continue to support this unique community. Only in America!

Washington State representatives (L-R): Antony Chiang (Empire Health Foundation), Huong Vu (Seattle Arts Commission), Lyn Hunter (Philanthropy Northwest), Diane Narasaki (Asian Counseling Referral Service), Alice Ito (Marguerite Casey Foundation and Asian Americans/ Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy National Board), Hyeok Kim (President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and InterIM Community Development Association) and Jill Nishi (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).

By Luz Vega-Marquis
President and CEO
Marguerite Casey Foundation

 [Philanthropy Northwest is pleased to post this interview, which appeared originally in Independent Sector's blog on April 3, 2012.]

What can volunteers learn from organizations – and vice versa?
Successful volunteers and organizations work in tandem to address a community’s needs, whether the community is built around a place, issue, or identity. Each can learn from the other’s unique vantage point, and each holds the other accountable to the community. Volunteers bring authentic passion to community service that keeps organizations connected to the grassroots. Organizations, on the other hand, are positioned to sustain engagement and bear the “big picture” in mind. These capacities are complementary, edifying, and mutually reinforcing: volunteers learn how their efforts fit into a bigger picture and organizations stay in touch with what’s happening on the ground. Volunteering is about giving back and building better communities.

What initially inspired you to work in philanthropy?
Philanthropy is about taking risks. It is about believing that there are solutions to social inequities. Philanthropy is inherently strategic and it is about much more than giving away money – it’s about people. As President & CEO of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, I have been privileged to be in partnership with organizations across the country that are working toward bringing about systemic change to improve policies, social services, and public discourse. As an immigrant from Nicaragua, I understand that a society’s ability to thrive is dependent on the strength of all of its people and its investment in long-term solutions that address social inequities. When I came to this country, I believed in the American dream – only to find out years later that not everyone can achieve the dream no matter how hard they work. Philanthropy can help bring about systemic change so that every family can prosper. Marguerite Casey’s brand promise is Ask, Listen, Act. We ask families and organizations what changes need to be made; we listen to what they recommend and then we act based on their direction.  The result is communities working in true partnership with a foundation towards the greater good. This is the promise of philanthropy and what continues to inspire me.

Does our sector adequately reflect diversity across America?
Unfortunately, it does not. Like companies and organizations across the country, philanthropy has very few people of color as heads of boards, presidents, and CEO’s as well as in leadership and decision-making positions. Diversifying philanthropy will not guarantee inclusion, but it will encourage diverse opinions and increase sensitivity and awareness toward changing demographics. As a result, such positive changes could influence how we make grants, including supporting endeavors that otherwise might be overlooked. By not reflecting diversity across America, philanthropy is missing the opportunity to build authentic relationships with diverse communities. Diversity can take many forms, and include in addition to people of color, LGBT populations, people with disabilities, and women, the latter of whom are increasingly leading foundations, but who are still under-represented as board members and trustees. According to a report issued by the D5 Coalition, State of the Work 2011, less than a third of foundations have diversity policies and practices in place. Without such policies and practices, foundations will likely not make the necessary changes to look more like America, and more importantly, like the communities we have promised to serve. And that is philanthropy’s Achilles’ heel.