Accountability & Philanthropy: Time for a Cycle of Repair
Watch the Video of Allen Kwabena Frimpong, Senior Fellow at PolicyLink; Co-Founder of ZEAL and Liberation Ventures
“…we have to create a culture in which people can foster and hold space to practice accountability in real time, and it's even more important now as we have these conversations about reparations, because for us, reparations, is the nexus point of racial justice and equity work …if we can't go through cycles of acknowledgement and reckon with the harms that we've caused. If we cannot think about the ways that we are going to go through a cycle of repair and addressing ways that we're going to understand and being a commitment to how we hold ourselves accountable, and invite ourselves into community accountability …”
Allen Kwabena Frimpong, Senior Fellow at PolicyLink, Co-Founder of Liberation Ventures & Co-Founder of ZEAL
#DisruptPhilanthropyNOW!
What has been your experience receiving grants from Foundations? Have you experienced racially inequitable practices? Be a Truth-Teller - It is time for Accountability NOW!
Share your truths about the racial inequities of grantmaking and foundation practices on #DisruptPhilanthropyNOW! Share your story through writing or video (including anonymously). We can support you by providing a thought partner and/or editor.
"We can no longer whisper to each other, or yell behind closed doors... Just as we use data and stories publicly to challenge immigration, criminal justice, health, educational inequities, so must we use data and stories to challenge philanthropy to do right by our communities.....This is a loving invitation to our colleagues, friends, and comrades in the racial justice movement to say “enough!”... We can no longer protect our own resources by being silent when we know one of our funder’s unjust practices have devastating effects on other organizations or in the communities where we work."
We cannot significantly move the needle for racial justice if we are unwilling to challenge how resources are distributed. If our interactions with the organizations who fund us are not aligning with our vision and values of racial justice and liberation.
We need to organize for transformational change in philanthropy!