“We have to stop being afraid of the critique,” Joe Scantlebury, CEO of Living Cities says in the Chronical of Philanthropy. “We don’t improve in silence.”

“Scantlebury is one of many nonprofit leaders of color who have stepped in to lead organizations over the past two years as the effort to end racism has been taken up with renewed vigor,” Alex Daniels reports. “Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020, many nonprofits, particularly those that serve and advocate for people of color, felt like outsiders in the struggle. For many of those groups, part of the answer has been to replace White leaders with people of color. Those leaders were often charged with changing the culture of the organization to ensure it was a place employees of all backgrounds could thrive.”

According to the Building Movement Project’s recent report, Trading Glass Ceilings for Glass Cliffs: A Race to Lead Report on Nonprofit Executives of Color, there has been an influx of leaders of color who have taken jobs previously held by White leaders in the last year. “The survey found that executives of color did not have the same support as leaders as their White counterparts when they entered their roles. They were asked to do more, and often paid less.”

Read here.

“If you’ve taken a leap, what was the runway you needed? If you wanted to take a leap, but didn’t, what held you back?” writes guest editor Donita Volkwijn about the prompts for the latest edition of Nonprofit Wakanda Quarterly.

“Most people growing up in the United States, either from birth or as settlers from other lands, have heard some form of the adage, “leap and the net will appear,'” Volkwjin continues …”Those of us in the BIPOC community know that there is no such thing as a magical net. If we’ve ever benefitted from a soft landing, we know that every thread of our net was crafted from the wisdom, joy, fear and pain of those who came before us. “

Read the Winter 2021-2022 issue here.

The Henry Luce Foundation announced recently the commitment of $14 Million in new grants intended to amplify diverse experiences and fund community-engaged projects.

“These commitments include projects selected in three grant competitions: American Art Loan Exhibitions; Advancing Public Knowledge on Race, Justice, and Religion; and Democracy, Ethics, and Public Trust Initiative,” the announcement shared of the Board’s decision. “In addition to the work supported through these competitions, the Foundation continued its emphasis on strengthening and disseminating knowledge by and about underrepresented communities and encouraging innovative approaches to research and teaching in emerging areas of study.”

Read more about these new grants here.