From ASC: In 2015, ASC began its journey towards cultural equity. Why? Because ASC’s staff and board realized that — to truly achieve the organization’s vision of “Culture for All”— all Charlotte-Mecklenburg residents must have equitable opportunity to participate in the cultural life of our region as audiences, volunteers, artists, administrators, board members and donors. ASC believes that everyone has cultural traditions that are inherently valuable, and that artists, scientists and historians play a unique role in challenging inequities and inspiring human understanding, justice and opportunity for all. 

Since beginning its cultural equity journey, ASC has:
• Expanded Operating Support Grants to new grassroots and multicultural organizations
• Restructured project-based funding as Cultural Vision Grants to align with community priorities and diversify the funding pool
• Started Catalyst for Cultural Equity, a program that prepares arts and culture nonprofit professionals to help advance cultural equity in their organizations
• Launched Culture Blocks, a Mecklenburg County-funded program to provide arts and cultural experiences closer to where people live
• Started two artist fellowship programs that demonstrate ASC’s belief investing in Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s creative individuals benefits the region’s overall cultural climate
• Increased support for Regional Artist Project Grants, now called Artist Support Grants
• Aligned ASC supported education programs with key opportunity measures (PreK readiness, 3rd grade reading, middle school transition, high school
graduation) as defined by community priorities
• Expanded opportunities for local/regional artists to receive Public Art commissions
• Focused workshops & training opportunities around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion
• Approved a Cultural Equity Statement that guides ASC’s work and provides a framework to set organizational policies and practices

Read the full report here.

“Both in the arts and beyond, money is fundamentally based on trust. Our economic system functions due to society’s trust in it, enabling cooperation and exchange. However, if we trust in money itself, why is it that in arts philanthropy, trust in artists is largely absent?” said Ted Russell, former GIA board member and Director of Arts Strategy & Ventures for the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. “The restricted nature of many forms of grantmaking—such as project-based support—imply that we lack confidence in an artist’s ability to themselves determine how to allocate funds in support of their practice.”

“Enter trust-based philanthropy—a type of support defined by mutuality, transparency, and unrestricted funding. This is a model that has gained popularity across the philanthropic sector, but it has yet to take hold in the arts. However, it provides a promising solution for trusting artists, offering a model for deeper, more meaningful support.”

“This question of trust is one that artists have been asking funders for years, a dialogue which heavily informed the development of the Rainin Fellowship—an annual program we launched with United States Artists to award four anchor artists in the San Francisco Bay Area with unrestricted grants of $100,000 and supplemental support. Fellows are empowered to spend the money on whatever they see fit. This approach recognizes that artists’ individual needs are varied and they are the best experts on how to uplift their practices. Whether they decide to spend the money on housing, healthcare, or future projects, our approach foregrounds autonomy and true impact, values that are aligned with the trust-based philanthropy model.”

“The Rainin Fellowship embodies trust-based philanthropy and is rooted in the work of the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, a five-year, peer-to-peer funder initiative and platform that addresses the inherent power imbalances between foundations and nonprofits. Central to this model is the act of listening, and learning. In creating the Rainin Fellowship in the Bay Area, we collaborated with both national and local partners to better understand the needs of the artists in our communities.”

“Trusting artists’ unique processes, chosen methodologies, and the longevity of their collaborations is a central pillar of the Rainin Fellowship. Through unrestricted funding and supplemental support, we recognize that their impact lies not only within the individual projects they exhibit and execute, but in the lasting legacy of their pioneering creative frameworks.”

“The very architecture of our grantmaking process is deeply rooted in that which we’ve learned from artists and the cultural field at large—lessons of emotional intelligence, empathy, and the tremendous impact that holistic support can have on artists’ lives. We believe that the fellowship’s trust-based model might act as a blueprint for other funders in the cultural space, uncovering how meaningful support of individual artists can strengthen our local and regional arts networks as a whole.”

“If society’s relationship to money is that of trust, it’s integral for us as arts funders to ground our support of artists in trust as well. We call upon other funders in the field to reexamine how through trusting artists—not only with unrestricted funding, but also in allowing them to tell us how best we can support them—we can propel creative innovation and allow artists to truly thrive.”

Read the full article here.

From Philanthropy Together: Sara wants to invite you over to dinner at her house. In this loud, chaotic, loving environment, Sara shows you how to build power in your community through the power of collective giving. In the process, Sara and her friends – along with hundreds of thousands of people worldwide – are part of a global giving circle movement ushering in a new era in philanthropy that is diverse, democratic, and joyful. And when more diverse people become philanthropists, more diverse solutions and nonprofit leaders get funded.

Watch this TED Talk on giving circles to learn how giving circles turn the act of giving—which is so often done individually and reactively—into a collaborative, intentional, joyful, values-based way of engaging with the issues that matter most.

From the Wallace Foundation: Youth workers from historically marginalized communities serve as important mentors to young people in out-of-school-time (OST) programs. But in a 2020 student-led survey of youth in OST programs, many of these workers reported experiencing racism in the workplace, along with low wages and job instability. In this episode of Beyond the Classroom, researchers and practitioners discuss strategies for addressing these challenges in order to more effectively recruit and retain skilled youth workers.

Episode 3 features Bianca Baldridge (Harvard University), Vanessa Roberts (Project VOYCE), Deepa Vasudeavan (American Institutes for Research), and Sarai Hertz-Vaelázquez (Wellesley College). Listen to the full episode now.

From Disability Philanthropy: One in four adult Americans and an estimated 1 billion people globally experience disability, but foundation funding for disability only represents approximately two cents of every foundation dollar awarded.

Foundation Giving for Disability: Priorities and Trends offers a first-ever, detailed examination of how U.S. foundations focus their support for disability communities. It serves as a resource for understanding the scale and priorities of current support and provides a baseline for measuring changes in funding going forward.

Read the full report here.