Amplifying a Cultural Community: Leeways Impact

AMPLIFYING A CULTURAL

COMMUNITY: LEEWAY’S IMPACT

This impact assessment report is accompanied by three videos: •

“Shifting Power: Leeway’s History” explores the history of Leeway’s transition from a white-led family foundation to a foundation led by a multiracial community board supporting women and trans artists working on social change.

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“Planting Seeds: Leeway’s Grantmaking Model” is an animation of Leeway’s grantmaking model.

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“Amplifying a Cultural Community: Leeway’s Impact” is the accompaniment to this report and shows grantees and partners describing the impact of Leeway’s grantmaking and programming.

All are available at www.leeway.org.

Written by

Barbary Cook Dragonfly Partners Denise Brown Leeway Foundation

Design & layout by Cesali Morales cesali.design@gmail.com

Illustrations by Gabrielle Patterson

Edited by

Shauna Swartz

TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword

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Executive summary

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Introduction

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What you need to know about Leeway

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Leeway’s history Leeway’s approach to shifting power in philanthropic practice Key elements of how Leeway does its work

Leeway’s impact Impact on grantees Impact on panelists Impact on the ecosystem of social change artists in the Philadelphia area Impact on local partners, national philanthropy and the field of art and social change

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Challenges and opportunities for Leeway

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Appendix 1: Methodology

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Appendix 2: List of phone interviewees, community meeting participants and filmed interviewees

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Notes

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Author’s Acknowledgments

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Leeway Foundation annual posters designed by Tony Carranza

FOREWORD “Culture, like food, is necessary to sustain us. It molds us and shapes our relations to each other. An inequitable culture is one in which people do not have the same power to create, access or circulate their practices, works, ideas and stories. It is one in which people cannot represent themselves equally. To say that American culture is inequitable is to say that it moves us away from seeing each other in our full humanity. It is to say that the culture does not paint a more just society.”

— Jeff Chang, We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation Leeway Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2018. This important birthday seemed a good time to celebrate, reflect on and learn from what led us to this point in the foundation’s development. This milestone provided an opportunity to share what we’ve learned about developing a more equitable and community-engaged philanthropic practice, and its potential to have a deep and positive impact in the communities we serve.

A big shift began in 2004, when after a generational transfer of Leeway’s leadership, the foundation began an exploration of what it would mean to focus its resources on supporting artists who were interested in creating work with community transformation as its core intent.

It’s important to remember the context this work began in. This was before the field of arts philanthropy had widely embraced practitioners working at the intersection of arts, culture and social change. When Leeway began this work in earnest, there were a few arts funders explicitly supporting this work, among them the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Kentucky Foundation for Women, the Lambent Foundation (formerly the Starry Night Fund) and the Ford Foundation. Social practice or socially engaged art as a field was gaining momentum in academia, but many of the artists and cultural producers we think of as exemplars of the kind of practices the foundation wanted to support identified in other ways — as community arts practitioners, as cultural workers and organizers, as political artists, and more.

Though a number of the people involved in the foundation at the time were artists, we were also cultural organizers, invested in constructing a practice that engaged with questions of racial and cultural equity and framed philanthropy as a form of movement building, beginning with the baseline that relationships are central to this practice. It was clear to us that centering relationship and community-building is the most effective way to amplify the impact of our limited grantmaking resources. We hoped shifting power away from the foundation by involving community members in the organizational leadership and decision-making processes: •• Would open up the world of philanthropy to more challenge •• Expand the definitions of the form this work could take •• Create more opportunities in terms of access — not just who is funded, but the how of funding Our experience has taught us that funders have to be willing to use resources, both human and monetary, to achieve their vision for change. Over a decade ago, we set out to identify Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Foreword

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members of our community who are recognized and highly valued for their artistic and cultural contributions to the neighborhoods and identity-based communities within which they offer their work. Because many we seek out have never before claimed space as artists, we charged ourselves with creating a platform accessible to the people who are already doing the work in communities. Many of them for years, some for decades, others just beginning, including those who have never thought of themselves in the contexts of art and social change, or the formalized realms of cultural production. We believe this report affirms that in order to achieve Leeway’s goal of being accessible to a broad constituency — one that diminishes boundaries created by age, class, gender identity or ability — and do it well, there must be a commitment to using foundation resources to go out and meet people where they are.

We are grateful to Leeway’s board and staff for their commitment to the work of the foundation and their meaningful contributions to this process. Their experience and insight greatly enriched the report we present to you now.

Throughout this process we have been hugely appreciative of the ways in which the people we are in relationship with, some newly acquainted others long-term — applicants, grantees, community partners, our colleagues in philanthropy and our allies and accomplices from around the country — agreed to participate in this process and share their experience of and insights about Leeway’s impact and place in their communities. We are humbled by their openness and generosity.

Over time, we have been excited and encouraged by the acknowledgment of the efficacy of Leeway’s philanthropic practice, as well as the increased support for individuals and organizations committed to working at the intersections of art, culture, community and change. We offer this report as a contribution toward moving the work forward and hope members of the different communities of which we are a part find it useful as they develop more equitable practices and explore ways of shifting power in philanthropy. As we embark on an organizational strategic planning process, we look forward to getting your feedback and continuing to be part of the field-wide learning exchanges from which we’ve gained so much.

Ashe!

Denise Brown Executive Director Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Foreword

Amadee Braxton Board President 4

Leeway would like to thank: Barbary Cook for the rigor, flexibility and good humor she brought to the process.

We look forward to working with you in the future.

Bonfire Media for their enthusiasm for this project, nuanced grasp of the work of Leeway and its grantees, but most of all their patience. Most especially Emily, Sheila, Gabrielle and Maddie, who really made sure this train ran on time.

Maria Rosario Jackson for her guidance and support early on in helping us set the frame for this project and reminding us of the importance of “invisible work.”

Sage Crump for helping us kick off this process as we imagined the future and Leeway’s place in it.

Aarati Kasturirangan, Arleta Little, Carlton Turner, Eleanor Savage, Ezra Berkley Nepon, Gretjen Clausing, Jess Garz, Pamela Shropshire, Roberto Bedoya, Sharon L. Robinson, Tina Morton and community members who participated in the July 2019 strategic planning session for reviewing the products and providing critical feedback at different stages of the process.

The staff and board of the Foundation, particularly Sara Zia Ebrahimi and Melissa Hamilton, for their diligence in managing all the moving parts and reminding us time and time again that if it wasn’t in Basecamp, it didn’t really exist; the board’s impact assessment working group – Germaine Ingram, Carolyn Chernoff and Eli VandenBerg – for their thought partnership; and Cesali Morales for her artful report design.

Everyone who agreed to be interviewed, adding their voices to the telling of the story of Leeway’s impact, and the participants in the community meeting who provided their vision of what Leeway is and can be. The realization of this work is only possible as the result of their willingness to candidly share their experience of the foundation.

Special appreciation goes to Linda Lee Alter and Sara Milly, who stepped aside to support a transformative vision of what Leeway could become and were willing to tell their story.

And finally, to everyone who has been part of the Leeway community over the past 25 years. Our work is only possible because of your willingness to engage with us and share your gifts with Leeway and the communities you love so deeply.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2018, Leeway began an impact assessment process to learn more about the impact of their grants on artists and cultural producers in the wider Philadelphia area. In the fall of 2018, Leeway and Dragonfly Partners together designed the impact assessment process as an action research project, with findings being brought regularly to staff and board members for their input through the summer of 2019. The impact assessment looks at what you need to know about Leeway’s approach to philanthropic practice, and the impact it has had on grantees, grantmaking panelists, the ecosystem of social change artists and cultural producers in the wider Philadelphia area, local partners, and national philanthropy.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LEEWAY “Foundations say, ‘Let’s talk about inclusion and equity,’ but then you won’t change your internal systems to change these systems.” (grantee) •• Leeway’s history — Between 2004 and 2007, Leeway went through a multi-year antioppression organizational development process to look at issues of racism and privilege inherent in foundations. Leeway made a commitment to focus on racial equity, and to include trans and gender-nonconforming artists in all their programs. The white, founding family members transitioned out of the foundation’s leadership, and Leeway began to be led by a multiracial community board of directors.

•• Leeway’s approach to shifting power in philanthropic practice — Leeway’s experience shows that in order to shift power from the funder to grantees, a foundation needs to makes changes at all three levels of the organization: its strategic focus, its leadership and the behaviors of program officers. In Leeway’s case, this meant making several changes described below.

In terms of strategic focus this meant: •• Focusing on racial justice •• Becoming a trans-affirming organization In terms of leadership, this meant: •• Shifting away from being a white family-led foundation to a multiracial community board-led organization •• Having a board committed to enacting its values across the whole organization •• Becoming led by women of color (at the board and staff levels) In terms of program officer behavior, this meant: •• Centering building relationships and community-building with grantees at the core of its work •• Handing staff’s decision-making power over to independent grantmaking panels made up of artists and cultural producers •• Supporting grantees to build power for and in their communities Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Executive Summary 6

•• Providing feedback to all applicants so decision-making is transparent •• Ensuring expansive outreach — stepping out into the neighborhood Another foundation might not choose to take all of the actions that Leeway took for a variety of reasons, but in order to generate the same kind of impact in terms of shifting power to grantees, they do need to take action at all three levels of the organization.

KEY ELEMENTS OF HOW LEEWAY DOES ITS WORK Building community “So, it’s been really powerful for me to have a community that is just so multiple, so complex and such an ecosystem that is different creative mediums, different neighborhoods, different racial and ethnic groups, different generations.” (grantee) •• Social change happens through building relationships — Leeway believes that building relationships and community are necessary to achieving social change, and that centering relationships is a way to amplify the impact of limited grantmaking resources.

The organization sees it as a form of movement building. Leeway has built strong, vibrant relationships with artists and cultural producers, relationships that are binding and full of trust.

•• “Radical hospitality” — Leeway takes care of people when they’re in Leeway spaces in a thoughtful way, purposefully offering comfort and sustenance so that artists and cultural producers feel valued and respected.

•• “Local love” — Artists and cultural producers emphasize how unusual it is for them to have a local arts and social change funder that supports them in their own city and community compared to colleagues in other cities and regions.

•• Leeway is well known, and loved, by grantees and partners — Artists and cultural producers feel a strong sense of connection to Leeway. It was striking how much grantees and partners knew about Leeway. They pay attention to Leeway, maybe because they feel paid attention to.

Shifting power to artists •• Shifting power through grantmaking — Leeway’s grantmaking process disrupts the traditional power dynamic between a funder and grantee. It’s transparent and clear, which makes it easier for applicants to understand and navigate. Leeway is clear about what it’s looking for. Leeway’s staff don’t make grantmaking decisions; independent panels do.

•• Flexibility — When it comes to the work the grantees do, Leeway is flexible and realistic about the unexpected twists and turns an Art and Change Grant project can take.

•• Working at the margins — Leeway is committed to figuring out as an ongoing process what the new edge of art and social change work is, and who is now at the margins who can be invited into that work.

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•• Stepping out into the neighborhood — Leeway doesn’t wait for applicants to come to them; they go out to where they are. Leeway holds information sessions for artists and cultural producers out in neighborhoods and tries to hold these in new places where they haven’t yet received as many or any applications.

“I think what’s great about the evolution of Leeway is that they’ve always tried to figure out what’s at the margins now and how do we push that and bring that closer to, I mean not the center, who cares about the center, but how do we lift up those voices? How do we broaden the platform so that other folks can stand on that? Now that we’ve pushed at these margins, what’s beyond those margins? And what’s beyond that?” (grantee)

A culture of learning and experimentation

•• Internal culture of learning and experimentation — Leeway staff and board have built and continue to nurture an internal culture of learning and experimentation.

•• Space for grantees to experiment — Grantees think that there is a lot of space given

by Leeway in the application process and the project/award itself to learn and make mistakes.

•• Learning exchanges — Leeway’s practices have been informed by learning from artists, organizers, peer organizations and other partners in the field, and from being in spaces where current philanthropic practice is being rebuilt to better support ideas and constituencies outside the mainstream.

Elevating and celebrating artists •• Programming and celebration — Leeway celebrates and promotes its grantees with verve and joy through the annual artist book, events, exhibitions, performances, etc.

LEEWAY’S IMPACT Impact on grantees •• Artists and cultural producers feel that they are part of the Leeway community — This community membership is not temporary and based on being a grantee, but long-term and based on a nourishing relationship with Leeway.

•• Artists and cultural producers have built a clearer identity as an artist through Leeway’s invitation for self-exploration/reflection — Being a Leeway applicant and a grantee changes the way artists and cultural producers think about art and social change, and their own artistic and cultural practice and identity.

“The application processes every year literally shaped my path moving forward. I really credit Leeway. Going through the rigorous set of questions, evaluating myself and my communities, my impact — having them in my head from the very beginning really impacted me.” (grantee)

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•• Artists and cultural producers feel validated and legitimized by getting the Leeway grant — This validation encourages them to apply for more grants from Leeway and from other funders.

•• Artists and cultural producers have built their confidence to avail themselves of other opportunities — Getting the grant from Leeway is a springboard to applying, and getting, other grants and fellowships.

•• Artists and cultural producers experience greater financial freedom — Transformation awardees described how they spent some of the grant on their artistic work, but they also used the money to do all sorts of other things: to travel, to learn or to pay rent. The key element was a freedom to choose whatever they needed.

•• Artists and cultural producers connect new applicants to Leeway — All of the artists, cultural producers and local partners we interviewed had encouraged other artists to apply for Leeway grants.

Impact on panelists “I loved it. It was a phenomenal experience. There was incredible intimacy in the cohort. It was delicious. It was emergent, collective practice, which I totally loved.” (grantee and panelist) •• Who sits on the panel — The grantmaking panels are made up of artists, cultural producers and activists who are invited because the foundation sees them as exemplars of the kinds of practices Leeway exists to support. Leeway aims to create panels that are intergenerational, cross-cultural, multidisciplinary and representative of varied identities.

•• Rigorous, emergent practice — Panelists agreed that the “charge” to the panel, including the definition of a Leeway artist, the facilitation and the feedback that is given afterwards to all applicants, means that the process has rigor, and that the consensus-based deliberation does not get reduced to a subjective judgment of art or allow one voice to dominate.

•• Shifting power through experiential learning — For some artists and cultural producers, being on a panel taught them how philanthropic decision-making works, and they used this new knowledge and the power it gave them to apply for and get other grants, and to influence grantmaking processes in other places.

Impact on the ecosystem of social change artists in the Philadelphia area “Can you imagine what it’s like if Leeway didn’t exist for 25 years?! ... The amount of resource that filtered into the lives of the artists, the people who are getting paid to work with the artists. It’s such a cultural economy that is filtered through 25 years of grants.” (grantee and panelist) •• Stronger ecosystem of social change artists — While interviewees acknowledged that there are many variables that influence this ecosystem, almost everyone said yes, it was stronger and more sustainable because of Leeway’s work.

•• Ripple effects — What impact are Leeway grants having on the communities that the Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Executive summary

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artists and cultural producers are part of and work with? The impact assessment revealed four rippling circles of change spreading outwards: 1. At the center of the circles is the artist or cultural producer and the change they personally experience, both through the application process and through the artmaking or cultural production process.

2. The second circle out is their community, however they describe it. The community changes because, first, the artist changes and they are part of their community, and second, because community members experience the art (i.e., the play, film, exhibition, performance, etc.) and are changed by that.

3. The third circle out is the artist’s community of artists that they pay for their work, and that they support to get grants from Leeway, other paid gigs and more professional exposure. Leeway artists and cultural producers appear to be redistributing the wealth that Leeway gives them.

4. The fourth circle is the social change that happens when the artist or cultural producer uses art and culture to amplify the effect of an existing social change campaign.

Impact on local partners and national philanthropy and the field of art and social change How do others learn from Leeway? — All the categories of people we interviewed or who contributed to the ripple effect exercise (described on p. 39) said that they had learned something from Leeway: artists, cultural producers, teachers, activists, local nonprofit leaders, and local and national partners working in philanthropy. Leeway has had an impact nationally on the field of art and social change whereby the executive director has built community with, and influenced, peers who are working to change philanthropic practice. Leeway has also had a bottom-up effect, as artists and cultural producers learn from Leeway as a result of being grantees, panelists and partners and take that learning to organize change in their own spaces, philanthropic and otherwise. Partners are clear that the executive director’s leadership has been crucial to Leeway’s impact, supported by a board and staff who embrace and animate Leeway’s values and culture.

What do partners learn from Leeway?

•• Participatory grantmaking — Both local and national partners had looked to Leeway as a model for how to develop more effective participatory grantmaking processes.

“There had been an internal conversation exploring whether our application processes or decision-making processes were unintentionally biased and hindering access to our funding for certain populations and groups.… I thought of Leeway and Denise because of their approach to decision-making. For this foundation, the way that Leeway approaches it is unusual. And so, I wanted to have people think more expansively, and creatively, about different ways of sharing power and responsibility and decision-making. I was very glad she agreed to speak with staff. It was not my expectation that we would wholesale adopt the Leeway [model], but it would stimulate fresh thinking, and that happened.

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And to various degrees programs have begun to make changes to their applications and review processes.” (national partner) •• Becoming a trans-affirming organization — Local and national partners and artists and cultural producers were emphatic that Leeway had been a leader in getting organizations, including foundations, to work towards becoming trans-affirming.

•• Racial equity — Nationally, where the philanthropic conversations on racial justice are slower and more cautious, Leeway’s decade-long practice and leadership in racial equity is an advanced model for partners. Partners have not only learned from Leeway’s focus on racial equity when it comes to grantmaking and organizational processes, but also in their transition away from being led by a white founder family to becoming led by a multiracial community board.

•• Supporting individual artists — Leeway has also been a model for national partners for how best to directly support individual artists.

•• How a family foundation can change when the family gives up power — As noted above, there was a strong appetite among the national partners working in philanthropy to have Leeway share more information about this change process in family foundation spaces, and so contribute to the emerging conversation about white families letting go of their historical philanthropic power and influence.

“What I’ve learned from Leeway is a way of decentering whiteness in philanthropic practice. In this country, the majority of wealth is held by white people for a number of extremely problematic and often horrific reasons. And Leeway was a foundation where there was a shift from the original family that held the wealth to moving towards a more equitable distribution with community.” (national partner)

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEEWAY A small number of interviewees offered thoughtful challenges to Leeway, stemming from their expressed desire to see Leeway continue to grow. For each of these challenges and opportunities we suggest questions that Leeway could explore either as part of their forthcoming strategic planning process or operationally within the Leeway staff team.

Supporting working-class women of color — A small number of interviewees questioned if Leeway is doing enough to support working-class women of color, which seemed to be based on an assumption that many of the gay and trans artists that Leeway funds have class and economic privilege.

•• How can Leeway learn more about the class background of applicants in order to ensure Leeway supports them as much as possible, while also not collecting demographic information in a traditional way that forces applicants into identity descriptions that don’t fully reflect them?

Improving the grantmaking panel process — A small number of interviewees asked if there are enough local, working-class artists and cultural producers on the panels. One interviewee asked if Art and Change applicants should include work samples.

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•• How might Leeway want to change the makeup of the grantmaking panels in the future? οο Are there enough local, working-class artists and cultural producers sitting on the grantmaking panels? What is enough?

•• Should the Art and Change applicants submit work samples as part of the application process?

Expanding Leeway’s national influencing role — All the national partners we spoke to wanted to see Leeway increase the time it spends influencing national philanthropic conversations. They questioned whether or not Leeway wanted to do this or had the time necessary for travel and conferences to influence these conversations.

•• Should Leeway spend more time working to influence national partners to take up key elements of the Leeway approach as described above? If yes, who does Leeway want to influence and why?

Building power or bridges — We heard two different opinions about what role a Leeway grantee should play in supporting social change. First, they should support communities to build power. Second, they should act as bridge builders between polarized communities. This echoes a wider political debate: Is this a political moment to build bridges or build power?

This may be a false dichotomy. Leeway may want to support artists to do both.

•• Does Leeway want to support artists and cultural producers to build bridges, build power or both?

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INTRODUCTION Leeway’s mission is to support “women and trans1 artists and cultural producers working in communities at the intersection of art, culture and social change. Through their grantmaking and other programs, they promote artistic expression that amplifies the voices of those on the margins, promotes sustainable and healthy communities, and works in the service of movements for economic and social justice.” 2 In 2018, Leeway began an impact assessment process to learn more about the impact of their grants on artists and cultural producers in the wider Philadelphia area. Leeway and Dragonfly Partners together designed the impact assessment process as an action research project, with findings being brought regularly to staff and board members for their input. The Leeway board’s impact assessment working group led the process. (For information on the methodology, see p. 56.)

This report is divided into three main sections: •• First, it describes a set of things you need to know about why and how Leeway does its work. The impact assessment process drew out and defined in more detail the key elements of Leeway’s history and process, well known to staff, the board, grantees and partners, but not yet fully articulated as a grantmaking model or approach.

•• Second, it describes the impact Leeway has had on grantees, on the ecosystem of artists and cultural producers working on social change in the wider Philadelphia area, and on local and national partners working in the field of art and social change.

•• Third, it outlines challenges and opportunities offered up by grantees and partners for Leeway to explore going forward. This section includes a series of questions we recommend that Leeway explore in their forthcoming strategic planning process.

Leeway Foundation community meeting participants at the Fleisher Art Memorial, June 10, 2008.

Photo from Leeway Archives.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LEEWAY

LEEWAY’S HISTORY In 1993, artist and Philadelphian Linda Lee Alter (who goes by Lee Alter) established the Leeway Foundation to “promote the welfare of women and benefit the arts by bringing visibility, support and increased respect to the work of women artists.”

After almost a decade, in 2002, as part of a long-term strategic planning decision, Lee stepped down as president of the foundation, at which time her daughter, Sara Milly (Sara Becker at the time), accepted the position. Sara came on board with the intention of making the “individual and community transformation” aspect of the mission the focus of Leeway’s grantmaking. In 2003, Leeway’s board resolved that all of its grants and work as an organization would be through a “lens of change,” and new grant programs were implemented in 2004.

In 2004 Leeway began a multi-year anti-oppression organizational development process to begin to look more clearly at issues of racism and privilege inherent in foundations. This work ultimately led to the board’s decision to include trans and gender-nonconforming artists in all programs, as well as Lee and Sara’s decision to leave the board and transition out of the foundation’s leadership in 2006, leaving the governance of the organization in the hands of the community it serves.3 This history where white family members transferred the foundation to a multiracial community board led by people of color is strikingly unusual. The transfer of power process was fraught, and painful for many people. Within Leeway, staff and board members honor this history and the difficult and brave choices the family, staff and board members made during the transition. They also understand what freedom it has given Leeway to become a different kind of foundation, one where the staff and board reflect the communities it serves, one that is in active relationship with those communities, and one that can make grantmaking choices free of donor influence.

There was a clear appetite among the national partners working in philanthropy that we spoke with to have Leeway talk more about this change process in family foundation spaces, and so contribute to the emerging conversation about white families letting go of their historical philanthropic power and influence. We would note that within Leeway there is an awareness that there are wealthy people of color who have family foundations and that Leeway’s power-sharing message and practices would benefit these institutions too. However, the interviewees we spoke with were focused on white families in family foundation spaces.

“Until philanthropy is subjected to the level of scrutiny that it deserves and becomes accountable as public dollars, the misunderstanding that these families are the owners of the philanthropy is really quite strong. Especially when you’re talking about wealthy people who haven’t had to work in their lives. They don’t have a separate professional identity not related to the family foundation.” (national partner)

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Leeway Transformation Award review panel meeting, December 2009 (L-R: D’Lo, Denise Brown, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Dara Greenwald, Imani Uzuri, Sham-e Ali Nayeem, and Michelle Posadas).

Photo from Leeway Archives.

LEEWAY’S APPROACH TO SHIFTING POWER IN PHILANTHROPIC PRACTICE “Foundations say, ‘Let’s talk about inclusion and equity,’ but then you won’t change your internal systems to change these systems.” (grantee) Leeway is committed to challenging power imbalances, in grantmaking and in the world.

The white family members who originally established the foundation gave up their power and transferred leadership of the foundation to a community-led board of directors.

Leeway’s grantmaking processes shift power away from the funder to the grantees. It supports grantees to build power for and in their communities. Challenging structural power imbalances is in Leeway’s DNA in a way that is noticeably different from most foundations.

What came across clearly from the impact assessment is the insight that in order to transform how a foundation does its philanthropy so that power shifts from the funder to the grantees, a foundation needs to make changes at all three levels of the organization: its strategic focus, its leadership and the behaviors of program officers. In Leeway’s case, this meant making the following changes: In terms of strategic focus •• Focusing on racial justice

•• Becoming a trans-affirming organization In terms of leadership •• Shifting away from being a white family-led foundation to a multiracial community board-led organization •• Having a board committed to enacting its values across the whole organization •• Becoming led by women of color (at the board and staff levels) In terms of program officer behavior •• Centering building relationships and community-building with grantees at the core of its work •• Handing staff’s decision-making power over to independent grantmaking panels made up of artists and cultural producers •• Supporting grantees to build power for and in their communities

•• Providing feedback to all applicants so decision-making is transparent •• Ensuring expansive outreach — stepping out into the neighborhood

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Another foundation might not choose to take all of the actions that Leeway took for a variety of reasons, but in order to generate the same kind of impact in terms of shifting power to grantees, they do need to take action at all three levels of the organization.

Leeway staff and board members also know that this is an ongoing process of enactment, one that requires leadership and vigilance as they interrogate their own power and look for the new edges of their grantmaking. Leeway’s board has ensured that the organization enacts its values across the whole organization. This was clear to some of the national partners working in philanthropy whom we interviewed.

“Leeway’s grantmaking model that is out there in the world — the difference is it goes all the way to the top of the organization. The grantmaking model isn’t as radical if you take it out of its container. I don’t think it’s about those grantmaking practices. Lots of people have panels, like in Advancing Black Arts. But the difference is, the artists are not held by the overall organization in a truly authentic way. The reason people stay for 20 years is because there’s consistency across the whole organization. That was Denise’s point to me. The practices aren’t going to be able to stay past a program officer [leaving] unless the whole organization does all the work.” (national partner) The impact assessment showed that there are clear benefits to a foundation that makes these changes in terms of building community, shifting power away from the foundation to the grantees, and committing to racial justice and becoming trans-affirming. These benefits include: •• Grantees are more likely to be in active relationship with the foundation and be a source of advice and accountability.

•• Grantees are more likely to trust the foundation to act in their interests, to be transparent and to make good decisions.

•• Because of that trust, grantees are more likely to help identify and recruit new applicants from more diverse communities and locations.

•• Grantees are more likely to generate a multiplier effect for the grants, because they would use them to support other artists economically.

•• Foundations are clearer that their actions are contributing to tackling racial injustice and transphobia.

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KEY ELEMENTS OF HOW LEEWAY DOES ITS WORK Building community “So, it’s been really powerful for me to have a community that is just so multiple, so complex and such an ecosystem that is different creative mediums, different neighborhoods, different racial and ethnic groups, different generations. So, it’s one of those things that it’s a rare place that has so much of Philadelphia be part of it.” (grantee) Social change happens through building relationships — Leeway believes that building relationships and community are necessary to achieving social change, and that centering relationships is a way to amplify the impact of limited grantmaking resources. They see it as a form of movement building. Leeway has built strong, vibrant relationships with artists and cultural producers working on social change in the wider Philadelphia area, and with local and national partners — relationships that are binding, and full of trust. In the impact assessment interviews, grantees and local partners said that they felt part of a community that Leeway had built. Grantees know and love the staff at Leeway, and feel like they have strong relationships with them, and that those relationships are a source of support. Almost everyone we spoke to loved the fact that getting a grant or being involved, say, as a panelist meant that you became and stayed a member of the Leeway community.

“They give funding, but they leverage so much more than an exchange of dollars. They are creating and growing community and appreciation, opportunities for new ideas, which they incorporate as they go along. I find it unique.” (grantee and panelist) “They’re super smart, creative, generous. When I’d see them around, they’re super friendly.

They were so excited about my Pew grant and wrote me to say so. That was really kind.” (grantee and panelist) “There are so many ways I’ve seen Leeway support other people. ... They try to support someone even if they don’t have a current grant. I emailed Leeway to ask for teaching artist recommendations because I manage teaching artists. They sent me a list of 20 artists. It included an artist who hadn’t had a grant in 20 years, but they were still considered a member of the Leeway community.” (panel facilitator) “Radical hospitality” — Leeway takes care of people when they’re in Leeway spaces in a thoughtful way, purposefully offering comfort and sustenance so that artists and cultural producers feel valued and respected. One artist, who had been both a grantee and a panelist, called this “radical hospitality.”4 Leeway staff go out of their way to make sure there’s good food to eat, and that people are comfortable and feel at home whenever they come to events, workshops and meetings. They’re thoughtful about and responsive to people’s needs.

When panelists come to Philadelphia to take part in a grantmaking panel, Leeway makes sure Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | What you need to know about Leeway

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they have everything they need. One artist talked about how Leeway creates a stress-free environment for group meetings. And people notice. Artists, cultural producers and partners, both local and those coming from far away, feel taken care of by Leeway. This care means that they feel loyal to Leeway. They feel that they are in active relationship with Leeway. “[Because of Leeway I am] operating within strong values about how to center communities who should be at the forefront of the work and thinking well about how to make each stage of the process intentional and reflective of our values — from the snacks to how we pay and appreciate people’s work.” (panel facilitator) “Local love” — Artists and cultural producers emphasized how unusual it is for them to have a local art and social change funder that supports them in their own city and community compared to colleagues in other cities and regions. They know that it’s unusual to have a local foundation that supports women and trans artists working on social change. It’s even rarer to have one that wants to build community with them, and shift power toward them. Artists and cultural producers we spoke to in other cities who know Leeway’s work also pointed out how unusual it is, and noted that their work would be better supported if they had access to similar resources.

“It was wonderful! Good to be recognized in my own city, which I feel like never happens. ... And finally, I get to exhibit my work at home with other brilliant artists. … It felt like really being treated how I want to be treated as an artist. They’re very classy at Leeway. They really treat people with respect. In Philly, it just feels like people throw you a bone and you’re supposed to be all happy about it.” (grantee) Leeway is well known, and loved, by grantees and partners — It is unusual to carry out evaluation interviews where the responses are so loving and generous, and where people feel such a strong sense of connection to an organization. People did have criticisms, but offered these in a spirit of friendship and a desire to see Leeway continue to grow. It was striking how much grantees and partners knew about Leeway. They knew about Leeway’s history as an organization that had changed over time to address racial justice and become trans-affirming. They knew who worked there. They knew about Leeway events, the newsletter and information sessions. They knew how they could connect with Leeway and receive support from staff there. They pay attention to Leeway, maybe because they feel paid attention to. One local partner said that Leeway was a model of how generosity and democracy inspire love for an organization.

“There are ecosystems [in Philadelphia], and [they are] not always connecting. One of the virtues, Leeway has been able to make visible how they aren’t connecting and cut across systems and cultures. I think that there’s also ... raising principles, and being consistently responsible to those principles has raised the level of discourse and given clarity to what they’re doing. By doing this for 25 years consistently, and continuing to be a learning organization, there’s been this family building process of just intimate connections, purposeful and meaningful connections. Connections of feeling that are important to creating communities and interconnecting communities. It’s been very important that Leeway has continued to maintain a democratizing, decolonizing approach. Its work Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | What you need to know about Leeway

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around trans inclusion and making people understand that any moment for justice benefits everybody — that’s been hugely important. To the degree it responds to people coming into its orbit, it amplifies their capacity.” (grantee and panelist) “Hearing critique is really difficult, but it’s really important. Because it’s Leeway, it’s part of the Philadelphia family, the Leeway Foundation is. So, when you get feedback from folks here, it’s like getting feedback from your artistic family, folks who you know want the best for you.” (grantee)

Shifting power to artists Shifting power through grantmaking — Leeway’s grantmaking system aims to shift power to artists. Leeway’s approach to grant decision-making disrupts the traditional power dynamic between a funder and grantee. Leeway has done this by building a transparent and clear grantmaking process that is easier for applicants to understand and navigate, and by offering applicants extensive support to apply. Leeway’s staff don’t make grantmaking decisions; instead, other artists and cultural producers from the Philadelphia area and further afield do. All applicants get feedback on their application whether or not they were successful, with the goal being to make the decision-making process transparent. Leeway understands when grant plans need to change. Interviewees and participants at the community meeting confirmed that these actions mean that they have more power in the grantmaking process.5 “The notion of doing philanthropy having let go … of that type of power … is such a more honest way of being and is so much in some ways demanding, because it demands that you have honest and challenging relationships with your peers and with the artists in your community, and if they keep talking to you it might be because they are interested in hearing what you say, and if they laugh at you it might be because you are funny.” (national partner) Leeway’s clarity and transparency about what they are looking for in the grants shifts power toward the artist. Via the outreach described below, Leeway clearly describes how the application process works, and what they’re looking for in an application. Interviewees noted that other funders sometimes obscure the process, and in doing so hold on to power.

“I had been nominated for a larger award in Philly that I didn’t get. I got such mixed messages from [the other funder]. I went to Leeway and got help and went to an info session. I talked to Sara Zia. I was amazed at how transparent they were. Other grants processes are needlessly mystified, which is so frustrating. ... Usually if you approach a foundation it’s just a complete soup — they won’t tell you anything — which is a shame, because clearly they’re looking for something, and sometimes applying for these applications is a part-time job … and yet the amounts of money are tiny. It’s like the Hunger Games for a tiny amount.” (grantee and panelist) Leeway is committed to grantmaking processes and grant conditions that shift power to the artists and cultural producers. We cannot tell if the positive impacts of the Leeway grants listed below are enhanced because of this shift in power, but the rewards for Leeway are stronger trust and relationships between Leeway and artists and cultural producers.

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CeCe McDonald and Joshua Allen during a Black Excellence Tour Free CeCe discussion sponsored by Leeway Foundation at the BlackStar Film Festival.

Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, August 2016.

Flexibility — When it comes to the work the grantees do, Leeway is flexible and realistic about the unexpected twists and turns a project can take. A small number of grantees worried that this lets people off the hook for completing the project, but Leeway is clear that the journey is as important as the destination.

“What I think is … really positive and important about the way that Leeway funds [is that] ... the organization behaves like an organization that understands how artist projects actually roll out. You say it will take 12 months and then it takes 18 months, and they understand. That’s really important for women and trans artists. Women are managing multiple things at the same time, responding to people’s needs and crises, and they have an innate understanding of that and build it into their practice.” (grantee) Working at the margins — We heard from grantees, Leeway staff and board members that Leeway is committed to figuring out as an ongoing process what the new edge of art and social change work is, and who is now at the margins who can be invited into that work. The goal is to bring those people into community with other artists and cultural producers working on social change.

“I think what’s great about the evolution of Leeway is that they’ve always tried to figure out what’s at the margins now and how do we push that and bring that closer to, I mean, not the center (who cares about the center?), but how do we lift up those voices? How do we broaden the platform so that other folks can stand on that? Now that we’ve pushed at these margins, what’s beyond those margins? And what’s beyond that?” (grantee) Stepping out into the neighborhood — Leeway’s goal is to make the application process as accessible as possible. They don’t wait for applicants to come to them; they go out to where they are. Leeway holds information sessions for artists and cultural producers in neighborhoods around the region. They ask a previous grantee from that area to come along and talk about their experience as a grantee. Each year program staff look for new places to hold sessions in neighborhoods where the foundation has received very few or no applications.

Grantees, panelists and local partners are enthusiastic about Leeway’s outreach and can see that they actively try to encourage people who haven’t applied before to apply. Grantees love the information sessions, find them useful and practical, and like that grantees are there to explain what they did. Several grantees we spoke to said they had applied because Leeway reached out to them in some way. New applicants come into Leeway’s orbit, become grantees and go on to recruit new applicants to Leeway. If Leeway were not effectively developing relationships and reaching people through outreach, artists and cultural producers would likely not encourage so many of their peers to apply.

“Bread & Roses6 and Leeway are both unique in how they work and how they engage the community. Others rely on their program officers as the expert. I always think: But you’re not the expert. But Leeway makes a concerted effort to see who else is out there, and to bring them in. I think it’s really important as opposed to relying on who you know.” (panel facilitator) Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | What you need to know about Leeway

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“I guess what comes to mind during my time on the board [is that] they were reaching out to Camden and South Jersey. I guess I was just struck during that time about how intentional and methodical they were — not just doing this in a performative way, but like, who do we need to talk to and how do we recruit? … How do we get the word out? …

They were always very clear about like, how do we make this happen? Do we want this population to know about us? And to cultivate those relationships in real ways.” (grantee and former Leeway board member) “Receiving the [Art and Change] grant was deeply affirming, and led to one of the most important creative processes in my life, which continues to have ripple effects now over 10 years later. Later, Leeway invited me to a ‘Learn more about the Transformation Award process’ event designed to encourage Art and Change grantees to apply for the Transformation Award. I wouldn’t have applied without that encouragement. The application process and receiving the award enabled me to shift the ways I take myself seriously as an artist.” (grantee)

A culture of learning and experimentation Internal culture of learning and experimentation — Leeway staff and board members have built and continue to nurture an internal culture of learning and experimentation, a culture that is adaptive. The application process is a place where Leeway aims to respond to feedback they hear from applicants, grantees and panelists about emerging issues that frame the context for artmaking. For example, Leeway is currently considering how the application might engage more deeply with the question of privilege, a theme that surfaces frequently in panel deliberations. The process of Leeway becoming a trans-affirming organization involved learning and adaptation over many years. Leeway staff and board members explored and resolved questions around making sure the office space was welcoming for trans people, new practices around hiring, updating the application process to support trans applicants and many other steps. Leeway staff are clear that Leeway is an incubator of new ideas, a place to experiment and learn.

“At Leeway, I feel like I’m part of a big experiment. … Leeway is this rare place where we get to experiment with questions about money, power and community tangibly. Like, what happens when a family walks away from its wealth and fully releases their power to the community? What happens when we bring different people together in a consensus process to decide on the grants while also building community and trust with each other in the process? What would it look like if we valued artists’ work outside of a capitalist or post-colonial framework of marketability or museum exhibitions? Artist/activist adrienne mariew brown talks about modeling at the microlevel the kind of world we want at large, and Leeway is a place where we get to do that. It’s not always perfect, but it’s not about perfection. It’s about continuing to show up, observe and grow.” (staff member) Space for grantees to experiment — Grantees also feel the benefit of this culture of experimentation and learning. They think that there is a lot of space given by Leeway in the application process and the project/award itself to learn and make mistakes. Staff provide Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | What you need to know about Leeway

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detailed advice on how to complete the application. The goal is to help the applicant write the best application they can, rather than to safeguard the technicalities of the process. One artist talked about a staff person from Leeway calling them and telling them about a mistake that they made on the application and telling them to fix it and send it back in. Leeway staff are able to provide this level of support in part because grantmaking decisions are made by independent panels, which frees Leeway staff to focus on supporting applicants to craft great applications.

Learning exchanges — Leeway aims to be generous and proactive in sharing their expertise and experience with local and national partners. For example, in 2014 colleagues at the Surdna and Robert Rauschenberg foundations who were interested in Leeway’s approach to grantmaking and charged with developing new grant programs focused on individuals and organizations working at the intersection of art, culture and change consulted with Leeway’s executive director as they were creating the programs that became Surdna’s Artists Engaging in Social Change program and Rauschenberg’s Artist as Activist program.7 Leeway also supports staff and board members to engage deeply with and learn from emerging cultural and philanthropic practices elsewhere. The leadership of Leeway felt it was important to acknowledge that their work doesn’t happen in isolation, and that the foundation’s philanthropic practice has been informed by the following: •• Learning from artists, organizers, colleagues, peer organizations and other partners in the field — some working in philanthropy and others deeply embedded within the spheres and points of intersection of art, culture and social change •• Being in spaces where current philanthropic practice was and is being broken down and rebuilt to better support and engage with ideas and constituencies outside the mainstream For example, the executive director’s foundational influences include the following: •• The formative and visionary work of the late Claudine Brown, former director of the Arts and Culture program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation8 •• Decades of involvement with Bread & Roses Community Fund9 and the Funding Exchange (which closed in 2018),10 first as staff at Bread & Roses, and as a board member of both organizations, which provided grounding in a community-based participatory grantmaking model •• Attendance at the National Network of Grantmakers (NNG) conference (NNG closed in 2008) •• Roberta Uno’s work as a senior program officer for arts and culture at the Ford Foundation, including her support of Artography: Arts in a Changing America11 •• Leveraging Investment in Creativity (LINC),12 a 10-year initiative created to effect change in the support system for artists •• Alternate ROOTS13 and its explicit focus on artists and cultural producers who work for social justice, including the development of the Intercultural Leadership Institute,14 Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | What you need to know about Leeway 26

ROOTS’ collaboration with the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC),15 First Peoples Fund16 and PA’I Foundation17 •• The Allied Media Conference (AMC), which is produced by Allied Media Projects,18 a network of people and projects rooted in Detroit cultivating media for liberation •• The Art and Culture Social Justice Network,19 a network of artists, activists, culture bearers and funders from around the country committed to the power of art and culture to advance social justice •• Her role as a board member of Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA),20 where she contributed to and benefited from the thought leadership that emerged from its racial equity committee.21

Elevating and celebrating artists Programming and celebration — Leeway carries out programming that aims to support their mission and enhance the impact of their grantmaking by increasing the opportunities for and visibility of their grantees’ artmaking. Programming in 2018 included new artist residencies and the 25th anniversary exhibition and celebrations. Leeway celebrates and promotes their grantees with verve and joy through events, exhibitions, performances, etc. Interviewees noted how they learned about new and/or interesting work and events through Leeway, and that they had had their own work promoted by Leeway. They felt more aware of other artists and cultural producers because of Leeway, and more connected to them. They did not say that specific collaborations had emerged from these connections, except for in the 25th anniversary exhibition, which provided collaboration opportunities for some of the artists and which they described as a powerful experience. These artists also said that working side-byside with the other artists as part of the exhibition had been a rewarding experience, and that they hoped that Leeway would do more exhibitions celebrating grantees’ work.

Each year Leeway publishes the artist book, which includes descriptions of every grantee and their work. Leeway wants to give a platform to the artists and cultural producers so that they all receive attention, rather than attention flowing only to those who already have a profile or other funding. As with all Leeway products, the artist book is striking to look at and highquality, with a distinctive and recognizable aesthetic, again as a way to validate the grantees’ work. Leeway distributes the artist book to grantees and local and national partners.

“That [artist book] was unlike any document I had ever seen from philanthropy. (a) It was beautiful, and (b) the group of artists who were selected and represented in that document were completely outside — not that they didn’t have relationships to conventional institutions, but it was a list that only Leeway could come up with, and it included trans people and it included a range of artistic practices that maybe were not legible to conventional philanthropy.” (national partner)

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Detail of blackboard with messages to the ancestors from the altar room installation dedicated to Ana Guissel Palma (LTA ’17; ACG ’17, ’15, ’11). The altar room was designed by Erika Guadalupe Nuñez (LTA ’17; ACG ’17, ’15) for the Making Space: Leeway @ 25 exhibit at Moore College of Art & Design.

Denise Brown 2018.

Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement, and artist and cultural organizer Favianna Rodriquez in a conversation moderated by Sonalee Rashatwar at The Pleasure Principle: Finding Pleasure in the Age of #MeToo, a program of Leeway’s 25th anniversary celebration. Temple Contemporary, Temple University, December 5, 2018.

Kenzi Crash 2018.

LEEWAY’S IMPACT

IMPACT ON GRANTEES Artists and cultural producers feel that they are part of the Leeway community — Leeway has successfully built strong relationships with women and trans artists and cultural producers working on social change and local partner organizations in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. These artists and cultural producers feel that they are part of a community that Leeway has supported, and that this community membership is not temporary and based on being a grantee, but long-term and based on a nourishing relationship with Leeway.

“It was one of the first non-academic grants I got. It made me think, ‘Oh, I can be an artist.

Oh, there’s money out there. There are people who can fund my ideas, and then I can make things happen.’ The stumbling block isn’t having the idea and creating; it’s getting the money. There was also the morale boost. There’s people who believe in me, and there’s this whole network of women and trans people in Philly who are working in community with each other, and that people have your back. I felt like it was a family that has my back.” (grantee) “They give funding, but they leverage so much more than an exchange of dollars. They are creating and growing community and appreciation, opportunities for new ideas, which they incorporate as they go along. I find it unique.” (grantee and panelist) Artists and cultural producers have built a clearer identity as an artist through Leeway’s invitation for self-exploration/reflection — Being a Leeway applicant and a grantee changes the way artists and cultural producers think about art and social change, and their own artistic and cultural practice. The artists and cultural producers we interviewed talked about how the questions in the application stayed with them, and they go on answering them long after the Leeway grant is finished. Grantees use the questions in the application process to mold their artistic identity and to understand their purpose as a social justice/change artist in a deeper way. Most of the artists and cultural producers we talked to describe the application process as intense and one that left them changed. A white artist noted how the application process encourages (almost forces) white people to think about their identity and privilege in a self-critical way, which is a good thing. For some artists and cultural producers we spoke to, Leeway feels like a home for them as artists when, because of their identity, they had previously felt like they would never find an artistic home.

“The application processes every year literally shaped my path moving forward. I really credit Leeway. Going through the rigorous set of questions, evaluating myself and my communities, my impact — having them in my head from the very beginning really impacted me.” (grantee) “It goes right to the heart of what Leeway does and does so brilliantly, which is to shift the conversation about intersectional social identities away from the objectifying question ‘What are you?’ to the empowering question of asking people to tell their own stories in their own words.” (grantee)

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“Very emotional experience. I’ve seen people get really wrapped up in the application process and be totally devastated by their attempts and lack of success. … It’s a really intimate experience. They ask for a lot of depth. I had to learn to separate myself from the grant-writing experience.” (grantee) Leeway gives feedback to all applicants, irrespective of whether they receive a grant. Leeway does this in order to make the application process more transparent so that applicants understand what the panel’s decision-making process was and why they did or didn’t receive the grant. Leeway also hopes that they will use the feedback to apply again to Leeway, and to improve their applications to other funders. Getting feedback on their applications was noted by most interviewees as very helpful for learning more about their artistic practice. It also helped them improve their applications, and they reported using the feedback and the whole application process with Leeway to improve their applications to other funders. A small number reported that the feedback was helpful but hard to hear. Grantees said that Leeway staff was kind and supportive when they gave the feedback.

The questions about identity and purpose in the application process, combined with the feedback process, make the Leeway process an intense one for applicants and grantees, and perhaps a risky one. It also appears that this risk can yield very helpful results, as their understanding of their artistic identity shifts.

“For me those questions were helpful not just in the application process, but it was helpful for me to have clarity on why I am doing what I am doing, and thinking about my own experiences and thinking about what is that common thread that pulls me to want to do this work. Sometimes artists are expected to be like: OK, this is the product. So, those questions for many artists are like: This is the first time I am being asked that, or I’ve always thought of this, but this is the first time where I’m actually putting this into words. This experience, and this experience, and all of those experiences are valued.” (grantee) “After I won, I had one piece of negative feedback — that’s how I received it: They couldn’t see where it could go. ... I was like, What?! But it was a motivator. It made me ask: Well, where am I going with this?” (grantee) “It’s also hard to get rejected. After maybe the third time I tried to keep my spirits up, but I said: I’m not doing it again. After the third time, I didn’t call for the feedback, and someone from Leeway called me and asked why I hadn’t called. They said, ‘No, you can’t give up.

You have to try again.’ I did take it, did really receive it, but a few months later I got myself in a space to redo it. I think if I hadn’t gotten the phone call, I don’t know if I would have reapplied.” (grantee) Artists and cultural producers feel validated and legitimized — The artists and cultural producers we spoke to said that getting the Leeway grant felt like a validation of their work and made them feel more legitimate as an artist or cultural producer. The Art and Change Grant often made newer artists feel like they really were artists, that it was legitimate for them to be practicing art and also applying for grants from Leeway and other places. This validation encouraged them to apply for more grants from Leeway and from other funders.

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“But more so, what would I have to do to believe I am really a writer and artist? I still struggle to believe I am really part of it. So, the vote of confidence, of saying, ‘We see you as part of the artistic life of Philly, and an artist with a body of work and something to say and a skillset — the value we see in you as a cultural worker,’ the validation.” (grantee) In an internal discussion about these findings on validation, someone pointed out that Leeway doesn’t offer approval or disapproval of the artist’s choices. It doesn’t aim to be an arbiter in that way. It intends to design a grantmaking process that respects how the artist or cultural producer chooses to define themselves. It hopes that this is a respectful process for the artists and cultural producers, but it doesn’t ask the artist to seek its approval. In the impact assessment, we did not ask grantees if they felt validated by having been chosen to receive a Leeway grant. Instead we asked them what the positive effects were of receiving a Leeway grant, and in response to this question many interviewees said that they felt validated. Though it may not be Leeway’s intention, often grantees do feel validated by what they see as the foundation’s approval.

Artists and cultural producers have built their confidence to avail themselves of other opportunities — Getting the grant from Leeway is a springboard to applying, and getting, other grants and fellowships, for almost everyone we talked to. Artists and cultural producers felt more confident about their grant applications and more able to describe their work and avoid bending it too much to fit funding guidelines because of their previous experience of applying to Leeway. Leeway Transformation Award grantees talked about how people know what the Leeway Transformation Award is, and they don’t doubt that having it on their resume makes a difference when applying for other grants and fellowships. Grantees also described how the Leeway grant (or award) had been a springboard to other successes not grantrelated — for example, setting them on an expanded career path where they could earn their living as a full-time artist or expand their expectations about how much of their artistic practice and product they can control.

“Being empowered to go through that process made me feel like I could do that going forward — and I did on a much bigger scale — made me an artist and a producer. And I understood for the first time that I could have more control than before, when I was produced by a larger body.” (grantee and panelist) “Getting the grant meant that I felt able to apply to Pew, which I got, and I used that to produce my work on much larger scale.” (grantee) “Leeway helped get funding for that work. I decided to apply for a Rauschenberg Foundation grant, which funds artists as activists. It’s a national competitive grant. I received it. ... But if it wasn’t for Leeway in helping the initial idea for X, I wouldn’t have been able to take the next step of the Rauschenberg grant. Leeway has always believed in me, and now others are starting to catch on!” (grantee) “I was able to buy equipment to record my first professional record on vinyl for a label. I bought the equipment and recorded it. … An avant-garde magazine called The Wire in the UK, they named my record No. 3 of the year. … Pretty great for a kid from Philly who Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact

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was community based. Basically, after that, I went on tour for two years, recorded almost seven or eight albums, and then performed all over the world. I don’t have to work now. I was a school coach at a private school. I didn’t have to do that. So that’s really cool.” (grantee) Artists and cultural producers have experienced greater financial freedom — Leeway’s Art and Change Grant is a restricted grant, and the Transformation Award is unrestricted.

Transformation awardees described how the grant gave them a degree of financial stability and freedom they hadn’t had before. All of the artists and cultural producers spent some of the grant funds on their artistic work, but they also used the money to do all sorts of other things: to travel, to learn, to pay rent, to move into an apartment with an art studio, to pay their mother’s rent or to buy equipment. The key element was a freedom to choose whatever they needed. To a funder, this may seem obvious that a grantee is able to spend an unrestricted grant as they please. But interviewees specifically mentioned that they appreciated how Leeway told them they could spend the money on non-artmaking things. They were explicitly told that they could get therapy, or dental work — i.e., life costs that working artists often have to neglect due to few resources. One artist got therapy dealing with childhood immigration experiences, something that they had never had the money to do before. From the artists and cultural producers’ point of view this was unusual. Art and Change grantees’ experience was that Leeway knew that plans can change, that the process could be unpredictable, and that it would adjust what it expected from the grantee if that was helpful. “$15,000 in one fell swoop that you don’t have to put into a budget line item takes care of a lot of life issues — the ability to fix a broken tooth, like basic, basic stuff. You are not going to go out and buy a new car. I had three kids and I was working. The money helped.

It helped those basic needs, just lifting that thing off our hair so you can actually think about your work for two seconds longer.” (grantee) Artists and cultural producers connected new applicants to Leeway — Grantees, panelists and local partners do outreach for Leeway too. All of the artists, cultural producers and local partners we interviewed had encouraged other artists to apply for Leeway grants. They talked about sitting with fellow artists and helping them through their applications, encouraging them to go to information sessions and to reach out to Leeway staff. And all noted that they knew someone who had been successful in getting a Leeway grant.

“The questions are really difficult, and I have since supported other friends through the application process. And I will tell them the same thing, ‘Go back to when you were a child. What was your mother like? What was your father like? What were your siblings like?’ And I think that’s helped a lot of friends when they’ve submitted their applications as well.” (grantee)

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IMPACT ON PANELISTS The grantmaking panels are made up of artists, cultural producers and activists who are invited because the foundation sees them as being exemplars of the kinds of practices Leeway exists to support. Leeway aims to create panels that are intergenerational, crosscultural, multidisciplinary and representative of varied identities. Panelists loved being on the panel.

“I loved it. It was a phenomenal experience. There was incredible intimacy in the cohort.

It was delicious. It was emergent, collective practice, which I totally loved.” (grantee and panelist) “[I] don’t remember witnessing an ah-ha moment, but there’s something about the conversation and how it happens, that because everyone in the room is involved in their own craft, it does seem to deepen their thinking about their own work, about how to do work with an art and social change lens, to ask different questions about their own work or work of others. It’s hard to pinpoint where it happens in the process, or at what level, but I do think there’s something real about the infusion of this conversation deepening people’s own analysis.” (panel facilitator)

Rigorous, emergent practice Before the panel sits to make decisions for the Transformation Award, Leeway hosts the panelists, facilitator and staff for dinner and an “art share.” Everyone (staff included) talks about and provides examples of their own artistic practice, or an example of one they admire, in a process that interviewees described as intimate and compelling. Leeway’s goal in doing this is to build relationships between panelists to aid the consensus decision-making process, but also so that they have an appreciation for the emotional vulnerability that artists experience when they put forward their work to be judged. The panelists are given a “charge” that provides information about the decision-making process and guidelines on what they should be looking for, including “The Anatomy of a Leeway Foundation Artist,” a document that lists important characteristics to consider when making decisions. The panel is actively facilitated each time by an experienced facilitator. Panelists agreed that the charge to the panel, including the definition of a Leeway artist, the facilitation, and the feedback that is given afterwards to all grantees, mean that the process has rigor, and that the conversation most often does not get reduced to a subjective judgment of art or allow one voice to dominate.

“Leeway’s panel process helped me see that ‘consensus’ could be more than a nonconfrontational way to get to the lowest common denominator. It is a process for helping panelists to assess where to place the weight of their own knowledge and passion, in the interest of serving the articulated values of the whole process. It encourages us to feel the weight of responsibility to step forward to champion an artist when our knowledge and experience deserves special weight in the process, and to step back when others on the panel deserve to wield that weight. We are encouraged to trust that this expression of championing and ‘yielding’ will result in decisions that were fair, informed and substantive.

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It doesn’t work perfectly all the time, but it does in most instances.” (panelist, grantee and board member) “Because Leeway recruits panelists, they have a developed political analysis, and that comes through on how people read the applications. … They’re thinking about power in a way that a range of people can get grants, small neighborhood projects to gallery world art curation projects.” (panel facilitator)

Shifting power through experiential learning For some artists and cultural producers we spoke to, being on a panel taught them how philanthropic decision-making works, and they used this new knowledge and the power it gave them to apply for and get other grants, and to influence grantmaking processes in other places.

“I was so anti-grant as a community organizer. I’d never looked into it before Leeway, but shortly after that [being a Leeway panelist] I got approached for a fellowship ... that I received. I wouldn’t have conceived of doing that if I hadn’t been on the panel. I would have been really critical and unwilling to participate if I hadn’t seen that there was some possibility to redistribute resources like Leeway does. And reading their applications helped me write mine! I knew what I would be looking for as a panelist. ... It’s helped me be successful and know what to apply for because I know how the process works.

Knowing how to frame things, how to balance talking about the art and the social justice aspects — all of those things helped me successfully leverage arts funding for the cultural organizing that I’ve done with my collective and individually. And I’ve helped dozens of other artists to apply for grant and fellowships, to be that kind of support system for my own community.” (panelist)

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IMPACT ON THE ECOSYSTEM OF SOCIAL CHANGE ARTISTS IN THE PHILADELPHIA AREA Stronger ecosystem of social change artists We asked interviewees if they thought that the ecosystem of social change artists in the Philadelphia area was stronger and more sustainable because of Leeway’s work. While they acknowledged that there are many variables at play that influence this ecosystem, almost everyone affirmed that the ecosystem is stronger and more sustainable.

“I’d say that the conversation here [in Philadelphia] is more inflected with an acknowledgment of social justice values than other cities where other people practice art on social issues and social interaction, but it isn’t necessarily about justice. Leeway’s process really asserts and makes space for that orientation, which has a ripple effect on the way that other organizations and individuals talk about what they do and why they do it.” (local partner)

Celebrating 25 years of Leeway We asked artists, cultural producers and local partners to reflect on Leeway’s 25th anniversary celebrations held during the fall of 2018, including their exhibition of Leeway’s artists at Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia. The celebrations aimed to tell Leeway’s story of an organization grounded in the founder’s feminist principles, one that explores the intersection of art, culture, community and change, and one that has been through tumultuous transitions — initially funding womenidentified artists, then expanding its criteria to embrace women, trans, and gendernonconforming artists with a vision for social change, and confirming a focus on racial justice, all toward a mature point in its life cycle.

The 25th anniversary exhibition highlighted the kind of work Leeway exists to support: the intersection of art, culture, community and change, as well as the artists, cultural producers, activists, scholars and organizations who have carried the organization along the way. Everyone we talked to who went to the 25th anniversary exhibition loved it. They thought it was an incredible expression of Leeway’s commitment to women and trans artists and artists of color; that it showed the breadth and depth of the work of those artists, their commitment to social change and the communities in which they’re embedded; that it was beautiful and moving; and that it embodied the community that Leeway has created over 25 years.

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“Most of us work in isolation. Leeway is onto something. It’s a model that is worth looking at for replication. I feel that it has not even begun to reach its potential. A really powerful example of what Leeway can do is the 25th anniversary celebrations, because then you got to see the length and breadth of impact and storytelling, and it brought together people who were not relating to each other.” (grantee) “Can you imagine what it’s like if Leeway didn’t exist for 25 years?! ... The amount of resources that filtered into the lives of the artists, the people who are getting paid to work with the artists. It’s such a cultural economy that is filtered through 25 years of grants.” (grantee and panelist)

Ripple effects As part of the impact assessment process, Leeway wanted to know what impact the grants were having on the communities that the artists and cultural producers are part of and work with. One of the purposes of Leeway’s grantmaking programs is to “use the foundation’s resources to invest in artists who are committed to using their artistic practice to illuminate pressing social issues affecting their communities.”22 Leeway wanted to know how grantee artists and cultural producers are doing that.

As we noted above, being a Leeway grantee changes the way artists and cultural producers think about art and social change and their own artistic and cultural practice. In the interviews and the ripple effect exercise (described on p. 37) at the December 2018 community meeting, artists and cultural producers identified themselves as the person most changed by the grant.

Community-level change was secondary to this — not necessarily less important, but not the location for change the artist or cultural producer was most concerned with. When asked about the impact of their work on the community, the artists and cultural producers described a process whereby change flowed through them to other community members. In their work, they explore who they are and who their community is. Since they are part of their community, if they change, then the community changes too.

We liken this process of change to a small pebble thrown into a lake, causing gentle ripples outwards in circles away from the center. Using this metaphor, we can see four circles of change spreading outwards: 1. At the center of the circles is the artist or cultural producer and the change they personally experience, both through the Leeway application process and through the artmaking or cultural production process.

“The ways that I think about art and social change are shifted. Social change is now an aesthetic principle that my work cannot do without. I understand and work more deeply to be socially engaged and to be socially active in my work and life — like, the work I do is more than an individual practice/process. It is a collective discipline. I work to make connections with people, place, meaning, and these help bring greater depth to my life.” (grantee) Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact

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2. The second circle out is their community, however they describe it. The community changes because first, the artist changes and they are part of their community, and second, community members experience the art (that is, the play, film, exhibition, performance, etc.) and are changed by that.23 “The community aspect came more from me; I’m going to do it for free in my neighborhood and make it for my queer and trans friends who don’t often go to the theater or see their lives represented in the theater.” (grantee and panelist) 3. The third circle out is the grantee’s community of artists that they pay for their work, and that they support to get grants from Leeway, other paid gigs and more professional exposure.

“My relationship with Leeway created a ripple effect in my community. Other Black queer poets in my immediate circle applied for and won Leeway grants. … Because I have been able to devote more time to poetry, I have been able to have more of an impact in the poetry community, vouching for Black folks, queer folks and women to get them performance gigs, teaching opportunities, editing positions, etc.” (grantee) 4. The fourth circle is the social change that happens when the artist or cultural producer uses art and culture to amplify the effect of an existing social change campaign.

“Leeway funded a trans filmmaker to create a documentary about the campaign to eliminate gender markers on SEPTA24 passes. As an organizer on that campaign, the film was an important tool and documentation of that work. … [I was] able to go back to this campaign as a case study and teaching tool for other organizers, having real footage and documentation that helps me tell that story and uplift trans-led grassroots organizing.” (panel facilitator) The ripples flow outwards from the center. They are not huge waves of traditionally defined social, political or economic change like changes to policy or legislation, but gentle changes at the personal and community level.

Many artists and cultural producers, both Art and Change Grant and Transformation Award recipients, talked about how they used their grant to pay other artists, and were very clear that this was a positive impact of the grant. Often these are artists who are people of color, queer, trans or disabled, making them more likely to experience economic marginalization. Leeway artists and cultural producers appear to be redistributing the wealth that Leeway gives them.

“I’ve shared a lot of money with my collaborators and folks I work with, as well as not charging for creative services that usually cost money (like making websites, headshots, graphic design) for people that I want to support but otherwise might not have the capacity to do free work for.” (grantee) “I always collaborated with artists but wasn’t able to do more than a local collaboration, Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact

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but now I’m able to take Philly artists overseas with me and have them be able to get more shows.” (grantee) In general, Art and Change grantees did not discuss their change partners much or at all in the interviews. They did not suggest that these relationships were in any way negative; it appears more likely that they don’t think of the change partner as an active partner in delivering political, social or economic change. One interviewee, not a grantee, challenged the idea that the artist should pick the change partner, saying that it would be more revolutionary if the change partner working on the change chose the artist, so that the cultural producer/artist is serving the social movement moment that is happening now.

We spoke to two artists and cultural producers who used art and culture to amplify the effect of an existing social change campaign. In this situation, they noted that the art project was done in a partnership in which the partner was present and active, that the artwork was located in the impacted community, and that being part of the project had an effect on the thoughts and feelings of the community members. They did not claim that their work led to changes in policy or legislation.

“What I always say is that families and the community members that are directly impacted by these issues have a voice. We are not giving them a voice; they have a voice already.

So how am I utilizing public art, how am I utilizing creative practices for that voice to be amplified, for them to have that platform, for them to have the megaphone and say, ‘This is what’s happening to me, and most importantly, this is the change that I want to see.’” (grantee)

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IMPACT ON LOCAL PARTNERS AND NATIONAL PHILANTHROPY AND THE FIELD OF ART AND SOCIAL CHANGE In the impact assessment process, we looked at how Leeway’s local and national partners would describe their learning from Leeway, and if Leeway had helped to shape the field of art and social justice philanthropy.

“The funny thing about Leeway is they’re a regional actor, as are most foundations, but they’ve always felt very present in the national dialogue.” (national partner)

How do others learn from Leeway?

All the categories of people we interviewed or who contributed to the ripple effect exercise said that they had learned something from Leeway: artists, cultural producers, teachers, activists, local nonprofit leaders, and local and national partners working in philanthropy. They learned from Leeway by: •• Taking part in the grantmaking panels •• Attending events that Leeway put on — particularly the 25th anniversary exhibition, Making Space: Leeway @ 25 •• Reading the products Leeway has produced — particularly “TransForming Inclusion: An Organizational Guide” •• Working directly with staff members on both grantmaking and programming •• Learning directly from the executive director — particularly local nonprofit leaders and local and national partners working in philanthropy Leeway has had an impact nationally on the field of art and social change whereby the executive director has built community with, and influenced, peers who are working to change philanthropic practice. Leeway has also had a bottom-up effect, as artists and cultural producers learn from Leeway as a result of being grantees, panelists and partners and take that learning to organize change in their own spaces, philanthropic and otherwise. “[Leeway has made me] reassess what equity looks like when it exists from top to bottom. … [It has] transform[ed] the way I approach curation and deliberation processes when I work with other organizations, having more language to talk about why certain processes are crucial to complete a project that is focused around community and engagement.” (former intern) “As a maker and reviewer, [Leeway has made me] rethink which aesthetic values are ingrained through institutions that are built on supremacy and colonization. How do we engage in conversation about art without submitting to those dominant ideas of Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact 42

what good art is? What is the most gracious approach to engaging artists about their work?” (former intern) Partners are clear that the executive director’s leadership has been crucial to Leeway’s impact. They described her as thoughtful, humble yet influential, and generous with her insight, time and experience. This was the case for local and national partners who came from peer organizations that were working in similar ways to Leeway and had the same political orientation and partners who were working in more conservative philanthropic environments.

The impact assessment process also showed that the executive director’s prominence as a leader is made possible and supported by a board that fully enacts its responsibility to challenge her and have her back. She is also supported by Leeway’s staff team members, who embrace and animate Leeway’s values and culture.

“Both in her work at Bread & Roses and in Leeway, she has a humility to how she does her work. It’s not all about Denise. It’s about the impact she’s trying to have. Her particular leadership style invites in participation, and gives voice to those who don’t normally have voice, and gives over power to people who might want to shake up the organization and her being all right with that.” (local partner) “I appreciate Denise’s leadership, insisting on high quality and rigor, but also connected, relationship-based — and it’s hard to hold both of these high standards, and those things really feed each other.” (panel facilitator) “Leeway made a huge leap for the field. Denise has walked that talk out there. I have seen her a million times in conversations in philanthropy and the cultural community talking about Leeway’s story and also exerting a lot of thought leadership from the experience she’s had, challenging the thinking of people who are really struggling.” (national partner)

What do partners learn from Leeway?

•• Participatory grantmaking — Both local and national partners have looked to Leeway as a model for how to develop more effective participatory grantmaking processes.

This included national partners who have asked the Leeway executive director directly for advice as they were attempting to redesign grantmaking processes in their more traditional foundations. It also included artists and cultural producers who had sat on Leeway grantmaking panels and were taking those insights to local foundations in their region or building their own participatory processes. For example, the Trans Justice Funding Project (TJFP), which was co-created and is led by a former Leeway staff member, looked at Leeway’s grantmaking model as one model for how to design TJFP. “One of the things that happens in the field is that people say they want to do something different, but then they say they don’t know how to get from here to there. … We don’t have to as funders hold control so tightly. We can partner with grant seekers and stakeholders. What would that look like? And Leeway shows us one way we could do that.” (national partner) Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact

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•• Becoming a trans-affirming organization — Local and national partners and artists and cultural producers were emphatic that Leeway had been a leader in getting organizations, including foundations, to work toward becoming trans-affirming. They were also clear that Leeway had done a tremendous amount of internal work on becoming a trans-affirming organization (including the recruitment and retention of trans team members and creating an office and community space that is affirming for trans people), and that this had been a successful process.

“Absolutely, definitely in Philly Leeway’s leadership in gender identity conversations, gender identity politics and the inclusion of trans folks has been really central to that conversation. [It] has had an impact on individuals, organizations and the programming that happens, on language, on bathrooms. It’s had an enormous impact in Philadelphia.

That’s been really important work. It’s evolving work, and nothing finishes. But that’s an important contribution that the people at Leeway have made, helping people to rethink and act after.” (local partner) “In my office we have different generations represented on the staff, and some of us are more aware about trans inclusion, but our executive leadership is not and struggles with pronouns, what they are and sharing them. And so, the “Transforming Inclusion” guide is so useful. It is beautifully produced and captures amazing ideas, and it’s the artists who led the process. Denise sent copies for me to share with our staff and board, who are all artists and arts leaders, and they are all intending to take it to their organizations.” (national partner) “I didn’t know that an organization like [Leeway] existed like that. Adding pronouns to emails — yes, that’s a super awesome thing you can do — but [Leeway has] a whole booklet laid out. I want to share it with all these organizations in San Antonio. … It’s down on pen and paper, worked into the veins and roots of your organizations, not just an idea. Inclusiveness is very real there. That’s not something you see anywhere else.” (panelist) •• Racial equity — Nationally, where the philanthropic conversations on racial justice are slower and more cautious, Leeway’s decade-long practice and leadership in racial equity is an advanced model for partners. Partners have not only learned from Leeway’s focus on racial equity when it comes to grantmaking and organizational processes, but also in their transition away from being led by a white founder family to becoming led by a multiracial community board. Locally, for artists, cultural producers and local partner organizations, Leeway’s actions to implement its values on racial equity are familiar and expected. There is an ongoing pressure from community members to ensure that Leeway is always pushing itself to live these values to the max.

“When organizations are talking about how do we go from being an all-white or majority-white organization that isn’t addressing diversity, equity and inclusion, how do we make movement on that? Leeway and Denise are a stellar example of how that transition happened. For many people, having some kind of vision of how it could happen is really helpful in making movement.” (national partner) Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Leeway’s impact

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“Leeway [has] gone to the far reaches of arts grantmaking: fund individuals only, and queer people and a lot of queer women of color. Intersectionality not being about diversity but being about the piling up of identities and how those can lead to further oppression.

They were working on that a long time ago and thinking, if we move this group over here, that will move more. They had a theory of change about what is the most powerful level — and that’s smart, because they don’t have a lot of money. They have targeted impact and singularity of theory of change, and so they have a huge impact for their dollars.” (national partner) •• Supporting individual artists — Leeway has also been a model for national partners for how best to directly support individual artists. One person noted, however, that this conversation has some way to go, with some foundations remaining resistant to giving money directly to artists.

“I’ve always known Leeway as a leader in three or four spaces at once — first, as a leader of supporters of individual artists, which is relatively unusual. Even grant makers who value individual artists, even most of them do so through other organizations, so Leeway holds a fairly unique space in the national field of practice and in the national dialogue.” (national partner) •• How a family foundation can change when the family gives up power — As noted above, there was a strong appetite among the national partners working in philanthropy to have Leeway share more information about this change process in family foundation spaces, and so contribute to the emerging conversation about white families letting go of their historical philanthropic power and influence.

“What I’ve learned from Leeway is a way of decentering whiteness in philanthropic practice. In this country, the majority of wealth is held by white people for a number of extremely problematic and often horrific reasons. And Leeway was a foundation where there was a shift from the original family that held the wealth to moving towards a more equitable distribution with community…” (national partner)

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Detail of the ancestor altar from the altar room installation dedicated to Ana Guissel Palma (LTA ’17; ACG ’17, ’15, ’11). The altar room was designed by Erika Guadalupe Nuñez (LTA ’17; ACG ’17, ’15) for the Making Space: Leeway @ 25 exhibit at Moore College of Art & Design.

Denise Brown 2018.

25th anniversary case study — Leeway inspires action Making Space: Leeway @ 25, Leeway’s 25th anniversary exhibition, inspired a Moore College of Art & Design student to challenge the college’s admissions policy for nonbinary and trans students. The student visited the exhibition on opening night and was struck by the work exhibited, by Leeway’s name tags for attendees, which included pronouns, and the sense of community that was palpable at the opening.

The student curated an exhibition in the hallway beside the Leeway exhibition, and beside the admissions office, that described some experiences of nonbinary and trans students at Moore, and a zine that listed the admissions policies of 37 women’s colleges in North America including Moore. As the student said: “The exhibit was up for two months: the last month of Leeway’s exhibit and a month after theirs came down. I wanted them to be compared to each other, because Leeway has such an inclusive policy. I wanted people to see this, to open up the zine to Moore’s policy. Moore is hosting this show, but they aren’t as inclusive.”

The student was not aware that Moore had been prompted to act in response to the exhibition. After the administration carried out listening sessions, there was a next step to “to explore the possibility of expanding our admissions policy to include as admissible nonbinary students who were born as women.” The student said in response: “That’s good, but also that’s essentially what they already do. To me, accepting nonbinary people who are assigned women at birth, and nonbinary people who are assigned men at birth, then the school is still treating them as women. The school is clinging to its identity as a women’s college. Should it let it go and open up their policy to accept all trans people?

They were set up to include women because they were marginalized, so accepting all trans people would be supporting them because of their gender, which makes them marginalized.”

However, her professor said that her exhibit “[served as a reminder to] the administration to revisit that conversation … and also got a lot of students feeling like it was urgent and that the school needed to be more responsive. And a lot of people from the admissions office said they needed clarity on those policies going forward. ...” Her professor is clear that “she would not have mounted that exhibit if Leeway hadn’t been in the main gallery. She used it as a way to instigate a conversation. That hadn’t been a goal of having Leeway’s exhibit at Moore. It’s not appropriate for Leeway to instigate those conversations. But it was appropriate for Leeway to inspire the people who are part of Moore to instigate those conversations.”

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Image of Kavi Ade (LTA’16) from a design mockup for the One Is Part of the Many installation, created by Anula Shetty (ACG ’15, LTA ’07, WOO ’04, HG ’02), Betty Leacraft (ACG ’16, ’14, ’09; LTA ’11; WOO ’99), and Michelle Angela Ortiz (WOO ’17; ACG ’13, ’12, ’05; LTA ’08) for the Making Space: Leeway @ 25 exhibit at Moore College of Art & Design. Michelle Angela Ortiz 2018.

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEEWAY

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEEWAY In the course of the impact assessment, we saw clear support for how Leeway is working now, and even a mild concern that Leeway would change any of the elements of building community, grantmaking and programming that artists and cultural producers feel are working so well. Nevertheless, we did hear a small number of interviewees offer thoughtful challenges to Leeway, stemming from their expressed desire to see Leeway continue to grow. For each of these challenges and opportunities we suggest questions that Leeway could explore either as part of their forthcoming strategic planning process or operationally within the Leeway staff.

Supporting working-class women of color — Grantees knew and appreciated that Leeway works hard to center women and trans artists and artists of color, and to encourage them to apply for grants. A very small number of interviewees, however, questioned if Leeway is doing enough to support working-class women of color, which seemed to be based on an assumption that many of the gay and trans artists that Leeway funds have class and economic privilege. A white interviewee noted that they knew independently wealthy artists who had been awarded grants by Leeway, and this was frustrating for them as someone who didn’t have those resources.

“Leeway does try to do broad outreach, but it still attracts the same people! It’s around class. You can’t deal with class if everyone on your staff is middle class, even if Black, white, gay and straight. If you don’t have class diversity, then you have a blind spot on class. … When Leeway changed its funding priorities, it went from funding women painters to considering the work of people who were busting their ass. It made a lot of sense to make that change. But conversely, there’s a way you return to the problem you’re trying to solve in the current iteration. It just looks a little different. Maybe you’re not funding rich white women who paint with their husbands’ money, but now you’re funding gay people with resources who are aligned with institutions. You have to look and ask, is this really happening? It sneaks up on you! The people who apply are the same kind of people.” (grantee) These critiques triggered an interesting conversation about class and economic privilege within Leeway as part of this process. Staff and board members noted that Leeway is committed to paying its staff sector-appropriate salaries, which means, for example, that women of color who work in Leeway may appear to be, or have become, middle class even though they have a variety of class backgrounds. Leeway’s “radical hospitality” is a choice to present grantees with plentiful support so they can escape feelings and realities of scarcity that they experience as working artists, but this may be perceived as a lavish use of resources by some applicants. In addition, Leeway doesn’t currently collect demographic information, which could include economic information, so that artists are free to define their identities in more complex ways than through a limited set of checkboxes. However, it means that Leeway staff are not able to assess the class backgrounds of their applicants to see if this Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Challenges and opportunities for Leeway

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pattern does in fact emerge. Staff and board members noted that though this feedback might misunderstand the degree of support that Leeway gives to working-class women of color, if the perception exists out there about how Leeway is, or is not, supporting working-class women of color, then Leeway should respond.

Recommended question to explore: •• How can Leeway learn more about the class background of applicants in order to ensure Leeway supports them as much as possible, while also not collecting demographic information in a traditional way that forces applicants into identity descriptions that don’t fully reflect them?

Improving the grantmaking panel process — Interviewees offered some areas for future consideration in thinking about who sits on the panels and how they make their decisions.

One wondered if there are enough local, working-class artists and cultural producers on the panels. Another noted how artists do not have to submit work samples in the Art and Change Grant application, because the focus is on their story and their vision for and analysis of social change. They felt that perhaps the pendulum had swung too far in this respect, and that perhaps the panel should look at the applicant’s work as well as the social change impact.

(We note that work samples are submitted in stage 2 of the Transformation Award process.)

“There were only three of us. How could we represent the larger community?! It felt very, how to put it, as if we were identity tokens, a Black woman, a Puerto Rican woman, and me a white trans-masculine person. We turned to whoever’s identity was closest to the project we were looking at. Was that OK? It felt tokenizing and reductive to the artist: They’re not just a trans artist. I was frustrated that the grant wasn’t interested in the art and only the social impact, and that there wasn’t information given about that.

Like, “I’m making a film” is such a massive category. I only know their story for the film and their identity. I felt like that was a real oversight.” (grantee and panelist) Recommended questions to explore: •• How might Leeway want to change the makeup of the grantmaking panels in the future? οο Are there enough local, working-class artists and cultural producers sitting on the grantmaking panels? What is enough?

•• Should the Art and Change Grant applicants submit work samples as part of the application process?

Expanding Leeway’s national influencing role — All the national partners we spoke to wanted to see Leeway increase the time it spends influencing these wider philanthropic conversations. Some questioned whether or not Leeway actually wanted to do this. Some, knowing that Leeway’s resources and the executive director’s time are not limitless, questioned whether or not Leeway could take the time necessary for travel and conferences to influence these conversations. One national partner was not sure that Leeway had been as influential as it could have been. They thought this was because the work that Leeway is doing is too radical for mainstream philanthropic organizations, and because mainstream Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Challenges and opportunities for Leeway 51

philanthropy privileges white, straight, male voices that compete for coverage and attention, and because perhaps Leeway was content working with the smaller cadre of philanthropic colleagues who were already on these journeys, preaching to the choir, rather than reaching out to more conservative institutions.

“Like, it’s a very masculine, straight, we write blog posts, we thump our chest — and I don’t think that’s Leeway’s style, and so Leeway would rather it be known among the true.

And it feels good about that. Those who know, know.” (national partner) Recommended questions to explore: •• Should Leeway spend more time working to influence national partners to take up key elements of the Leeway approach as described above? If yes, who does Leeway want to influence and why?

Building power or bridges — In the course of the impact assessment, we heard different analyses and opinions about how social change happens. These opinions might lead Leeway panels to different conclusions about what kinds of social change to fund, and artists and cultural producers to different conclusions about what their role as a social change artist is and what social change art they want to make. The forthcoming strategic planning process offers an opportunity for Leeway to explore these theories of change in more depth.

We heard two different opinions about what kind of social change work is needed in this current political moment. First, implicit in some of the interviews and the ripple effect exercise from the December 2018 community meeting was a building power theory of how change happens. It goes something like this: Power is unevenly distributed in society. People with power seldom give it away freely. In order to make change happen, oppressed communities need to build power and to organize. Many Leeway artists pay attention to and work on the social issues faced by oppressed communities and ways for them to build power, as they themselves are most often from those oppressed communities.

In the process of exploring how national partners working in philanthropy have learned from Leeway, one national partner said that they thought that the executive director’s background in community organizing was a crucial part of her influence on other foundations’ conversations about social change, because often program officers don’t know enough about how social change happens.25 We also know that some staff and board members have a similar background in organizing or supporting organizing, and a similar analysis about how social change happens. It happens when communities build power, and art and culture can help them do that by illuminating the issues those communities face and illuminating potential solutions.

“Denise, because she brings a depth of experience as a community organizer, she is particularly insightful. What happens in our sector is that funders and practitioners have a vision for what change looks like, but they often don’t have the experience or tools of how to get there. There’s a real gap between aspirations and resources to pursue those aspirations.” (national partner)

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Second, we heard that the artist should enable a bridging process, where divergent and/ or conflicting political points of view can meet and explore their differences, and this role is especially needed in this political moment. One national partner we spoke to noted that in the current polarized political climate arts grantmakers may need to explore how art can serve as a bridge in order to bring polarized sides together. On the other hand, one artist we interviewed talked about hearing from a famous artist that the responsibility of the artist was to be a bridge between victim and oppressor, and that they strongly disagreed that this was their role.

“He said we need to sit down with the victim and oppressor, and our role as an artist is to be a bridge between them. I was fed up. Our communities are under attack. And I just got really upset. I said I honestly don’t want to waste my time in trying to convince an oppressor of my humanity. I’d rather uplift the person who is being oppressed. He didn’t like that answer.” (grantee) These questions echo a wider political debate: Is this a political moment to build bridges or build power? This may be a false dichotomy. Leeway may want to support artists to do both.

Recommended question to explore: •• Does Leeway want to support artists and cultural producers to build bridges, build power or both?

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Challenges and opportunities for Leeway 53

Wit López (ACG ’18, ’19) performing at Leeway’s 25th anniversary Changemakers Cabaret, International House Philadelphia, October 16, 2018.

Kenzi Crash 2018.

APPENDIX 1 Methodology Leeway and Dragonfly Partners worked together to design the impact assessment process as an action research project so that Leeway staff and board members had opportunities to reflect and learn throughout the process. The process was led by the Leeway board, specifically the impact assessment working group made up of Germaine Ingram, Carolyn Chernoff and Eli VandenBerg. The working group, along with the executive director, crafted the vision for the impact assessment process. The original goal was to produce an impact assessment report with accompanying video and a graphic illustration of Leeway’s art and social change grantmaking model.

The first step was to develop the graphic illustration of Leeway’s art and social change grantmaking model. Dragonfly worked with the Leeway staff and board over multiple discussion and design sessions through the fall of 2018 to develop the grantmaking model. These sessions helped us identify the overall elements of Leeway’s approach and the broader set of questions we wanted to explore in the data collection for the impact assessment report. It also showed us that the grantmaking model would be better illustrated by a video animation rather than a static diagram. Finally, it became apparent that we should also produce a third video outlining the unusual history of Leeway, because that history is a key factor in why Leeway is able to have the impact it does.

In terms of data collection for the impact assessment report, Dragonfly designed a ripple effect exercise for community members to contribute to at a Leeway community meeting held in December 2018. This meeting was one of a series of events done in honor of, and in conjunction with, the foundation’s 25th anniversary. At the meeting, 22 people participated and answered the following questions: What are two ways Leeway has had a positive effect on you, and what are you doing differently because of how Leeway affected you? The exercise was facilitated by Dragonfly and Leeway staff. Of the 22 people, six were grantees, 13 were local partners, and three were community members who were neither grantees nor local partners.

In February, March and April of 2019, Dragonfly carried out 35 semi-structured interviews by phone: 15 with grantees, six with panelists and panel facilitators (one of whom was also a grantee), six with local partners and seven with national partners, and one with a student at Moore College of Art & Design. Interviewees were asked about the impact of Leeway grants on artists and cultural producers in the wider Philadelphia area; if they thought Leeway’s strategies to build community with artists and cultural producers had been successful; if the ecosystem of social change artists in the Philadelphia area had become stronger and more sustainable because of Leeway’s work; and if they thought Leeway had had an impact on local partners, on national partners and wider conversations about art and social change.

Bonfire Media was asked by Leeway in February 2019 to begin the production of the grantmaking animation, the history video and the impact video that would accompany the Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Appendix 1

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report. In March and April of 2019, they filmed interviews with the Alter family members who had set up and originally led the foundation, and with Denise Brown, Leeway’s executive director, and Amadee Braxton, chair of the Leeway board. They also filmed interviews with five grantees (Muthi Reed, Nehad Khader, Vashti DuBois, Ezra Berkley Nepon [who later joined the Leeway board] and Debora Kodish) and with one national partner, Elizabeth MéndezBerry, Director of Voice, Creativity and Culture at the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

At the end of March 2019, Dragonfly facilitated a reflection session with Leeway staff and board members to look at the initial findings from the interviews. The board and staff engaged in a deep interrogation of these findings and began to draw out what they thought were the key themes. In April, May and June of 2019, Dragonfly, Bonfire and Leeway worked together to confirm the key findings from the impact assessment process, informed by the March conversation with the board and staff, and to produce a report and videos that would illustrate those fully. In July through September 2019, board and staff members provided detailed feedback on the draft impact assessment report and the videos. Final versions of each were completed in October 2019.

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Appendix 1 57

APPENDIX 2 Phone interviewees Andrew Simonet

Artists U + writer + choreographer

Camae Aweya

Music + performance

Catherine Pancake

Filmmaker + sound artist

Chris Bartlett

William Way LGBT Community Center

Daniel Tucker

Moore College of Art + Design

Debora Kodish

Cultural worker + folk arts

Eddie Torres

Grantmaker in the arts

Eleanor Savage

Jerome Foundation + media artist

Elizabeth Méndez-Berry

Nathan Cummings Foundation

Erika Guadalupe Núñez

Visual artist + cultural organizer + Leeway Foundation board member (as of September 2019)

Erme Maula

Cultural organizer

Ezra Berkley Nepon

Literary arts + performance + Leeway Foundation board member (as of September 2019)

Gabriel Foster

Trans Justice Funding Project

Heidi Saman

Filmmaker

Invincible Weaver

Detroit Narrative Agency

Isabel Castro

Visual artist

Latriece Branson

Music + performance

Louis Massiah

Scribe Video Center + media artist

MJ Kaufman

Literary arts + performance

Maurine Knighton

Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Michelle Myers

Literary arts + performance

Michelle Angela Ortiz

Visual artist + muralist + community arts educator

Misty Sol

Multidisciplinary artist

Muthi Reed

Media arts + music + performance

Nehad Khader

Literary arts + media arts

Nico Amador

Writer + cultural organizer

Pam Korza

Americans for the Arts

Paula Marincola

Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

Rachel Yinger

Moore College of Art & Design MFA student in Socially Engaged Studio Art

Rebecca Subar

Dragonfly Partners

Rochelle Nichols Solomon

Cultural organizer

Vashti DuBois

The Colored Girls Museum + literary arts + performance

Wit López

Visual arts + performance + curator

Yowei Shaw

Media arts + sound design

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Appendix 2

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Community meeting ripple effect exercise participants Alex Shaw

Intercultural Journeys

Anna Drozdowski

Cultural planner + curator

Carol Zou

Formerly of Asian Arts Initiative

Celena Morrison

William Way LGBT Community Center

Daniel Tucker

Moore College of Art & Design

Frances Conwell

Community member

Germaine Ingram

Leeway Foundation board member

Inga Kimberly Brown

Community member

Jess Eskow

NextFab

Julia Lopez

Mural Arts Philadelphia + Leeway Foundation board president 2006-2009

Lela Aisha Jones

Performance

Logan Cryer

Leeway Foundation intern

Mario Dumlao

Visual arts

Maud Lyon

Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Melissa Hamilton

Leeway Foundation staff member

Melissa Talley-Palmer

Performance

Muthi Reed

Media arts + music + performance

Nico Amador

Writer + cultural organizer

Sage Crump

Cultural strategist + organizer

Sarah Muehlbauer

Circus arts + literary arts + performance

Sue Christmas

Community member

Tahnee Jackson

Leeway Foundation staff member

Filmed interviewees Amadee Braxton

Leeway Foundation board president + Dragonfly Partners

Debora Kodish

Cultural worker + folk arts

Denise Brown

Leeway Foundation executive director

Elizabeth MĂŠndez-Berry

Nathan Cummings Foundation + writer

Ezra Berkely Nepon

Literary arts + performance + Leeway Foundation board member (as of September 2019)

Linda Lee Alter

Leeway Foundation founder

Michelle Angela Ortiz

Visual artist + muralist + community arts educator

Muthi Reed

Media arts + music + performance

Nehad Khader

Literary arts + media arts

Sara Milly

Leeway Foundation board president 2002-2006

Vashti DuBois

The Colored Girls Museum + literary arts + performance

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Appendix 2 59

Notes 1.

Leeway is a trans-affirming organization committed to gender self-determination, and we use the term “trans” in its most inclusive sense, as an umbrella term encompassing transsexual, transgender, genderqueer, TwoSpirit people, and anyone whose gender identity or gender expression is nonconforming and/or different from their gender assigned at birth.

2.

leeway.org/about/mission

3.

As part of the impact assessment process, Leeway has produced a video, “Shifting Power: Leeway’s History,” that explains this process in more depth and can be found at www.leeway.org.

4.

“Radical hospitality” is a term often used in the American liberal Christian tradition. It is a way to describe how one might meet a stranger not only politely but with “revolutionary generosity.” See for example: uua. orgworship/words/sermon/radical-hospitality

5.

As part of the impact assessment process, Leeway has produced a video, “Planting Seeds: Leeway’s Grantmaking Model,” that explains this grantmaking process in more depth and can be found at leeway.org.

6. Bread & Roses Community Fund, a local foundation, organizes donors at all levels to support communitybased groups in building movements for racial equity and economic opportunity and is a key local partner of Leeway Foundation.

7.

rauschenbergfoundation.org/grants/art-grants/artist-as-activist

8. nathancummings.org 9. breadrosesfund.org 10. fex.org 11. Artography: Arts in a Changing America can be found at vimeo.com/16238418. Roberta Uno, artsinachangingamerica.org/leadership/. Ford Foundation, fordfoundation.org.

12. lincnet.net 13. alternateroots.org 14. weareili.org 15. nalac.org 16. firstpeoplesfund.org 17. paifoundation.org 18. alliedmedia.org 19. artculturejustice.com 20. giarts.org 21. giarts.org/racial-equity-arts-funding-statement-purpose 22. One of five purposes of the Leeway grant programs listed in the 2019 Leeway Art and Change Grant “Charge to the Panel.”

23. Because this impact assessment process was not intended as a large-scale study, we didn’t also interview members of the artists and cultural producers’ community to see if in fact they were changed by engaging with the art. We assume in good faith that the artists and cultural producers are telling the truth when they report their lived experience of watching and knowing that other members of their community have a response to their art.

24. SEPTA: Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority 25. The Leeway executive director noted that a key factor in the development of her organizing practice was working with the Women’s Revitalization Project (wcrpphila.org) in the 1990s, and specifically on the Center for Third World Organizing’s model.

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Notes 60

Author’s Acknowledgments I would like to thank: •• Denise Brown for her leadership of this process, her openness to exploration and learning, and being a joyful thought partner all the way through.

•• Sara Zia Ebrahimi and Melissa Hamilton for their hard work in this process; their insights, challenges and encouragement; and keeping us all on track!

•• Denise Beek, Nia Samara Benjamin, Tahnee Jackson, Logan Cryer, Cesali Morales, Brittnie Knight and Dani Roomes for their huge contributions.

•• The Leeway Board, and particularly the impact assessment working group (Eli VandenBerg, Germaine Ingram and Carolyn Chernoff), for their leadership. Thanks go to Carolyn Chernoff for pointing out that love and relationship are at the heart of what Leeway does right at the beginning of the process, and in so doing sending us in the right direction. Particular thanks go to Germaine Ingram for detailed feedback. The report is stronger because of their insights.

•• All the interviewees and community meeting participants for their generosity and honesty.

•• Everyone at Bonfire Media for being amazingly talented, fun to work with and patient.

•• Aarati Kasturirangan, part of the Dragonfly team, for also being a reader.

It has been my honor to work with the Leeway community over the last year on this impact assessment process. It’s a process that I have loved, and one that has changed me.

Amplifying a cultural community: Leeway’s impact | Author’s Acknowledgments 61

Sage Crump at Looking Forward: The Future of Leeway Community Meeting, Moore College of Art and Design, December 2, 2018.

Kenzi Crash 2018

This report was made possible through the generous support of the Surdna Foundation.

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