A collection of lessons from 20 community philanthropies working to advance equitable philanthropy
Can community thrive if we don’t do racial equity work? No.
For us to be successful as an organization we need to tackle race and racism and the role it plays in everything.”
— LIAHANN BANNERMAN
Sr. Director Equitable Philanthropy, United Way of King County
From 2012 through 2024, we — a learning cohort of 20 community foundations, identity funds and United Way organizations across Washington State and Portland, Oregon — convened regularly with a commitment to advancing community-centered funding practices and, ultimately, equity-centered philanthropy.
The following resource was developed based on our learning, both as individual organizations and as a collective, on what it takes for community philanthropies to advance equitable practices and outcomes.
We define community philanthropy largely as place-based funders that aggregate community resources to distribute on behalf of donors. One cohort member described it as having three business models: “We are an investment management firm, a donor advising firm and a grantmaking arm trying to advance equity.”
Other common characteristics of our cohort include:
The median staff size for our cohort is 11 employees, with the largest organization at 50 and the smallest a staff of two.
The communities we serve include multiple counties in rural areas, suburban neighborhoods, large urban cities, tribal nations — or a combination of all the above. Some of our communities are majority BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) while others are majority white. Our communities also comprise individuals with varying life experiences, languages and political ideologies.
Many of us are navigating unique dynamics as we work to evolve traditional governance structures and cultures, including exceptionally large boards in the case of United Ways and donors sitting on boards at community foundations.
If you picked up this resource, like us, you are curious about how your organization can advance equitable practices and outcomes to best serve your communities — especially within the community philanthropy model and associated structures and cultures that we’ve all inherited.
In the following pages, you’ll find…
1.
an aggregate view of what our organizational equity journeys have looked like; and
2. Our
the top four lessons that we’ve learned across our experiences.
In our journeys you’ll see that racial equity is a long-term commitment. We have worked together as a cohort of peer funders for the last 12 years, each year bringing new contexts to navigate, lessons learned and perspectives to apply to the next.
The lessons outlined in this resource are ones we’ve captured as of today — in 2025 — that we will continue to build on in the years to come.
Of our lessons learned, perhaps the most noteworthy is that this work is complex and expansive. It includes beautiful and transformative moments, hard discussions and decisions, stumbles and setbacks. Throughout the journey we’ll experience uncertainty and resistance — as we are in this current moment. And it’s times like these that remind us of how critical it is to be and stay in this work together. Building meaningful and transformative change necessarily requires that we learn from each other and lean on one another.
We hope this resource will serve as a valuable support in your efforts to advance equitable practices, and we look forward to our paths crossing as we journey to advance this critical work.
Blue Mountain Community Foundation
Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
Community Foundation of North Central Washington
Community Foundation of Snohomish County
Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
Innovia Foundation
Kitsap Community Foundation
Latino Community Fund
Potlatch Fund
Pride Foundation
Seattle Foundation
United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties
United Way of Central Washington
United Way of the Columbia-Willamette
United Way of King County
United Way of Snohomish County
United Way of Spokane County
Whatcom Community Foundation
Yakima Valley Community Foundation
This cohort was supported by Philanthropy Northwest facilitators and three racial equity consultants — Maya Thornell-Sandifor, Magan Do and Paola Maranan — whose perspectives are integrated throughout this resource.
As we’ve looked back on our organizational journeys, we’ve found that our work can be categorized into 10 core types of activities that cut across internal and external work.
Advancing Organizational Learning
Culture Building for Equity
Centering Equity in Organizational Strategy
Centering DEI Values in Organizational Recruitment
Building Organizational Structures & Policies to Advance Equity
Community Relationship Building
Advancing Equitable Grantmaking Practices
Directing Funds to BIPOC-led Organizations
Advocating for Equity
Collaborating for Greater Impact
The following pages include definitions and examples of each activity type.
Advancing Organizational Learning
OVERVIEW EXAMPLE
Investing time and resources into organizational (staff and board) education on equity issues and what it means to center equity as a value.
Community Foundation for Southwest Washington board and staff spent a full year learning together about structural racism and building common language with The Center Consultancy.
Culture Building for Equity
Centering Equity in Organizational Strategy
Investing time and resources into trust and relationship-building to build an organizational culture that supports equitable practices and outcomes.
Community Foundation of South Puget Sound’s Board of Directors worked with consultants to adopt new norms that support inclusive conversations in board meetings.
Holding equity in the center of organizational strategy development.
Centering DEI Values in Organizational Recruitment
Building
Organizational Structures & Policies to Advance Equity
Advancing intentional efforts to diversify staff and board.
Community Foundation of Snohomish County redefined values to center equity in all its work and navigated conversations with donors who were not fully aligned with the new values.
Seattle Foundation created specific racial diversity commitments for the senior leadership team and Board of Directors.
Advancing internal practices and structures that support and promote accountability for equity.
Whatcom Community Foundation developed and adopted an equity filter for decision-making.
Community Relationship Building
Introducing structured, intentional activities to deepen relationships and trust across community.
Based on listening sessions with their community, Whatcom Community Foundation developed Project Neighborly, a fund that supports projects to bring more people together and build a healthier community.
Advancing Equitable Grantmaking Practices
Directing Funding to BIPOC-led Organizations
Reducing unnecessary burdens of grant applications and management and shifting power to those most proximate to the issues through approaches like trust-based and participatory grantmaking.
Yakima Valley Community Foundation started offering post-grant conversations rather than written reports to uplift learning. Meanwhile, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation changed their by-laws to provide small grants to individuals.
Advocating for Equity
Developing funds that support BIPOC leaders and communities.
Pride Foundation established a QTBIPOC Community Care Fund that provides grants to historically and currently under-resourced communities.
Using organizational voice to advocate externally for equitable practices and outcomes in the communities where a foundation has presence and/or influence as well as funding advocacy efforts.
Partnering with other values-aligned foundations and partners on specific initiatives to amplify impact.
Latino Community Fund advocated for Census funding to go directly to communities most impacted by Census undercounts.
United Way of King County supported BIPOC-led organizations in obtaining funding by making connections to other funds in the ecosystem.
Based on these definitions, we documented — to the best of our abilities — each of our individual organizations’ activities from year one of our equity journeys through 2024 using Philanthropy Northwest’s Equity Journey
Tracker Template,
Reviewing our collective data, we found that the majority of our organizations have been on equity journeys for at least six years — and based on this, we stitched together a look into those first six years in the data visualizations on the following pages.
We recognize that our data is imperfect — and that to quantify such a complex and qualitative journey with various internal and external factors is an art more than it is a science. Staff and leadership turnover coupled with limited documentation may mean that we are missing information. Our data also do not capture the various environmental factors that have impacted our work and communities (i.e. the 2008 recession, the 2016 election, the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement), nor do they capture the unique contexts of each of our organizations.
The data visualizations are meant to share a high-level view of our journeys — while the nuances of our experiences live within our stories.
Note: Due to data availability, the data visualizations represent 13 of our 20 organizations. Details on our methodology can be found in the Appendix page 61.
GROWING OUR CAPACITIES: 13 Community Philanthropies’ Equity Journeys from Years 1 - 6
Collaborating for Greater Impact
Advocating for Equity
Directing Funds to BIPOC-led Orgs
Advancing Equitable Grantmaking Practices
Community Relationship Building
INTERNAL
Centering DEI Values in Organizational Recruitment Building Organizational Structures & Policies to Advance Equity
Centering Equity in Organizational Strategy
Culture Building for Equity
Advancing Organizational Learning
1 2 3 5 4 6
GRAPH KEY:
• Each band of color represents one of the 10 core activity types over a time horizon (year 1 - year 6).
• The thickness of the band represents the level of activity. The thicker the color band, the more actions identified in a given year.
Community Relationship Building
Advancing Equitable Grantmaking Practices
Directing Funds to BIPOC-led Orgs
Advocating for Equity
Collaborating for Greater Impact
Advancing Organizational Learning
Culture Building for Equity
Centering Equity in Organizational Strategy
Centering DEI Values in Organizational Recruitment
Building Organizational Structures & Policies to Advance Equity
Here’s what we can see in our data:
1.
Each year we built on our previous year’s efforts, creating a steadily growing graph over time.
Advancing equity is not a one-and-done. Rather, it is a way of being that we learn and deepen with each step.
2.
3.
In years one through three, we can see that our journeys began with a strong emphasis on organizational learning and community relationship building.
Developing a shared understanding of our communities and how they are impacted by inequities was a critical first step.
Building on our foundational work we deepened our commitments and expanded our efforts, particularly during years four to six, when we experienced the most significant growth.
4.
While it can be easy to rush to recruit for DEI, we found that our efforts to center DEI in organizational recruitment strategies across staff and board came later on in our journeys.
Advancing sufficient internal learning and culture work is essential to support successful hiring and retention.
5.
We found that collaborating for greater impact, one of the smallest graphs, was more challenging to initiate.
Building trusting relationships with other foundations and community partners takes time.
6.
Incorporating equity into strategy tends to remain relatively consistent over the years.
We found that remaining steadfast in our values means embedding equity into every aspect of our work, and that begins with our organizational strategy.
Finally, through the peaks, valleys and flatter lines across our graphs, we can see that our journeys were not perfect. They included starts, stops and stumbles along the way. We learned critical lessons throughout these experiences, perhaps most importantly, the value of humility and learning from our mistakes.
Across our journeys, the following four lessons surfaced most strongly:
1. Leadership Matters
2. Resourcing Equity Advances Equity
3. Neutrality Does Not Serve Our Communities
4. We Are the Key to Accountability
[It] took a CEO who was ready to talk about racism and racial equity and really challenge people on a bigger vision for what’s possible in a community.”
— SETH KIRBY Chief Impact Officer, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
In our experience, leaders are the difference on whether an organization progresses, stalls or even regresses on its equity journey. Trustees and executives set the tone and the direction of an organization’s culture and therefore are key influencers and catalysts for advancing racial equity.
Ensuring the right leaders are at the helm to advance this work is complex and delicate work. For many of us, this has meant letting go of those who don’t align with or serve our equity values, including those who we had been in relationship with for many years. Though this is not easy work, ultimately we learned that transformation is a team effort and teammates who aren’t aligned can halt the process.
“Until some board members left, we weren’t going to be able to move forward on our equity commitment — even with all of the education.”
— JENNIFER RHOADS
Former CEO, Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
“After engaging in board training we had directors who really understood the importance of making room for diverse voices on our board — so much so that they were happy to shorten their board terms and step down early if the right person came along so we could diversify more quickly.”
— SHELLY O’QUINN Chief Executive Officer,
Innovia Foundation
“Not everyone is going to come along and you have to be okay with that. Culture change takes time, and sometimes it takes people change.”
— MINDIE REULE
President & CEO, Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
“Our board looks different, our staff is different and our culture is different, because people have opted out along our journey and that wasn’t a challenge but that was part of the path.”
— KATHI LITTMAN
President & CEO, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
As leaders transition out, it has been just as important if not more to ensure the right people transition in.
Historically, our board pipelines have been developed through donors, many of whom tend to be far removed from the critical issues and inequities that our communities face. We’ve learned that advancing equity work requires us to build new leadership pipelines from our community members and individuals closest to the issues on the ground.
It takes time and intentionality to cultivate relationships and build these new pipelines of the right people to help lead this work.
Some tactics that we’ve begun to implement to support this include:
• Open recruitment process for boards
10 of 20 organizations in our cohort facilitate open recruitment for boards.
• Term limits for boards 9 of 20 organizations in our cohort have explored term limits for board members.
• Exploring board candidate perspectives on diversity, equity and inclusion 12 of 20 organizations in our cohort have focused on DEI in recruitment processes.
Data Source: 2024 BCP Participant Survey
Equity-committed leadership for CEOs and executives is also about giving staff the opportunity and agency to address equity issues beyond the diversity component of DEI, creating conditions that enable the possibility to disrupt traditional systems and/or policies for impactful and sustaining change.
“Our CEO gave us a seat at the table to lift up concerns or opportunities for shifts. She really gave us space to make the changes and trusted staff — which is one of the ways that our organization has really transformed.”
— ESRA KHALIL
Senior Program Officer, Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
While good leaders make space for staff to advance equity throughout the organization, staff alone should not drive this effort. We have seen that the impetus for change usually begins with staff of color, but that they should not perpetually carry the burden of racial equity within the organization. Leadership requires ensuring that staff feel supported while simultaneously taking on the responsibility of ensuring that racial equity work does not fall solely to those with lived experience.
“This [racial equity] work now lives with senior leadership. This is not individual staff’s burden to carry; this is the organization’s work to carry, and the leadership commits to carry this through.”
— REBECCA CHAN Managing Director of Operations & Impact, Seattle Foundation
1. Listen to Can we talk about…?, a podcast on leading for racial equity in philanthropy. In Season 1, leaders reflect on their experiences as foundation executives and board members pushing equity agendas forward.
You can catch cohort member Sharon Miracle (President and CEO, Yakima Valley Community Foundation) on Season 1 Episode 2!
2. Seek leadership coaching and consulting support specific to racial equity work. Cohort members have worked with partners including J. Mase III, Tammy Farber, and senior advisors at The Giving Practice at Philanthropy Northwest on 1:1 coaching, group facilitation and equity-based strategy development.
We’ve worked with a variety of consultants for retreats, trainings, visioning and operationalizing our commitment. These initiatives and external partnerships require financial investment, reinforcing that what you value should be reflected in your budget.”
— NADIA GANDARA Senior Director of Racial Equity Strategies, United Way of King County
To do this work effectively means using our two most important resources: time and money. The reality is that it has taken a lot of time and money to create organizations engrained in systemic inequities, and therefore it will take time and money to undo those systems.
From educating colleagues on institutional racism to naming and navigating power dynamics to confronting hard truths and shifting long-standing practices, the complexities of undoing our systems require a diversity of resources to address.
Most, if not all, of us have invested in external consultants, trainers and coaches across the course of our organizational journeys to sustain and drive our work forward.
“We engaged consultants along the way on two different occasions for full staff and full board trainings, which gave us a huge boost. The first time they came every single month and worked with the entire team for a full year.”
— SHARON MIRACLE
President & CEO, Yakima Valley Community Foundation
“We had a consultant for the first two years who came to every board meeting. We started with identity and then white supremacy culture. We also attended an Undoing Institutional Racism workshop and hired a consultant to help us operationalize equitable hiring practices.
— KARRI MATAU
President & CEO, Community Foundation of Snohomish County
Looking for trusted external support?
HERE’S
Support Type Who We Partnered With
Organizational learning on structural racism and developing common language
Coaching and mentorship for senior leadership
• The Center Consultancy
• Co3 Consulting (Dr. Gerry Ebalaroza-Tunnell)
• Equity Matters
• The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
• Racial Equity Insights (Tony Nabors)
• The Giving Practice at Philanthropy Northwest
• J. Mase III
• Tami L. Farber
WHO WE’VE LEANED ON continued
Trust-building, relationship-building and transformation
Conflict management training and skill-building
Other
• Co3 Consulting
• Dare to Lead Brene Brown Trainings
• The Giving Practice at Philanthropy Northwest
• Justice Funders
• Cat Lazaroff — for white-led organizations working to advance equity
• Grantmaking with an Equity Lens training with Philanthropy Northwest
• Michelle Muri — for shifting investment practices, embedding community-centric practices in fundraising and donor engagement
• Radiant Strategies — for racial equity work with donors
“But we don’t have time!”
…is something that all of us have likely said if not thought throughout our journeys. The reality is that making time to advance equity is part of the “what” of equity work — and making time inevitably means taking time away from other priorities.
“This work requires distinguishing between what is pushing our work forward and what is distracting us from pushing our work forward. It’s not just about what new work we need to do but also identifying what practices and programs we need to stop to make time for the real work.”
— MINDIE RUELE President & CEO, Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
“The foundation’s capacity is being used by big events that have less impact. If we didn’t have those pieces of work we could go deeper and bring in a cohort of donors together to have important conversations — to learn about the best practices around racial equity.”
— SHONA CARTER Former Vice President of Community Engagement & Strategy, Community Foundation for
Southwest Washington
Looking to create more time and space for your equity work?
If you are struggling to manage capacity and make space for your team’s equity journey, try a reflection tool like Liberating Structures’ TRIZ or Eco-Cycle Planning Tool.
Neutral isn’t neutral and showing up with our values is the way that we can support communities with the greatest needs.”
— MATT MORTON President, Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
How do we redefine what it means to be a community foundation?
Karri Matau (President & CEO of Community Foundation of Snohomish County) shares that it’s about being “the community’s foundation.”
For a long time we community philanthropy have centered our donors. The idea that those who share their wealth should be able to decide where the money goes and how it is used is rooted in a system where wealth and power are seen as one — a system that also neglects the extractive history behind wealth accumulation.
Furthermore, historically we’ve considered centering donors as operating in a “neutral stance.” We’ve described ourselves as a bridge, intermediary or third party connecting donor interests with community needs. However, the reality is that every decision we make is a position we’re taking, and these “neutral” positions have inevitably continued to favor donors at the expense of communities we’re serving.
As we came to terms with this, we realized that we had to re-frame, unlearn and re-learn what it means and looks like to operate as a community philanthropy — as our community’s philanthropy — to move away from “neutrality” and towards true community impact.
“Every year I do at least 100 community conversations with individuals who are new to me or our organization. And I literally just talk to them about what they love about their community, any concerns they might have and anything they feel like an organization like ours can be doing more of,” Karri says. This is just one way that she remains actively engaged in the Snohomish County community to inform the foundation’s work.
Karri considers community relationship-building core to her role as President and CEO, and even encouraged her board to integrate it into her performance report.
As a funder, new roles mean we’re showing up differently. Rather than waiting for organizations to find us, we are actively finding ways to move resources to historically underfunded communities, whether that means providing technical assistance support in applying for grants, finding ways to support BIPOC-owned businesses outside of traditional grant programs or supporting non 501c3 organizations. We cannot allow traditional notions of risk to dictate what communities receive our support.
Non-partisanship does not imply an inability for us to engage in advocacy efforts. Across our journeys we’ve increasingly begun to use our voices to support our communities.
“In 2016 we started to take a more proactive role in civic leadership and use our voice alongside our dollars. Our most recent strategic plan is focused on how we can use our voice to build community power and support racial equity in the communities we are serving. This time we heard that in the next three years our community needs us to show up for affordable housing, transit-oriented communities and equitable childcare.”
— REBECCA CHAN Managing Director of Operations & Impact, Seattle Foundation
For many of us, advocating for our community’s needs has also included challenging conversations with longstanding donors. “There are techniques around psychological and emotional regulation and trainings on somatic practices and conflict literacy. It’s work that people don’t think of as work, but these are skills that we need to be able to do our job well,” Katie Carter (CEO of Pride Foundation) shared.
And sometimes these challenging conversations include saying no to donors.
“We’ve lost donors because of stances we’ve taken and because of work we’ve done. And my advice for others is to understand that saying no is saying yes. There’s this idea that if you lose one donor, everything else will crumble, but we’ve seen so many more people come to our organization because of our ability to work in valuesalignment,” Katie added.
Our cohort has regularly referred to the following philanthropy advocacy playbook by Alliance for Justice that outlines permissible policy activities for foundations. Specifically, many of us keep the green-yellow-red guidelines on page 14 (page 20 of the PDF file) handy.
Philanthropy Advocacy Playbook | Alliance for Justice
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation developed a Giving Guidebook tool to help donors root their giving in community.
Giving Guidebook | Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
Community Foundation of Snohomish County has been using CommunityCentric Fundraising’s principles and Aligned Actions List.
Aligned Actions List | Community-Centric Fundraising
As we have moved away from “neutrality,” we’ve also learned that we must question traditional ideas of risk, ideas that often perpetuate bias against the very communities that most need our support.
“When we hesitate to fund smaller organizations led by people of color or based in rural communities because they feel ‘risky,’ we have to pause and ask: is it actually about risk, or is it about our own comfort and bias? Too often, we call something risky just because it doesn’t match the patterns we’re used to.”
— MINDIE REULE President & CEO, Community Foundation of South
Puget Sound
“What strategies do you use around upending the idea of risk? The first thing we ask is what’s legal, what’s practice and what’s habit? And that requires some work.”
— KATHI LITTMAN President & CEO, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
I would urge anyone doing this work to build in accountability measures for everyone, and most importantly for leadership. When you introduce power dynamics, work, money and decision making, folks tend to revert back to best practices based in white dominant culture. Expediency tends to take the place of greatest community good or impact.”
— NELL BREWER Sr. Community Impact Manager, Education Strategies United Way of King County
Philanthropy lacks structures for accountability, which means we need to hold ourselves accountable to create structures and processes so that we don’t slide back into old, inequitable habits and practices.
Community. And accountability to community means not only listening to their needs but also incorporating their feedback on our accountability structures.
“In our guiding principles and values, proximity to community is a huge piece of accountability. We ask ourselves, ‘are we actually doing things the way we say we are going to?’ We are also in rooms with our community. So, if somebody doesn’t get a grant, we are talking to them directly, or they’re talking to us directly. And I think that that’s been the influential piece of continuing to have that proximity to community — continuing to work together with community and having that accountability.”
— LILLIANE BALLESTEROS Executive Director, Latino Community Fund
Transforming our organizations is profound and challenging work — an endeavor that we’ve found we cannot take on by ourselves. Through the 12 years of our cohort, we turned to one another to ask difficult questions and feel less alone as we worked to strengthen our collective efforts. Being in this cohort together also helped us hold ourselves and each other accountable for our commitments to racial equity.
“Having this kind of touchstone a few times a year, having peer accountability, having others in the cohort who were just so far ahead of the rest of us, was a central thing that kept it going.”
— MINDIE REULE President & CEO, Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
We have also used our time together to learn from one another, sharing tangible ideas to test or implement, whether they’re examples of open board calls, practical tools, or policies and bylaws that we are rewriting.
A cohort of peers is a powerful tool to help our organizations stay accountable to our racial equity work, and this does not need to happen in a formal structure. We each have the power to create our own accountability groups whether it’s with two organizations or 20.
HERE’S WHAT SOME COHORT MEMBERS HAVE DONE:
• United Way of King County has developed a dashboard for keeping track of how much funding they distribute to BIPOC communities.
• Pride Foundation has included racial equity specific questions in their performance evaluations for staff and board to assess to what extent individuals are advancing racial equity in their work.
• Whatcom Community Foundation uses an equity filter to make key decisions. They are also creating a DEI audit process that asks community members to evaluate their DEI efforts.
• Yakima Valley Community Foundation has included verbiage in their bylaws that requires board members to commit to ongoing learning around equity and diversity. The foundation also requires directors to recognize lived experience as equally as important as professional experience.
• All cohort members utilized Philanthropy Northwest’s Equity Journey Tracker Template to reflect on their work to date.
Reach out to Philanthropy Northwest’s programs team to learn more about our cohorts and peer networks.
Mares Asfaha
Associate Director, Philanthropy Northwest
Building Community Philanthropy Facilitator
While 12 years feels like a long time for a cohort, the 12 years of Building Community Philanthropy (BCP) is just the beginning of our work. As I reflect on what we’ve learned as a group and look towards what the future of community philanthropy requires to best serve our communities — especially in the context of a world where it’s becoming easier to back away from equity values — I’m sitting with the following themes:
We look for reasons for why this work isn’t possible and why now isn’t the time. We tell ourselves we can’t make certain changes because our policies prevent us from doing so, when in reality we have control over our policies and practices, not the other way around. We justify our policies and practices by telling ourselves they’re “neutral,” but as we’ve learned, seemingly neutral policies only reinforce the status quo, and we have the ability to change a lot of those policies. We justify our inaction by telling ourselves it will be easier in the future when in reality there will never be a perfect time to start and waiting for this hypothetical future “right” moment is a trap that only extends the harm that communities are facing. These narratives are just a couple of the ways we get in our own way while doing this work. Instead of finding reasons why this work isn’t possible, our jobs in philanthropy are to find a way to make it possible.
As a sector we need to reframe how we think about power.
If you are reading this, you’ve likely felt like you don’t have enough power to change anything in your organization (even if you’re a CEO). The reality is that no one person has enough power to change everything we want to change in an organization. But we do have the power to change something. Rather than focusing where we don’t have power, we need to find the opportunities where we have influence, and find the opportunities to create change no matter how small they seem. Creating change also requires courage and discomfort. We as a sector have become much more comfortable using our power to maintain the status quo than using it to change things for the better, and we must break out of that mindset.
Within our BCP cohort this has looked like changing old bylaws to allow more community members on grant committees, changing how partners spend their time to provide technical assistance to grassroots organizations in applying for grants, proactively signing up for newsletters and social media of formal and informal community groups, and creating time at board and staff meetings for learning about DEI. Sometimes using power has looked as simple as just pausing to ask “why are we doing X, Y or Z”?
We need to let our values and visions guide our decisions, not our fears.
Towards the beginning of this cohort many organizations indicated they would never engage in any type of advocacy work. Many of their reasons were grounded in fear. Over time folks evolved their perspectives and now they can’t imagine not doing advocacy work.
It’s easy, especially now, to allow fear to guide our decision making, but fear is a bad guide in this work. Fear lures us into thinking that what’s safest for our organizations is to pause this work. However, this is a false sense of safety. Real safety only exists in a world where each of us is working to advance racial equity in our communities.
Moving through our fears towards action is always easier with others, and though we might not always have a perfectly timed convening or facilitated opportunity, there’s nothing stopping us from sending a quick email or picking up the telephone to connect with our peers in this work.
Our hope is that this guide inspires action, collaboration and moving forward together in our journeys to advance equitable outcomes.
Toward Transformation
Q1: What is your name?
Q2: What is your job title?
Q3: Name of organization
Q4: Approximately what year did your organization start its racial equity journey?
Q5: The following nine strategies were identified from previous BCP evaluation reports. To the best of your ability, please assess where your organization is at regarding operationalizing each strategy (Not considering, Our organization has started conversations or is discussing this, Our organization has begun taking action to shift practices, Our organizational practices are strongly aligned and we’re continuously deepening our practices)
• Recruiting Diverse Staff
• Building An Inclusive and Equitable Staff Culture
• Recruiting Diverse Board
• Building An Inclusive and Equitable Board Culture
• Deepening Community Engagement and Relationships
• Implementing Equity-Centered Grantmaking Practices
• Nurturing Values Alignment with Donors
• Engaging in Advocacy and Policy that Supports Community
• Building and Maintaining Partnerships for Greater Impact (i.e., Pooled Funding)
Q6: What other equity-based strategies has your organization begun implementing or considering?
Q7: To the best of your knowledge, how has your organization changed regarding operationalizing each strategy since 2020? (Progressed in this work, Stayed the same, Stopped or regressed in this work)
• Recruiting Diverse Staff
• Building An Inclusive and Equitable Staff Culture
• Recruiting Diverse Board
• Building An Inclusive and Equitable Board Culture
• Deepening Community Engagement and Relationships
• Implementing Equity-Centered Grantmaking Practices
• Nurturing Values Alignment with Donors
• Engaging in Advocacy and Policy that Supports Community
• Building and Maintaining Partnerships for Greater Impact (i.e., Pooled Funding)
Q8: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for recruiting diverse staff? [check all that apply]
• Examining and adjusting job descriptions (i.e. removing education requirements, including inclusive language, etc.)
• Examining and adjusting interview processes (i.e. providing interview panel bias training, including DEIspecific interview questions, etc.)
• Examining and adjusting evaluation criteria (i.e. acknowledging lived experience, focusing on quality of years, etc.)
• Proactively developing relationships to build candidate pools and pipelines outside of hiring periods
• None of the above
Q9: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for inclusive and equitable staff culture? [check all that apply]
• Facilitating individual and/or group learning opportunities to promote shared understanding of equityrelated concepts (i.e. Training, educational material, etc.)
• Creating or maintaining dedicated spaces and structures for continuous learning and culture shifting (i.e. affinity groups, DEI committees or working groups, creating space for dialogue)
• Examining compensation structures and performance review processes and implementing equitable practices (i.e. mitigating bias, increasing transparency, conducting pay equity audits, etc.)
• Allocating budget for DEI efforts
• Reviewing and updating HR policies and procedures
• Implementing new staffing structures to distribute power and decision-making (i.e. distributive leadership, co-leadership models, etc.)
• None of the above
Q10: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for recruiting diverse board members? [check all that apply]
• Open recruitment
• Setting explicit diversity goals (i.e. developing a board matrix)
• Removing fundraising requirements
• Seeking content expertise beyond fundraising or finance skills
• None of the above
Q11: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for inclusive and equitable board culture? [check all that apply]
• Creating board norms
• Making space for relationship-building (i.e. hosting social events, storytelling, board dinners, etc.)
• Amending bylaws to support inclusion and belonging
• Offering peer coaching opportunities
• Instituting inclusive decision-making protocols (i.e. removing Robert’s Rules of Order or implementing Fist to Five decision making)
• Re-examining board terms
• None of the above
Q12: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for deepening community engagement and relationships? [check all that apply]
• Conducting listening tours
• Proactively identifying and building relationships with BIPOC-led organizations
• Hosting community discussions and trainings on racial equity
• Shifting power and decision making to community
• Building trusting partnerships with community that go beyond funding
• None of the above
Q13: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented to advance equity-centered grantmaking practices? [check all that apply]
• Dedicating funds toward specific populations and disparities
• Defining specific grantmaking goals (% or $) towards specific populations and disparities
• Funding BIPOC-led organizations (We use the commonly held definition of BIPOC-led as organizations with 50% or more of executive staff and 50% or more of board are BIPOC-identifying, and whose mission and programs serve predominantly BIPOC communities)
• Funding BIPOC-serving organizations
• Rethinking the use and purpose of DAFs
• Practicing Trust-based Philanthropy
• Practicing participatory grantmaking
• Removing lengthy grant applications
• Removing lengthy reporting requirements (e.g., having meetings as an alternative to written reports)
• Shifting board power to staff and/or community for funding decisions
• None of the above
Q14: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for nurturing values alignment with donors? [check all that apply]
• Educating donors on the importance and impact of DEI
• Working with donors to shift donor-directed dollars toward more equitable grantmaking (i.e. participatory or trust-based practices)
• Creating feedback loops with donors to deepen donor relationships and trust
• None of the above
Q15: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for engaging in advocacy and policy that supports community? [check all that apply]
• Hosting listening summits for community concerns on legislative agendas
• Convening networks of partners for shared learning and action on community advocacy issues
• Building relationships with elected officials
• Issuing advocacy statements on community-identified priorities
• Funding lobbying
• Funding 501 c3 advocacy
• Funding 501 c4 advocacy
• None of the above
Q16: What tactics (if any) has your organization implemented for partnerships for greater impact? [check all that apply]
• Engaging in pooled funding
• Engaging in aligned funding
• Hosting or joining action committees to address collective priorities
• Acting as a backbone organization for community initiatives or organizations
• Building partnerships/relationships with funders outside BCP
• None of the above
Q17: Is there anything else that has been critical or significant to advancing your organizational racial equity journey that you would like to share?
Q18: What is the total number of staff at your organization?
Q19: How many staff self-identify as BIPOC?
Q20: What is the total number of board members?
Q21: How many board members self-identify as BIPOC?
Q22: Approximately, what percentage of current grants reflected trust-based and/or participatory grantmaking in 2023?
• I don’t know
• Under 5%
• 5 - 25%
• 26 - 50%
• 51 - 75%
• 76 - 100%
Q23: What percentage of total grants (discretionary and DAFS) went to BIPOC-led organizations in 2023?
• I don’t know
• Under 5%
• 5 - 25%
• 26 - 50%
• 51 - 75%
• 76 - 100%
Q24: What percentage of your grant dollars from your discretionary funds went toward advocacy work in 2023?
• I don’t know
• Under 5%
• 5 - 25%
• 26 - 50%
• 51 - 75%
• 76 - 100%
Organization
Blue Mountain Community Foundation
Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
Community Foundation of North Central Washington
Community Foundation of Snohomish County
Community Foundation of South Puget Sound
Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
Innovia Foundation
Kitsap Community Foundation
Latino Community Foundation
Potlatch Fund
Pride Foundation
Seattle Foundation
United Way of Benton & Franklin Counties
Interviewee(s)
Kol Medina
Esra Khalil
Beth Stipe, Claire Oatey
Karri Matau
Mindie Reule
Seth Kirby, Megan Sukys
Molly Sanchez, Aaron McMurray, Ben Small, Lauren Autrey
Tina O’Brien
Lilliane Ballesteros
Rebecca Miles, Shannon Kopelva
Katie Carter
Rebecca Chan
Dr. LoAnn Ayers
Organization Interviewee(s)
United Way of Central Washington Kaylene Styles
United Way of King County
Liahann Bannerman, Nadia Gandara, Sara Seelmeyer, Nell Brewer
United Way of Snohomish County Maya Hemachandra
United Way of Spokane County Flor Castaneda
Whatcom Community Foundation
Yakima Valley Community Foundation
Pamela Jons, Mauri Ingram
Sharon Miracle, Lindsay Boswell, Enriqueta GarciaSanchez
• Maya Thornell-Sandifor
• Magan Do
• Paola Maranan
This guide highlights trends, lessons learned and insights gathered from the BCP cohort’s 12 years. Previous check-in call notes with BCP participants, reports and surveys informed the analysis of this guide. In addition to previous surveys and reports, the research team distributed a survey to current BCP participants, with a response from 19 of the 20 organizations. To supplement the survey responses, the research team conducted check-in calls with representatives from 19 organizations. Additional organizational analysis included researching each organization’s website and reviewing materials collected throughout the project. Finally, each organization submitted an equity journey tracker spreadsheet detailing the core 10 activities identified.
Based on the findings from the aforementioned research activities, the research team categorized and quantified activities that support advancing racial equity in organizations. Furthermore, these activities were translated into a timeline to display the amount of time this work takes.
BCP is a learning cohort of community foundations, identity funds, and United Way organizations across Washington State and Portland, Oregon. Launched in 2012, BCP aimed to foster a collaborative network of peer funders dedicated to addressing intergenerational poverty. This initiative emphasizes grantmaking strategies that prioritize the specific needs of local communities. Early in the cohort, BCP participants invested time developing relationships among their peers, which was seen as essential to creating a cohesive network of funders. Philanthropy Northwest played a pivotal role in supporting this network by facilitating collaboration and shared learning among cohort members through in-person meetings and convenings.
During a 2015 convening, participants collectively acknowledged the need to refine the cohort’s learning priorities to better address the evolving landscape of community needs. This led to a strategic shift toward three areas: (1) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), (2) policy and advocacy and (3) community engagement. By emphasizing these aspects, BCP transitioned from an exclusively grantmaking approach to a comprehensive systems-level strategy that remains firmly rooted in the communities it seeks to serve.
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the longstanding racial inequities that persist within society, exacerbating the pre-existing funding gaps for communities of color in philanthropy. In response to the challenges highlighted by the pandemic, BCP took the opportunity to renew and refine its goals for the final phase. The updated objectives focus on (1) a greater commitment to racial equity, (2) collective advocacy efforts among cohort members, and (3) increasing financial investments directed toward those communities, thereby furthering the goal of a more equitable philanthropic sector.
BCP 1.0
Focus: Addressing Intergenerational poverty
BCP 2.0
Focus: DEI, policy & advocacy, community engagement 2021
BCP 3.0
Focus: Greater commitment to racial equity, collective advocacy, increased funding
Community foundations and United Ways constitute the majority of the BCP initiative, with funding focused on specific cities or counties across the state and many serving rural, urban and suburban populations.
Identity funds are another subset of BCP cohort participants. In contrast to community foundations or United Ways, identity funds focus on specific identity issues or groups rather than geographic areas. Despite their broader scope, identity funds cultivate strong relationships with communities to address the unique needs of their grantees and partners.
This resource was written and produced by…
Mares Asfaha
Emily Daman
Aya Tsuruta with graphic design by…
Asha Hossain and input from the BCP Field Building Committee:
Lilliane Ballesteros
Katie Carter
Shannon Kopelva
Rebecca Miles
Megan Sukys
The Building Philanthropy Community Cohort was supported by…
Mares Asfaha (2017-2025)
Gloris Estrella (2015-2017)
Audrey Haberman (2012-2021)
Lyn Hunter (2017-2024)
Ted Lord (2012-2021)
Kathy Thin (2024-2025)
COHORT CONSULTANTS
Magan Do
Paola Maranan
Maya Thornell-Sandifor
Pat Vinh-Thomas, The Giving Practice
Rebecca Graves, FSG
Efrain Gutierrez, FSG
Marissa Jackson, The Giving Practice