“This Group of Foundations Has a Message for Peers: Our Racial Justice Work Is Not Done”

The Inside Philanthropy article titled, “This Group of Foundations Has a Message for Peers: Our Racial Justice Work Is Not Done” highlights that commitments to racial justice surged in philanthropy after the summer of 2020. Now, amid a cultural, legal and policy backlash, a group of six foundations with combined net assets of just over $24 billion recently published an open letter to philanthropy and a document, called “Power Sharing Framework Volume 1”. The letter praises increased attention to racial equity among foundations since 2020, but calls for greater efforts to upend power imbalances, including interrogating foundations’ own histories and the exploitation that generated their wealth. The Power Sharing Framework Volume 1 which details recommendations designed to encourage and support their peers in continuing to pursue racial justice and DEI work in the face of today’s legal and cultural backlash to addressing racial inequities.

Both the open letter and “Power Sharing Framework Volume 1” were the result of ongoing efforts by the Power Sharing Task Force, a group of six funders that formed in 2021, within the larger Race & Equity in Philanthropy Group (REPG) cohort, which was founded in 2006.