Amplifying Community Voices: A behind-the-scenes look at Renton Regional Community Foundation's journey to transform their role in community

Aya Tsuruta

April 6, 2023

Together: Stories of South King County (#TogetherSKC) is a storytelling project that shares the nuances of South King County nonprofit leaders’ work, the beauty of their communities and their visions for the future of their region through a series of videos.

Above: #TogetherSKC community leaders on the work of seeing our own and each other's humanity.

The project is community-designed, with stories coming directly from non-profit leaders themselves.

So, where does a regional community foundation fit into this work?

Renton Regional Community Foundation (RRCF) Executive Director LeAnne Moss has been working side-by-side with the community designers of #TogetherSKC – listening, taking their lead, and providing capacity, thought partnership and resources to help push the often-overlooked voices of this region forward. “Smaller non-profits in South King County have historically been overshadowed by larger Seattle-based groups – struggling for recognition and, most importantly, funding. One of our non-profit partners shared in a recent meeting, ‘We are here. We have been here. We just need more resources to do our work.’ Through #TogetherSKC we’re shining a spotlight on these organizations and hoping to create pathways to more resources for them,” LeAnne shared.

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Five years earlier, RRCF’s work with community looked very different. “It was ‘money in money out’” LeAnne shared. “It very much felt like we were a transactional bank, and that’s what we had been doing for years.” As LeAnne and TGP Senior Advisor Lisa Fisher – who has been supporting the foundation’s work since 2018 with other TGP colleagues – can attest, this transformation from transactional donor-focused work to relational community-centered work did not happen overnight. Below they share a behind-the-scenes look at the foundation’s journey and explore what deepening partnership with and power shifting to community have looked like through #TogetherSKC.

Screenshot image of video call with LeAnne, Lisa and Aya — Above: TGP in conversation with RRCF Executive Director LeAnne Moss (top left)

Thank you, LeAnne and Lisa, for your perspectives and insights.

How did RRCF's evolution from donor-focused to community-centered work begin?

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Can you share more about the experience of naming this evolution together with the board?

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What was the process like to drive conversations around racial equity and bridge that gap between the board and community leaders?

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LeAnne Moss: It was challenging to figure out the best way to do this because we didn’t have the resources to do a dedicated, long-term engagement but we integrated it throughout our strategy process and were intentional about connecting the dots to highlight what was going on in our community. COVID was a big moment in this. In our region Black and Brown people have been most affected by COVID and it really highlighted the disparities. We also have been trying to get board members out to more events and recruiting new board members with deep awareness of community issues. And you know, the process is bumpy. We’ve had some particularly tense conversations around racial equity, which is necessary to engage in true, long-lasting change. It’s uncomfortable, it’s messy, and it’s really been about meeting each person where they are while holding a vision of how we can evolve. Lisa Fisher: I’ve really admired how thoughtful LeAnne has been about addressing issues head-on, holding space and allowing for growth. My observation is that awareness of community and community issues amongst the board, and that willingness to sit in discomfort and explore where people are on their own equity journeys have really grown over time. I also wanted to share an observation about working with LeAnne specifically, which is that Renton Regional Community Foundation is a foundation where community hasn’t felt separate from donors. It’s not like community is out there and the foundation and donors are over here. It’s been much more of a collective vision where donors are in and part of community, and that is so much about LeAnne’s leadership. LeAnne Moss: Thank you, Lisa – I couldn’t have done this without your partnership, and thanks for bringing up the community piece too. I do want to get away from using the word ‘donor’ and towards ‘partners’ who are maybe not experiencing the day-to-day struggles of some people in our community but are still engaged and providing financial or other resources. I think of Representative Steve Bergquist on our board, as an example, who mobilized to drive the South King Food Fighters effort right when the pandemic started. There are many different types of people like him who fit that definition of working with neighbors and friends to help solve problems and create a sense of connection, belonging and joy.

How did #TogetherSKC surface alongside RRCF's conversations on role and community?

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LeAnne Moss: As we continued to listen to stories from the community, and as we worked with Lisa on creating our strategic framework, the idea of amplifying community voices became key. We also knew that many small organizations we were funding through our CARE Together Fund – which has been our Covid response fund – were not on the radar of donors and larger funders. We wanted to use our positionality to get those stories out, both for the benefit of the organizations and for donors who wanted to learn what’s happening in our region. We also experimented with a little bit of storytelling at our 2021 Celebrate Event when we hosted a conversation between a 90-year old white woman who is a founder of RRCF, and young man of color who is a rising star in the region. They talked about their values around community and their common vision for this region. That was really powerful and we thought, we need to do more of this, so we asked non-profit leaders in our community, hey, is this something you’d be interested in? and sparked the idea that way.

Can you talk about the process behind the videos and how it supported the goal of amplifying community voices?

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What roles did you personally play throughout the project?

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As you reflect on the project, what has been your biggest lesson learned?

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What call-to-action do you have for other funders watching the videos and listening to these leaders' stories?

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LeAnne Moss: Let’s get more resources down here for these groups. There are over 100 organizations listed on the website and we’re more than happy to partner with anyone interested in connecting with them. I would also love to hear from people as they watch the videos. Was there something that made you feel uncomfortable or challenged? Inspired? And what does that mean for you as a funder or individual in your own journey? Let’s come together as practitioners and have a conversation about that.

To learn more about #TogetherSKC and listen to the first installation of stories visit https://www.togetherskc.org/conversations.

Storytellers include...

Roxana Pardo Garcia (La Roxay Productions & Co-Founder and Executive Director, Alimentado al Pueblo)
Linsay Hill (Community Healer)
La Tanya Horace-DuBois (Founder and Executive Director, Silent Task Force)
Diana Veronika Krishna (Program Coordinator, Swedish Hospital)

...with videography by Michael B. Maine and Gavin Sullivan.

A second installation will be shared in May with Efrem Fesaha (Founder and Co-owner, Boon Boona Coffee) and Felicia Hudson (Entrepreneur & non-profit leader)

Thank you to Satterberg Foundation whose support funded #TogetherSKC.

If you are looking for support in organizational transformation, please reach out to us at hello@thegivingpractice.org

Lisa Fisher is a Senior Advisor at The Giving Practice.

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Amplifying Community Voices: A behind-the-scenes look at Renton Regional Community Foundation's journey to transform their role in community

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