Leadership. Whole shelves are devoted to the topic at bookstores, and seminars on leadership abound. After 14 years as executive director at NW Children’s Foundation, I was eager to find ways to deepen my own leadership but could not find anything that seemed to fit. Then I discovered Philanthropy Northwest’s Women’s Leadership Cohort.
Philanthropy Northwest is actively engaged in partnering with members and stakeholders across our region to ensure a robust and accurate count during the 2020 Census. Personally, I am incredibly excited about the launch of the Washington Census Equity Fund, and all the work that has gone into ensuring that communities can mobilize quickly and efficiently by our philanthropic partners. Now we are pleased to announce the opening of the request for proposals to apply for census funding in Washington state.
This event will reveal insights from the African American Financial Capability Initiative (AAFCI), a three-year effort facilitated by Prosperity Now (formerly CFED). The initiative supports communities of practice that tailor financial stability projects to the needs of six communities across the Pacific Northwest and the Midwest through the collaborative work of 30+ black-led nonprofits in Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Tacoma, Washington; Des Moines, Iowa; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Each community of practice addresses the racial wealth divide with innovative approaches.
The Northwest Children's Foundation (NWCF) presents their 2019 Forum entitled, Community Trauma and Child Well-Being: Trauma-Informed Care and the Future of Healing. This community event features a keynote by Dr. Shawn Ginwright, Professor of Education in the Africana Studies Department at San Francisco State University, with opening remarks by Seattle pediatrician and community leader Dr. Benjamin Danielson.
This report includes interviews with executives at eight large foundations that have embraced organization-wide DEI efforts. We asked them how DEI can shape the structure of the investing department, the work of investment committees and the choice of investments.
Recently I met with families whose lives were torn apart by a recent Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Bellingham, Washington. Early in the morning of August 29 at least 16 people from the same employer were arrested by ICE and sent to the Tacoma Detention Center. The raid was done quietly and quickly in the dark of early morning before people arrived at work. You probably haven’t heard or read about it in the news, most people in Bellingham don’t even know it happened.
Earlier this year, Philanthropy Northwest committed to a journey that centers equity on the path to achieving a fairer and more just world. This journey compels both reflection and the use of our voice.
Over recent months, we have witnessed the family separation crisis at our border with sorrow and outrage. The federal government’s forcible and prolonged separation of children from their parents as these immigrant families sought refuge is an affront to the values of an equitable and just society, in which all people are treated with decency, respect and compassion.
Today, despite a court-ordered deadline having passed for the reunification of more than 2,000 families, the crisis remains ongoing.
