The Ethical Rainmaker

Disrupting Your Community Foundation

Episode Summary

“...while we know that systemic racism is real and we know that funders aren’t really supporting and investing in brown and black communities, when you see the data, it's staggering. And it's amazing to me how complacent we can get sometimes, even in our advocacy.” Community foundations are supposed to serve their communities! But many community foundations use the same donor-centrism philosophies that our nonprofits do, centering white communities and wealth. In this episode, Heather Infantry, a fundraiser, executive director and organizer, tells us the story of how she called out her local community foundation and started a huge transformational shift in her community of Atlanta, Georgia.

Episode Notes

A long time advocate for justice and the arts, Heather identifies as a “foot soldier for Black liberation,” and has had incredible success organizing a disruption of her local community foundation. She’s amazing and we can all learn from the incredible work she outlines for us in this episode. Here are links for content mentioned in the show (and sign up for our mailing list?):

• Michelle talks with Heather Infantry, seriously, such a badass
• Heather is the Executive Director of Generator City, an Atlanta-based nonprofit committed to creating a space for social change where all people have a voice in working towards a shared vision for a better tomorrow. 
• She is talking about disrupting the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta...but this could be your community too, couldn’t it?
• This is the press release she wrote to tell the community story! (Link coming soon!)

References: 

• Join the CCF Slack Channel and check out the #disruptingcommunityfoundations thread
• Seattle Foundation Twitter threads revealing investment in Seattle Police one and two by @divestspd
• We could really use a written step-by-step guide or infographic situation to further show how Heather led these efforts...stay tuned and we’ll see if it can happen!
• DAF = Donor Advised Fund, which is a giving vehicle established at “a public charity.” Future episode on the problematic nature of DAF’s coming in 2021!
• Black political leadership is big in Atlanta - Maynard Jackson, was the first black mayor of Atlanta and the longest serving. This great city is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr.
• Heather talks about gaining inspiration from John Lewis’ history and mentioned this movie
• Gratitude to Shaina Shepherd for letting us use her new song “The Virus" throughout this episode!

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