Grantmakers in the Arts

For the month of March, GIA's photo banner features work supported by Denver Arts & Venues.

Arts & Venues is the City and County of Denver agency responsible for operating some of the region’s most renowned facilities, oversees the Denver Public Art Program, Create Denver, and Arts Education Fund, among other cultural grants and events. Their mission is to amplify Denver’s quality of life and economic vitality through premier public venues, the arts, and entertainment opportunities.

This week we publish the first in a series of blog posts that GIA President & CEO Eddie Torres will be writing on the field of arts philanthropy and principles like racial equity that drive GIA’s mission.

In a recent blog post, Barry Hessenius, author of the nonprofit arts Barry’s Blog, highlights the importance of increased diversity at the top as a step toward greater funding equity.

Racial diversity is not racial equity, but as Hessenius explores, enhancing racial diversity in leadership positions is a step toward increasing racial equity in arts philanthropy.

Much has been discussed of board diversity, but little is known about how increased the diversity on nonprofit boards affects their impact. A new report aims to understand what correlations exist and potential outcomes for leadership development and organizational growth by evaluating board member engagement, fundraising engagement, and advocacy engagement.

"For us, racial equity is about creating a society in which opportunities and outcomes for people are not defined on the basis of racial categories. But we go a little bit further than equity, in that we talk about dismantling anti-black racism, aka white supremacy, as an important step toward building a truly just and inclusive society."

Those are some of the thoughts of Kavitha Mediratta, founding executive director of Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, a ten-year, $60 million initiative of Atlantic Philanthropies. In an interview in Philanthropy News Digest, she addresses racial equity's place in philanthropy and how this program supports creative leaders dedicated to dismantling racism in both the United States and South Africa.

A new report from the First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) has found that community foundations often fall short when it comes to philanthropic giving to Native American organizations and causes.

According to the report, American Indian-led groups received only 0.15 percent of total grants, even though most of the states analyzed had above-average concentrations of American Indian residents, reads an article at the Nonprofit Quarterly.

Julie Fry, president and CEO of California Humanities, has made the organization’s mission to find ways to amplify the state’s diversity of voices. In response, the organization is seeking ways to reflect upon this principle and realize racial equity through its programming, grantmaking, and outreach, as discussed in an interview in Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities' publication.

Fred Blackwell, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF), recently tackled racial equity after the organization made a bold commitment to racial and economic equity in the Bay Area as a regional anchor.