The Forum has a strategic focus on advancing racial equity, diversity and inclusion in philanthropy by leveraging the power of our expanding nationwide network of regional and national philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs).
We provide programming on racial equity, diversity and inclusion for people working at PSOs through our annual conference, webinars and in other ways. We are also focused on helping PSOs provide funders with effective resources, programming and strategies to advance racial equity, diversity and inclusion in philanthropy, guided by a new Racial Equity Working Group.
The Forum was a partner in the D5 coalition, a five-year effort organized by a coalition of foundations and associations to galvanize philanthropy’s work on diversity, equity and inclusion. D5 sought to leverage the collective knowledge, experience, and action of more than 17 organizations, representing thousands of foundations.
We provide space for our members to connect, learn and share together on how to effectively address racial equity in their work as philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs), and works to share our members’ learnings with the broader philanthropy field. As part of these efforts, we are pleased to share case stories from our members about their racial equity work.
United Philanthropy Forum’s 2020 Compensation & Benefits for Philanthropy-Serving Organizations report provides comprehensive benchmarking data and analyses on the employment practices of regional and national philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs).
On June 9, 2020, Philanthropy Ohio President Deborah Aubert Thomas and Chief Communication & Public Policy Officer Claudia Y.W. Herrold submitted a letter to the office of Ohio State Senator Dave Burke of the Ohio Senate Health, Human Services, and Medicaid Committee, expressing support for support SCR14, which seeks to declare racism a public health emergency and pursue policies to eliminate racial inequities in the state of Ohio.
One of the key findings from United Philanthropy Forum’s 2018 Racial Equity Scan of Philanthropy-Serving Organizations (PSOs) was that Forum members are eager to engage in peer learning, particularly around advancing racial equity in their organizations, with their members and through their programs. In order to advance this learning, and to support member organizations who are at different places on the continuum of equity skills and practice, the Forum is partnering with Change Elemental to create two Racial Equity Peer Learning Cohorts
To help PSOs overcome financial barriers to engaging in racial equity work, the Forum is offering mini-grant opportunities for our members, thanks to support from Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity in Philanthropy Fund. This mini-grant program will provide Forum members with small grants, up to $5,500, to cover all or part of the costs of a trainer, facilitator, or speaker (or related program expenses) to engage with staff, board, and/or members on an aspect of advancing racial equity.
Tyehimba Jess, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, opened United Philanthropy Forum's 2019 Annual Conference in Cleveland on July 15 with excerpts from his award-winning work Olio.
Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, author of Biased, presented as a part of a breakfast plenary session at United Philanthropy Forum's 2019 Annual Conference in Cleveland on July 16. Dr. Eberhardt opened with a story about her son making a biased statement and she emphasized the different ways in which implicit bias can have an impact on our decision-making without us even knowing it.
Ana Marie Argilagos, President and CEO of Hispanics in Philanthropy facilitates the closing conversation for lucheon plenary session at United Philanthropy Forum's 2019 Annual Conference in Cleveland on July 17 with LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter, and Vanita Gupta, President and CEO of Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights about the role of philanthropy in our democracy.
United Philanthropy Forum’s 2019 Compensation & Benefits for Philanthropy-Serving Organizations report provides comprehensive benchmarking data and analyses on regional and national PSOs’ employment practices, based on the responses of 58 PSOs.