From La Jolla Institute for Immunology: 

New research published in Science magazine will guide the development of more effective COVID-19 antibody therapies and help scientists develop effective vaccines to address emerging viral variants.

​“We were able to map the geography of Spike and understand which antibodies bind to which footprints. This map provides a reference to help predict  which antibodies are still effective against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern like the currently surging Delta variant,” says LJI Professor Erica Ollmann Saphire, Ph.D., who leads the global effort behind this research, called the Coronavirus Immunotherapeutic Consortium (CoVIC).

CoVIC is a global, academic-industry, non-profit research collaboration that brings together scientists from around the world to understand which antibodies are most effective against the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and to streamline and accelerate the research pipeline for antibody-based therapeutics needed against SARS-CoV-2. GHR joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in supporting the global partnership, headquartered at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI). ​

Learn more here. 

In 2019, things were looking dire for Risen Christ, a dual-immersion K-8 Catholic school located in Minneapolis’ Powderhorn Park neighborhood. School administrators and members of the school board were seriously considering closing the school down. It was an all-too-common discussion at a time when many Catholic schools experiencing similar challenges were closing at an alarming rate.

Yet through creativity and community collaboration, Risen Christ has remained afloat. This case study details the story of how, offering tools for funders that are considering helping struggling institutions pull themselves out from under the burden of debt.

Read the full case study here:

Inspired by Pope Francis, the Global Solidarity Fund is a network of partners supporting innovative public-private partnership among and beyond Catholic networks that place the most vulnerable at the center of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

With support from GHR Foundation and others, GSF is connecting people, ideas and networks to build an inclusive economy, to amplify the leadership of Catholic sisters, and to shine a light on the development contributions made by the Catholic Church.

On September 25th at Global Citizen Live, alongside world leaders, activists and artists who are playing leading roles in the post-pandemic recovery, GSF shared their commitment to raise $100 million to solve the challenges faced by the world’s most vulnerable communities. 

Learn more about the Global Solidarity Fund.

From the World Economic Forum:

• We have a moral and economic imperative to eliminate systemic racism and racial injustices.
• The World Economic Forum and GHR Foundation have launched a new partnership to advance racial and social justice, starting within our organizations.
• From 20-23 September, the Sustainable Development Impact Summit explores how multi-stakeholder partnerships can shape a sustainable, inclusive and just recovery.

The last 18 months have upended much of what was considered “business as usual” around the world. To be more precise, they have brought to light deep inequities that have plagued humanity for centuries – economic, gender and racial injustices, included.

Our world could see its first trillionaire in 25 years, while one in nine people go to bed hungry every night. Lower income groups, women and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities have borne the brunt of pandemic-related slowdowns, with many social advances from previous decades showing worrying signs of reversal.

If there is a silver lining to this global crisis, it is that inequity is finally centre stage in global policy debates. “Leave no one behind” is the rallying cry of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the 10th Sustainable Development Goal aims to reduce inequalities based on income, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, class, ethnicity, religion and opportunity.

Just as we see eliminating inequities as a moral imperative, it is also in all of our economic interests. For instance, in the United States, racism is estimated to cost the American economy at least $1 trillion a year in lost consumption and investment. Systemic racism is not exclusive to the US, nor is the opportunity to realise the full potential of all people in this pivotal moment.

As part of this year’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit, we will explore this question and three broad areas of inequity:

• reviving and transforming the metrics of economic success,
• improving both the quality and quantity of jobs and
• advancing education, skills, and learning opportunities.

​
Underpinning advancement in these three areas is improving efforts relating to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and social justice more broadly, which is addressed within the session "Tackling Inequities in a Decade of Action".

To this end, we are thrilled to be embarking on a new partnership between our two organizations – the World Economic Forum and GHR Foundation, a global philanthropy based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

We know that race takes different forms in different cultural contexts, but racism — particularly discrimination against Black and Brown people — remains persistent and pervasive in every community, country and continent. If injustice and racial inequality are to be tackled effectively, we must first name and acknowledge them. Only in doing so can barriers to the inclusion of marginalised groups be addressed in global systems, organizations and the diverse communities we serve.
In May 2020, the movement for Black lives was reignited around the world. It became a catalyst for many organizations — including the Forum and GHR — to reflect on and highlight inequities that exist both outside and within our organizations.

Professionals of color and minority ethnic backgrounds continue to face racial injustice and inequity in the workplace, and they have been severely underrepresented in leadership. For example, there have only been 15 Black CEOs over the course of the 62 years of the Fortune 500’s existence, and currently only 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are Black.

As leaders of learning organizations, we recognize how much we don’t know. Still, we embark on this novel collaboration — one that will centre racial and social justice across multiple Forum teams, platforms and issues — embracing the discomfort of not knowing and a commitment for learning and action.

Together, with values-driven business, government and civil society leaders, we intend to build on the global movement to advance racial and social justice by developing and showcasing new models, embedding public-private partnerships and action, and engaging communities in meaningful collaborations. We already have 60 major multinational corporations from around the world signed on to fundamentally change how they think about race within their businesses — such as how they hire people, treat employees, think about their supply chains and more generally envision their strategies.

We believe this is only the beginning of an exciting journey. We invite you to learn and take action alongside us.

Saadia Zahidi, Managing Director, World Economic Forum
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation

A recent evaluation of Catholic Care for Children in Uganda (CCCU), a project of the Association of Religious in Uganda, shows promising results for children and families. 

Catholic sisters and brothers have become champions of care reform, taking strides to see that children grow up in families or family-like environments instead of institutions. Nearly 1,000 children have been re-united or placed with families with support from Catholic sisters and brothers trained in social work and case management and resourced with state-of-the-art tools. This model has been replicated by Catholic sisters in Zambia and Kenya. The example of sisters from Africa spurred the International Union of Superiors General (UISG/Rome) to launch Catholic Care for Children International in October 2020, to support Catholic sisters across the globe in efforts to reduce recourse to institutional care for children in favor of family- and community-based approaches. 

To more fully understand the results of this work and how they were achieved, in 2020 GHR Foundation commissioned a midterm evaluation of CCCU with hopes it would inform, encourage, and inspire.

Read the full report here:

Over 1.5 million children lost a parent, custodial grandparent, or other relative who cared for them during the first 14 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a first global study estimates.

From The Lancet:

"The COVID-19 pandemic priorities have focused on prevention, detection, and response. Beyond morbidity and mortality, pandemics carry secondary impacts, such as children orphaned or bereft of their caregivers. Such children often face adverse consequences, including poverty, abuse, and institutionalization. We provide estimates for the magnitude of this problem resulting from COVID-19 and describe the need for resource allocation."

Read the full study here.

BridgeBuilder 2017 Top Idea Peace Direct presents a new report exploring the extent of structural racism and power imbalances that exist within the humanitarian, development and peacebuilding sectors. 

Compiled through extensive research and consultation with 158 activists, decision- makers, academics, journalists and practitioners across the globe, the report explores how structural racism manifests itself in their work, and how they envision a decolonised system that is truly inclusive and responds to their needs. 

Watch the report launch and read the full report here. 

Here in the city of Minneapolis, many of us gathered together yesterday afternoon as a jury delivered the verdict to convict Derek Chauvin of George Floyd's murder. May Mr. Floyd and his family be at peace.

Over this past year, we have witnessed sustained and global demands for racial equity. This historic verdict represents a small but important step in that direction, yet there remains a great deal of work to be done to dismantle the permanence and pervasiveness of systemic racism. If we do this work well and do it together, it can be a step towards building the beloved community we all envision.

Nothing can make up for the many lives lost to police violence, or for the pain and trauma white supremacy has caused our Black neighbors here in Minneapolis, across the country and around the world. GHR stands in solidarity with them.

I truly believe that the Twin Cities can be the epicenter of the reform and renewal needed to build permanent racial equity for our society, yet I’m cognizant of the fact that as a white woman, I have a limited perspective of this moment.

And so, I invite our partners and community members to share their perspectives and hopes in replies and comments below. I also call on the GHR audience to join me in listening deeply to people of color and communities most impacted, today and into our shared future.


In Solidarity,
Amy Goldman

On April 7, the World Health Day Symposium 2021 offered a space of global and local interconnection around the theme of global equity. Hosted by Global Minnesota and sponsored by GHR Foundation, the day-long event linked local grassroots innovation and global policy initiatives — tapping the wisdom and experience of leaders from a variety of fields around improving global health outcomes, with faith and community voices represented.

Health equity is a crucial aspect of racial justice, and the World Health Day Symposium presented a chance to envision a more healthy and fair future for all. GHR's support represents our continued commitment to integrating racial equity into every aspect of our work and organization. 

Amy Goldman, CEO and Chair of GHR, shared, "there’s no doubt the devastation of COVID-19 has awakened the world to a crisis of broken systems with health, economic and racial inequities growing rather than shrinking. Yet, there is reason for hope as we hear new calls for change through collaborations such as World Health Day. We’re leaning into that change at GHR, taking steps today that prepare a different future – one that heals, that builds community, and creates conditions for equity and solidarity to flourish. And that’s why Global Minnesota’s focused conversation on health equity is so critical to all of us.”

Watch the full symposium here.

The African American Leadership Forum, in partnership with members of a Black professional fraternity, the Itasca Project and GREATER MSP, today announced an initiative to address racial inequities in the Twin Cities region in a new and transformational way.

With a working title of the Alliance of Alliances, the effort will be led by local Black leaders. It will be housed at the African American Leadership Forum (AALF), which will be the backbone for coordinating existing racial equity work and for instigating new work shaped and driven by the Black community.

Early partnerships with the Minnesota Business Partnership and the Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity helped pave the way to developing new pathways to fund efforts such as this initiative.

“The Minnesota Business Coalition for Racial Equity (MBCRE) represents leaders from more than 80 organizations who have come together to build an equitable, inclusive and prosperous state with and for black residents,” said Acooa Ellis, steering committee member and senior vice president of Community Impact for Greater Twin Cities United Way.

The Alliance, AALF, and MBCRE will work together to generate and implement solutions to advance equitable outcomes for Black Minnesotans. Currently, nearly $4 million of the $4 million required to jumpstart this effort has been raised through a coordinated fundraising effort with MBCRE members’ companies.

The approach that the Alliance of Alliances will take to solving the region’s persistent disparities is different, according to Lynn Casey, chair of the Itasca Project. “Our region’s business and philanthropic organizations have invested heavily over many years in reducing the disparities between white residents and people of color — particularly Black residents,” she said. “We can point to many success stories, yet Black Minnesotans remain at or near the bottom in income, graduation rates and other socioeconomic measures when those quality-of-life measures are broken out by race. It is time to add some new thinking. It’s time to invest in Black leadership.”

In addition to Black leadership, the Alliance of Alliances will use an approach called Black-Centered Design to ensure that solutions for the Black community are created by the Black community. “This is not how things have typically been done in the past,” Marcus Owens, AALF’s executive director, said. “Previous efforts have failed largely because they did not center Black perspectives and experiences.”

The Alliance of Alliances’ approach also is different in its comprehensiveness, Owens said. AALF will recruit leaders for each of eight areas essential to achieving racial justice and equity: public safety, shared responsibility, infrastructure investments, employment, education, healthcare, housing and advocacy. “These leaders will not only convene those organizations and individuals who currently work in and support those areas; they also will look for ways to leverage work across those areas,” Owens said.

“Take education and employment as one example. They are linked. Could we be more successful in how we educate and train our young people for careers if we thought through and addressed the barriers more holistically?”

The idea for the Alliance of Alliances began last July when members of Omicron Boule’, the local chapter of the Black professional fraternity Sigma Pi Phi, met with leaders of the Itasca Project and GREATER MSP to co-create a vision for what a more equitable region would look like in 2030. Out of those discussions emerged a two-page document outlining a 10-year vision and the eight work areas essential to achieving that vision. The document was shared with more than two dozen business, philanthropy and nonprofit organizations, including many that are Black led.

“We asked what it would take to build a different kind of movement for change,” said Omicron Boule’ member and U.S. Bank Chief Diversity Officer Greg Cunningham. “As conversations continued, the question of whether to form a separate organization or leverage an existing one came up repeatedly. AALF became the logical home because of its reach into the Black community, its way of partnering with others to get things done, and its commitment to centering Black voices in its efforts to drive change.”

Initial funders of the Alliance of Alliances include the U.S. Bank Foundation, 3M, Best Buy, General Mills, GHR Foundation, Securian Financial, Target Foundation, Thrivent, The Toro Company, and Wells Fargo. “This effort is about shifting our region from a focus on managing disparities to investing in equity as a strategy to drive growth and innovation,” said GREATER MSP President & CEO Peter Frosch. “And we are inviting other leaders and organizations to join in shaping a new consensus on how to advance racial equity.”

Funders also will be tapped for expertise related to governance, operating plans and accountability measures. “The Alliance of Alliances is ‘Black led’ but it is not ‘Black only’,” Owens said. He also emphasized that the work would require millions of additional dollars and engagement from the business, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors over time. “Many organizations doing great work in this region are under-funded. We can get there faster if we think bigger. Some of that will be new money, and some funds will likely be redirected as we uncover better ways to work together.”