GHR Foundation
  • Impact Areas
    • Global Engagement >
      • Children in Families
      • Prepare The Future
      • Programs in Transition >
        • BridgeBuilder >
          • Overview
          • 2017 Top Ideas >
            • Peace Direct
            • BioCarbon Engineering
            • LIFT Chicago
            • Local Youth Corner Cameroon
            • NaTakallam
          • 2018 Top Ideas >
            • This is My Backyard
            • Found in Translation
            • Producers Direct
            • War Child Canada
            • My Choices Foundation
          • 2019 Top Ideas >
            • Top Manta
            • Five One Labs
            • SAMA for All
            • Talent Beyond Boundaries
            • FaithAction
        • Inter-Religious Action
        • Sister Support
    • Education >
      • Catholic Schools
      • Higher Education
    • Twin Cities Racial Equity
    • Alzheimer's
  • News
  • About Us
    • The Foundation
    • History & Legacy
    • Team >
      • Staff
      • Committees
      • Board
    • FAQs
    • Grants & Financials
  • Contact

How supporting social innovators can help drive racial equity

1/28/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture

  • Systemic and structural barriers have long denied access and opportunity for leaders of colour.
  • A roadmap by the COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship aims to dismantle barriers and support innovators addressing racial inequities.
  • By resourcing and amplifying social entrepreneurs of colour, leaders can accelerate innovation, support marginalized communities and take action against racism.

Across economic, social and political measures, COVID-19 has both revealed and amplified the world’s long-standing inequities. By walking alongside Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities worst affected by COVID-19, and as the Movement for Black Lives sparked a global reckoning, we came to recognize how racism is persistent and prevalent in every community, country and continent.

So, as we aim to dismantle racism, and reimagine an equitable post-COVID world, social entrepreneurs of colour deserve our close attention. Social entrepreneurs, by their very definition, are continually finding innovative solutions to societal issues – those not adequately addressed or, perhaps, fully understood by the public or private sector. Their work and trusted vision is vital in tackling the systemic issues that marginalized communities face and offer new models for progress.

Challenges faced by social entrepreneurs
For these leaders of colour, systemic and structural barriers have long denied access and opportunity based on perceived risk, implicit and explicit bias, and unequal power dynamics. When it comes to funding, for instance, persistent barriers to capital slow their growth and put success in jeopardy – from getting connected in the first place to sustaining relationships for ongoing support.
Picture
Of course, those closest to the problem have the power of proximity. Already immersed in BIPOC communities and the issues that they face, social entrepreneurs of colour are going to have the best, most thoughtful and relevant solutions to offer. They deeply understand our world’s increasingly multi-cultural, multi-racial contexts and can help shift and renegotiate power in ways that make for more equitable, just and sustainable outcomes for us all. And by amplifying voices from marginalized communities, they are uniquely empowered to own their own narrative.

For example, Afro-Brazilian Adriana Barbosa is a Schwab Foundation Awardee and the founder of Pretahub in Brazil, an event series and platform aiming to boost Black entrepreneurship. The country has roughly 14 million Black business owners, but 82% are not registered in the formal economy. Pretahub acts as an accelerator and incubator of Black initiatives by offering training courses and bringing these entrepreneurs together to exchange experiences and ideas. Through this growing network, Pretahub has opened commercial channels for leaders across the whole of Latin America.

Many of these early-stage leaders recognize that they must harness the power of markets to achieve scale for transformational change. Deanna Van Buren is an Echoing Green Fellow and the co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS), an Oakland based nonprofit working to end mass incarceration by harnessing the power of design and development. DJDS works alongside individuals and communities most impacted by the criminal justice system and mass incarceration to co-create spaces of restorative justice and community building. By building infrastructure that promotes economic growth, encourages healing, and transforms systems of oppression, Van Buren is helping tackle the root causes of mass incarceration.

Despite their successes, social entrepreneurs of colour – like Barbosa and Van Buren – face predictable challenges. Even though more than $20 billion was awarded to nonprofits globally in response to the pandemic, 46% of Black-led nonprofits actually saw a decline in their grant funding as a consequence of it. These are prevalent issues worldwide, thus requiring global action.
Picture
Dismantling barriers and promoting racial equity
As we aim to work together and restore trust, a roadmap is emerging to dismantle barriers and build a global ecosystem that supports innovators addressing racial inequities. Founded in April 2020, the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is anunprecedented collaboration between 91 global leaders in social entrepreneurship, representing 100,000 social entrepreneurs and impacting the lives of over 2 billion people. With our network of values-driven business, government and civil society leaders, we are striving to get everyone around the table.

What is the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship?
Led by Saadia Zahidi, the Centre for the New Economy and Society has developed the most comprehensive and progressive agenda on diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice that the Forum has ever seen. Through strong partnerships with organisations including GHR Foundation, the Centre for the New Economy and Society drives impact on a comprehensive and progressive agenda to embed diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in the new economy.

Just as this pandemic has shown how interconnected we all are, it has also demonstrated the urgency in deploying those best situated to deliver solutions. By resourcing and amplifying social entrepreneurs of colour, business, government, and civil society leaders stand to accelerate innovation and progress, support communities in new and meaningful ways, and take tangible action against racism. This is the moment to commit to transformative change – we invite you to join us in supporting those already working toward it.

Cheryl L. Dorsey, President, Echoing Green
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation
François Bonnici Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship; Head, Social Innovation, World Economic Forum
0 Comments

Invitation from CEO Amy Goldman following the Verdict in the Trial of Derek Chauvin

4/21/2021

0 Comments

 
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

#maytherevolutionbehealing

— Dr Joi Lewis (Joi Unlimited) (@drjoilewis) April 20, 2021

May the family of George Floyd find respite tonight.

May they be surrounded in light.

May we all dedicate ourselves to protecting Black lives and working for Black liberation. pic.twitter.com/pavc3nKKXi

— Kalaya'an #WeKeepUsSafe Mendoza | ᜃᜎᜌᜀᜈ (@KalaMendoza) April 21, 2021

The day began somberly in Minnesota, flags at half staff for Fritz Mondale. It ends in equal parts jubilation and relief. Mondale would have liked this outcome I think. pic.twitter.com/nCigOQHRgN

— Fred de Sam Lazaro (@newshourfred) April 21, 2021

We urge all our supporters to allow this small victory to renew your conviction to take a stand against racial injustice, denounce white supremacy, dismantle the systems that allow it to happen, and invest in change that brings equity. #BlackLivesMatter

— LIFT (@LIFTCommunities) April 20, 2021

Today, we see a little light. But we can’t wait for another tragedy before we act. Stand with us in calling on Minnesota state legislators and Governor Walz to take immediate and decisive action. Learn more: https://t.co/48qZPHcbMl
(□: @Lorie_Shaull) pic.twitter.com/uqxT7X9O95

— Pillsbury United (@pucmn) April 21, 2021

https://t.co/UCdyTpaTBU

— Jimmie Briggs (@briggsjimmie) April 20, 2021

Justice has been served. George Floyd’s Black life mattered. Today, the jurors provided a gift to my four sons and my daughter. I’ll will think bigger later, RN, I’m thankful that today they get to witness the “right thing” #DerekChauvinTrial #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

— Chanda Smith Baker (@Chandasbaker) April 20, 2021

Here’s our president’s statement on the Derek Chauvin verdict. https://t.co/wXXc2NXm8I

— McKnight Foundation (@McKnightFdn) April 21, 2021

As we are processing the guilty verdict in murder trial of Derek Chauvin,a 16 year old Black girl named Ma’khia Bryant was killed by police today in Columbus Ohio after she called them for help.We who believe in freedom cannot rest.□ justice for Ma’khia,abolish the police state. pic.twitter.com/oSCAmWIo81

— Lulete (Lu-leet) (@whenlulawerks) April 21, 2021
0 Comments

Supporting Racial Justice and Equity in partnership with The Alliance of Alliances

3/24/2021

0 Comments

 
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.”
0 Comments

GHR Signs Joint Statement from Minnesota Philanthropic Collective for Racial Justice

7/15/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
We join our local peers in philanthropy as signatories of a joint statement from the Philanthropic Collective Committed to Combating Anti-Blackness and Realizing Racial Justice, as we work towards realizing racial equity across our work, organization and field. 

The Collective is a coalition of foundations and philanthropic organizations formed in response to the killing of George Floyd. Calling for reform in the field of institutional philanthropy, the collective  will raise $25 million and invites additional funds to invest in a visionary and historic Black-Led Movement Fund. 


Joint Statement MN Philanthropic Collective Committed to Racial Equity and Justice
File Size: 162 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

0 Comments

In Remembrance of George Floyd

5/28/2020

10 Comments

 
“As GHR staff gathered virtually to mourn the police killing of George Floyd, we reflected on what our collective effort must be to interrupt systemic racism in our community. Through our work we’ve come to learn that there is no single answer to inequity—but do know more urgent and coordinated action is required. I am both broken-hearted and outraged by the continued injustice experienced by Black, Brown and Indigenous communities in America. As a White woman, it’s uncomfortable for me to talk about race. And yet, I cannot stand silent like the officers did as they watched George Floyd die.” — Amy Goldman, CEO & Chair, GHR Foundation
Picture

10 Comments

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Alzheimer's
    Annual Report
    BridgeBuilder
    Cambodia
    Catholic Schools
    Central African Republic
    Children In Families
    Coverage
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Design Build
    Education
    Faith & Development
    Global
    Global Development
    Health
    Higher Education
    Inter-Religious Action
    Kenya
    Legacy
    Myanmar
    Nepal
    Nigeria
    Podcast
    Sister Support
    Solutions
    Twin Cities Racial Equity
    Uganda
    U.S.
    Work Of The Church
    Zambia

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    October 2013
    December 2012

    RSS Feed

CONNECT WITH US

IMPACT AREAS  |  NEWS  |  ABOUT  |  JOBS  | ​ CONTACT  
Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Use
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
©2022 GHR FOUNDATION
All Rights Reserved.