Surdna Foundation

You may have noticed a new face around Surdna—we're thrilled to welcome KaSelah Crockett as a National Urban Fellows (NUF) on our team for the year! KaSelah is focusing on social justice grantmaking, mid-strategy reviews, and special initiatives with the Vice President of Programs Patrice R Green. A community advocate and social entrepreneur deeply dedicated to uplifting marginalized populations, KaSelah also supports teams across Surdna programs while learning how philanthropic strategy is applied to environmental and economic justice and racial equity in this evolving climate. Learn more about KaSelah--> https://lnkd.in/eYS89Vb8

As the year winds down, we're feeling full of hopeful energy after many moments of connection with grantees, peers, and partners in the past few months. Racial justice is more than possible—it is certain—with dedicated people like you all moving this work forward. It's been a joy to be in community with you! Tag yourself or your friends!

For Stanford Social Innovation Review, our friends at The Bridgespan Group—Darren Isom, Cora Daniels, and Lyell S., spent some time imagining the future of equitable philanthropy with partners & peers, including Don Chen. They came up with five truths to move donors forward: 1. Movements need to be durable to allow focus on the long term. 2. Our differences are our superpower. 3. Sustainable progress is only possible through cross-racial solidarity. 4. The best way to disrupt a broken narrative is to replace it with a more beautiful and compelling one. 5. The prospect of winning should outweigh the risk of failure. Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/gHNzxhNQ

Leaders at The Bridgespan Group share five truths to help donors committed to equitable philanthropy continue to push forward:   1. Movements need to be durable to allow focus on the long term. 2. Our differences are our superpower. 3. Sustainable progress is only possible through cross-racial solidarity. 4. The best way to disrupt a broken narrative is to replace it with a more beautiful and compelling one. 5. The prospect of winning should outweigh the risk of failure. Darren Isom, Cora Daniels, and Lyell Sakaue (Lyell S.) write: “In our 2022 SSIR article, ‘What Everyone Can Learn From Leaders of Color,’ we documented the assets and skills that leaders of color bring, because of their identity, that make them highly effective leaders and critical to social change. … Now, the continuation of that work is to learn from those leaders, to see and understand what philanthropy looks like when those assets are leveraged. Doing so reveals models that all funders can follow in their pursuit of equitable philanthropy.”

Shout out to Sophy Yem for representing Surdna Foundation at Foundations on the Hill with Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees earlier this year! Give a listen to an interview I conducted with her to dig into her experience as a funder getting involved in advocacy work 👏 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gW_qKFcF #philanthropy #advocacy #immigration

Thanks to ImpactAlpha’s David Bank for your coverage of the Illumen Capital Catalyst Fund close. Thanks to our entire team including Maria Lopez Rosas, Leila Mengesha, Katie Twomey, MBA, Joanna Kuang, Jeremy Sookhoo, Octavio Sandoval, CFA, CAIA, Jason Henning, Amani Ahmed, Jo Nazareth, Malia H. and Daryn Dodson for working to achieve this important milestone. Grateful to our investors including the Ford Foundation and the Health Forward Foundation for their continued commitment to our mission to address #racialbias and #genderbias in #assetmanagement. Thanks to all of you who are part of the movement to unlock impact and economic value.

Good reminder for #NationalNativeAmericanHeritageMonth and every day.

Year after year, we're honored to partner with National Urban Fellows to welcome fantastic folks like KaSelah Crockett to our team during their fellowship. Thanks, KaSelah, for bringing your whole self and powerful expertise to our work here at Surdna!

As part of our Resilient Organizations Initiative, a cohort of our grantee partners participating in the Institute for Nonprofit Practice's National Core Certificate Program (NCCP) gathered for a retreat in Chicago to connect with other nonprofit leaders, share tools, and strategize ways to accelerate organizational and community impact. One partner said: “I enjoyed my time at the NCCP Retreat in Chicago. INP reflected their commitment to social impact by intentionally collaborating with locally owned service providers and restaurants. I especially appreciated the historical tour of Bronzeville with Chicago Mahogany. The retreat was well designed to be a relational container where nonprofit executives could connect beyond their professional roles, but also as humans with the common goal of driving social good. The content highlighted that working in a nonprofit is more than a job or career—it’s an intentional practice to create social impact for the communities we serve.” Shout out to Jonathan Goldberg and Sophy Yem from our team for leading this work and ensuring that our partners can access support and capacity-building opportunities. #nonprofits #racialjustice

We're proud to support the work of HEAL Food Alliance as it resources frontline communities in the movement for more sustainable food and farming systems. 🌱 HEAL's Rapid Response Fund provides critical support directly to HEAL’s grassroots members to respond to urgent food and farm issues. Learn more and contribute: bit.ly/RapidResponseFund24