Advancing Racial Equity

Advancing racial equity.

Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy affirms a commitment to racial equity grant-making, a commitment fueled by a desire to highlight and dismantle systemic racism and its cumulative impact on the African American community. By utilizing a racial equity lens in grant-making, philanthropic organizations can help begin the dismantling of structures that support and perpetuate racial inequity.

Racial equity is situational fairness resulting in the inability to predict advantages or disadvantages by race, improving social and institutional outcomes overall while closing racial gaps within those outcomes. It requires addressing areas where structural racism exists. It also requires applying differential resources to unequal needs; removing barriers for dissimilarly situated individuals, families, and communities; and treating similarly situated individuals, families, and communities equally.

Achieving racial equity.

Grant-making and Racial Equity

From acknowledging the inherent power and privilege embedded within the field to understanding how diverse perspectives can lead to greater impact, foundations can use many practices and processes to integrate racial equity into their grant-making approaches.

Integrating racial equity in grant-making often requires foundations to make substantive changes to their grant application, due diligence, decision-making and reporting practices that are intended to change power dynamics and increase transparency. Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy recommends the following resources to learn more.

Resources

Racial Equity Tools is designed to support individuals and groups working to achieve racial equity. This site offers tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding.

The new Grantmaking with a Racial Justice Lens: A Practical Guide, written from PRE provides grantmakers with reflections, frameworks and tools built from the direct experience of activists and funders for advancing racial justice in any philanthropic setting.