We asked Erika Washburn to share her reflections from our book discussion event. Erika has been a member of WA Women’s Foundation since 2011 and has served on the Pooled Fund Grant Committee (Education, Environment, and Health). “It is a book we need to discuss. We can’t just read it.” – Attendee “The book plowed…more
This week marks the start of the second phase of work for the 2019 Pooled Fund Grant Committee. Proposals from our Top 25 are due this week, and the Grant Committee Work Groups will be reconvening to discuss how these proposals reflect work being done to increase equity and reduce disparities in communities throughout Washington…more
Each year, the Foundation’s Member Engagement Committee selects a book for all members to read. This year, in alignment with our new grantmaking criteria of increasing equity and reducing disparities, they invite you to read So You Want to Talk About Race by local Seattle author Ijeoma Oluo. In this New York Times bestseller, Oluo explores the complex reality…more
A recent article by Dorian Burton and Brian Barnes published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review begins as follows: “Historical injustices – perpetuated by racial and cultural conflicts and exacerbated by a lack of empathy – are at the heart of America’s growing economic, social, and political inequalities. Nowhere is this gap of authentic empathy…more
Our Pooled Fund grant making cycle begins in September of each year, and our Letter of Inquiry process will open September 24. As you know, through our Pooled Fund, our members currently invest in the five areas which we believe are the foundational elements of a thriving community – Arts & Culture, Education, the Environment,…more
“[The summer] brought racial disorders to American cities, and with them shock, fear and bewilderment to the nation.” Esteemed legal advocate Marian Wright Edelman began her recent Child Watch® column, Unfinished Business, with the quote above. Though it is an excerpt from a report by the National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders (the “Kerner Commission Report”)…more
“Criminal justice in America sometimes seems more criminal than just — replete with error, malfeasance, racism and cruel, if not unusual, punishment, coupled with stubborn resistance to reform and a failure to learn from even its most glaring mistakes.” – Bryan Stevenson in Just Mercy. On May 18, I gathered with a group…more