Category: Civil Society

Dolores Huerta’s Truth, and How Donors Must Evolve From It

For decades, Dolores Huerta has stood as one of the most enduring and principled voices in American social movements. As co-founder of the United Farm Workers, she helped reshape labor rights, advance gender equity, and model what it means to stay with this difficult work for a lifetime.

Now, in an act of remarkable courage, Huerta, age 95, has disclosed about the sexual abuse she experienced from Cesar Chavez, a figure deeply revered by the very movement she helped build.

Dolores Huerta at The Summit on Race in America in April, 2019. Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez in the 1960s and has spent decades advocating for laborers, women, and children. (Image credit: Jay Godwin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Her disclosure is not just personal. It is historic.

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Philanthropy Women Responds to Bill Gates’ Apology to His Foundation

When a philanthropic leader as prominent as Bill Gates publicly apologizes to his own foundation staff, it is more than a personal moment. It is a governance moment. It is a power moment. And it is a signal moment for the broader field of philanthropy.

We discuss how Bill Gates’ recent apology impacts the philanthropy sector. (Photo of the Bill and Melinda Gates Building at Carnegie Mellon University by Jonathan Speek on Unsplash)

Philanthropy has long operated on a paradox: immense influence with relatively limited public accountability. Foundations steward billions of dollars in public-benefit assets, yet their internal culture, leadership dynamics, and decision-making processes often remain out of view. When those at the helm acknowledge missteps, the field has an opportunity to make meaningful change, finding ways to do differently next time to avoid future fallout.

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Big Problem: IPU Reminds Us that Men Still Hoard Executive Positions

Not that anyone will be surprised, but here is confirmation of your suspicion that women are being shut out at the highest levels. The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is a globe-spanning organization of parliamentary democracies. With 181 members, there are very few places on earth that are not represented. One function it takes very seriously is to monitor the participation of women in national governments and in positions of leadership in large corporations. 

Women are not leading the world. What will it take to get there? (Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash)

Currently, 27.2% of Members of Parliament (MPs) worldwide are women. Despite all the scary headlines about how men are falling behind in educational achievement, they still manage to dominate the higher echelons of both government and business. Less than 19% of MPs are under forty; so governments are not only primarily composed of men, but of old men. 

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Cultural Breakthrough? Market for Women’s Art Growing Rapidly

According to Artmarket.com, 2023 was the most dynamic year in the history of the global art market. In the year ending December 31, 2023, over one million works of art in all media were put up for auction.

With three-quarters of a million individual transactions, the number of works sold set a record, an increase of 5% over the previous year.

The Ms. Foundation has added three new board members: Dr. Renée T. White, Mary Kathryn Nagle, and Kathy Ko Chin. Read below about these new leaders stepping up. (Image credit: Ms. Foundation)

Women artists were a key component for this growth. As Artmarket.com explains, they are finally being given the recognition and the place in the market they deserve. In particular, interest in, and appreciation for the women artists of the 20th Century have increased significantly.

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Expert Interview on the Fight for Women’s Bodily Autonomy

Vice-President Kamala Harris issued a stinging rebuke to the “hypocrisy” of conservatives in a speech delivered on the anniversary of the overturning of Roe v Wade, in which she pointed out that conservatives continuously seek to restrict access to health care. “How dare they?” she demanded. 

Kamala Harris speaks out for women everywhere.(Image credit: ABC News video screenshot)

There are reasons for her charges. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published a study showing that the number of women aged 18-30 choosing to undergo tubal ligation has increased dramatically since Roe was overturned. The rate of vasectomies has also increased, but only at half the rate of tubal ligations. It appears that, in the age of shrinking space for abortion rights, women are now much more fearful about their own bodily autonomy.

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Shanna Cox: Giving to Impact Women in Your Community

“As a leader of a nonprofit, I strongly encourage folks to select one or more local organizations whose mission they love, whose leadership they know and trust, and to give to operations or unrestricted funds,” says Shanna Cox, President and CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Cox oversees daily operations, events, and strategies for the Chamber, and believes in the power of giving to women and girls.

Shanna Cox, President and CEO of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. (Image credit: Shanna Cox)

Cox leads with a “learn what people want and deliver it” mentality at the Chamber, and has a reputation for being honest, approachable, and ready to dive in to solve problems. When it comes to helping women business owners in her community, she references listening and mentoring as important keys to build women up in the process of helping them succeed in business.

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Marguerite Casey CEO on Resourcing Abolitionist Feminism

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features President and Chief Executive Officer of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, Dr. Carmen Rojas.

carmen rojas
Carmen Rojas, courtesy of Carmen Rojas

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

I spent a lot of time in this sector trying to make sense of power relationships — specifically, those with undue influence, limited imaginations and proximity to the people who have long been excluded from our democracy and economy. I wish I had known that this is a feature in the design of philanthropy, and that it doesn’t need to be this way. I spent so much time trying to convince people in positions of power and people closest to the most resources that the communities I care about lack power in our democracy or representation in our economy, not as a result of individual choices but as a result of systemic design.

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Pop Culture Collaborative Leaders Discuss Funding Narrative Change

Editor’s Note: This dual interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, who are, respectively, the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of the Pop Culture Collaborative, a philanthropic resource and funder learning community.

Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, courtesy of Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

Bridgit Antoinette Evans: I wish that I’d been introduced to Octavia E. Butler much earlier in life. Octavia wrote about this concept of “positive obsession,” which she described as “not being able to stop just because you’re afraid and full of doubts.” My mother and her siblings were leaders in the Civil Rights movement in Savannah, and while she fiercely believed that her daughters could be anything we wanted to be in the world, she was very clear that we needed to be improving the world while doing it. I wanted to be an artist, and so, as a teen, I became obsessed with one question: “What is the relationship between a great story and widespread cultural change?”

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Philanthropy or Investing: Why Not Both?

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published on February 17, 2021.

When it comes to maximizing our financial impact, there is often an “either/or” approach to leveraging wealth. Do we use our dollars to fund a philanthropic effort, like a campaign or organization dedicated to women and girls, or do we turn our funds toward investment opportunities, like supporting companies with a strong commitment to diversity?

Ellen Remmer is a Senior Partner at The Philanthropic Institute (TPI) and Champion of Invest for Better. (Image Credit: Invest for Better/Ellen Remmer)

As new forms of giving spring up to meet the challenges — and opportunities — of a digital society, we are able to move further away from that attitude of “either/or.” There are ways to stretch our donor dollars further — through two types of collectives that maximize impact.

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Shira Ruderman: Show With Actions, Not Just Words

Editor’s Note: This interview in our Feminist Giving IRL series features Shira Ruderman, Executive Director of the Ruderman Family Foundation, a private family foundation that invests in three primary areas of focus: advocating for and advancing the inclusion of people with disabilities throughout our society, strengthening the relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community, and modeling the practice of strategic philanthropy worldwide.

Shira Ruderman is the Executive Director of the Ruderman Family Foundation. (Image Credit: Ruderman Family Foundation)

1. What do you wish you had known when you started out in your profession?

I wish I knew philanthropy is a life journey that you cannot get separated from. I view it like parenthood, you learn as you go. Philanthropy makes you recognize your passions, skills, views on life.

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