Special Feature Executive Commentaries:
Disability
As America becomes an older and more stressed nation, experiencing growing obstacles to its basic health and welfare systems, physical and mental health challenges are affecting more and more of our people and families. Yet, owing to lingering stigmas, discrimination and still-relatively fragile disability advocacy capacities, organized philanthropic institutions have been slow to focus on disability as a major concern. With assistance from DPP senior writer Robin Templeton, we invited three leading funders associated with the Disability Funders Network (DFN) to provide their insights on what foundations can and should do to increase their responsiveness in this important area of social investment.
Our first commentary is from Kim Hutchinson, the Virginia-based president and CEO of DFN, the nation's leading organization of private grant makers concerned about disability issues in philanthropy and the larger society. Hutchinson highlights that inclusive grantmaking does not silo separate issues and instead means making sure that you're reaching everyone in the community as a whole, recognizing the intersectionality of disability with all of the other components of diversity and bringing everyone to the table. Read more
Our second commentator is Kevin R. Webb, director at the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and a leading board member of DFN. Noting that 20 percent of the U.S. populace has a disability, Webb points out that most foundations include disability in their portfolios and thus must be more intentional in their approach. Read more
Catherine Hyde Townsend, also a DFN board member and associate philanthropic advisor at Wellspring Advisors, LLC, a private philanthropic consulting group provides our third commentary. She forcefully presents disability through a human rights lens and discusses the implications for grant makers. Read more
Our fourth commentator is Irfan Hasan, program officer for health and people with special needs at the New York Community Trust and chairman of the Board of Directors of DFN. Hasan identifies some of the challenges to including people with disabilities in grant making and argues for their inclusion at every level of the process. Read more
Human Rights and Marriage Equality
With assistance from DPP consultant Robin Templeton, we invited LGBTQ leaders to discuss the implications of legislative and legal decisions across the country that go far beyond the question of marriage equality, raising fundamental questions about human rights, social equality and racial justice. The commentaries also suggest ways that grant makers—including those that have not historically included LGBTQ communities in their program priorities—can support efforts at the local and national levels to ensure that the rights and freedoms of all families are equally recognized and protected. We continue coverage on this essential human and civil rights struggle with two new commentaries.
Our first featured field executive is Urvashi Vaid, president of the Michigan- and New York-based Arcus Foundation. Vaid conveys how, for the LGBT community, marriage inequality is about much more than marriage and is truly a social justice issue. She discusses the implications of that approach to the Arcus Foundation's grant making choices. Read more
Our second featured field executive is Karen Zelermyer, executive director of the New York-based philanthropic affinity group Funders for LGBTQ Issues (formerly Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues). Zelermyer highlights the importance of recognizing the full diversity of the LGBTQ communities. She offers a thoughtful analysis of the impact of marriage equality campaigns on LGBTQ organizations and advises grantmakers on reaching underserved LGBTQ communities. Read more.
Read earlier commentaries on these issues from Roger Doughty, executive director of the Horizons Foundation, and Tim Sweeney, president and CEO of The Gill Foundation. And access two recent reports on LGBTQ issues from Funders for LGBTQ Issues: A Global Gaze: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Grantmaking in the Global South and East (Calendar Year 2007) and Building Communities: Autonomous Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Queer People of Color Organizations in the U.S.
Diversity and Inclusion at the Executive Level
To further thought, practice and impact in these difficult economic times, we offer additional expert commentaries on diversity and inclusion's essential role in advancing recruitment and leadership at the highest levels of our field.
Our first commentary, from Martha Montag Brown, highlights how, when working to create a qualified slate of candidates, diversity will be a natural outcome and offers ten strategies and insights from promoting diversity in the search. Read more
In our second commentary, Anthony Tansimore draws on his experience in both philanthropy and executive search professions and emphasizes that diversity in the hiring and appointment process has to be integrally connected to what the institution is trying to accomplish. Read more
Read previous executive search commentaries from Christine Boulware and Dan Nevez of the Boulware Group, a national executive search firm based in Chicago, and Lauren Gumbs, founder and senior partner of Gumbs & Partners, a New York City-based firm specializing in executive search services on behalf of private grantmaking organizations and nonprofit institutions.
Read previous Commentary section offerings presented on our website by Evette Cardona, Senior Program Officer at the Chicago-based Polk Bros. Foundation, member of the Executive Committee of Chicago Latinos in Philanthropy and immediate past chair of Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues, Michael Seltzer, a founder of both Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues and Funders Concerned About AIDS, Gara LaMarche, President & CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies, Sherece West, President of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas, Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, Sterling K. Speirn, President of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Stephen B. Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.