Special Feature Executive Commentaries:
Human Rights and Marriage Equality
The California Supreme Court recently rejected the legal arguments made by LGBT advocates and upheld the ban on same-sex marriage imposed by Proposition 8, passed by voters last November. With assistance from DPP consultant Robin Templeton, we invited LGBT leaders to discuss the implications of the Court’s ruling and the repercussions of Proposition 8 that go far beyond the question of marriage, 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 LGBT 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 plan to continue coverage and commentary on this essential human and civil rights struggle in future newsletter and Web site reports.
Our first featured field executive is Roger Doughty, executive director of the Horizons Foundation. In his commentary, completed with support from Diversity in Philanthropy Project consultant Robin Templeton, Mr. Doughty discusses the implications of the California Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8 and the challenges and opportunities the decision informs towards creating an America that fully involves all of its members. Read more.
Our second featured field executive is Tim Sweeney, president and CEO of The Gill Foundation. In his commentary, completed with support from Diversity in Philanthropy Project consultant Robin Templeton, Mr. Sweeney provides updates on field leaders actively supporting marriage equality and offers ways other philanthropies can support this important work. Read more.
In addition to these commentaries, we feature here two important newly-released reports on LGBT issues from Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues (FLGI). The first of these is an internationally focused report titled A Global Gaze: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Grantmaking in the Global South and East (Calendar Year 2007). This report takes a current snapshot of grantmakers and NGOs working with LGBTI communities in the Global South and East. It notes that while funding has increased since 2005, the number of funders has not. In fact, half of the LGBTI groups working in these regions did not receive any foundation support in 2007.
FLGI has also recently published Building Communities: Autonomous Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Queer People of Color Organizations in the U.S. This first-ever report on U.S.-based organizations that are led by and for LGBTQ people of color makes the case that supporting LGBTQ people of color organizations has a strategic, smart and moral rationale. The report also offers grantmakers specific recommendations to help these organizations address a plethora of issues and build strategic alliances necessary for collective success.
Diversity and Inclusion at the Executive Level
To further thought, practice and impact in these difficult economic times, we offer expert commentaries on diversity and inclusion’s essential role in advancing recruitment and leadership at the highest levels of our field. In future reports, we hope to include additional commentaries on executive search and related human resource management issues of relevance to our work.
Our first commentary, Diversity and Effectiveness in Philanthropy: Inclusion as a Model for Leadership Recruitment, Retention, and Excellence is from Christine Boulware and Dan Nevez of the Boulware Group, a national retained executive search firm based in Chicago. The authors explore the principle of inclusion as a means of promoting philanthropy that is both more responsive and impactiful. They identify important steps for inclusion through the prism of recruitment, hiring practices and work culture. Read more.
Our second commentary, Accessing New Talent to Enhance Diversity and Effectiveness in Philanthropy is from 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. She highlights strategies that foundations of various kinds can employ to enhance their prospects of success in the evolving environment of change that surrounds all of us. Read more.
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.