AN INVITATION TO DO BETTER
We are inviting philanthropic institutions to change how they redistribute funding. There is a better way. The basic tenets are straightforward:
• Prioritize and dedicate human resources and funding to BIPOC artists, organizers and culture-bearers who have historically been exploited.
• Recognize that art is culture and culture is art. Culture and art is language, food and lifeways.
• Replace competitive grant processes to center identity, trust, healing, relationships and the land.
• Center cultural power and the peoples grounded in place who make up the field of creative place-keeping.
Imagine a funding landscape that differs from the one we are in today, where every gift a funder offers comes via a local nomination, not application, where every gift is given in the spirit of mutual trust, respect, and opportunities for genuine partnership.
We invite philanthropy to:
Gift as You’d Like
to be Gifted
Let’s inspire a field-wide system shift. We encourage all funders to prioritize relationships and authenticity to affirm BIPOC, queer, rural, and Native artists, culture bearers, and community organizations’ intrinsic value, offering the partnership and trust of no-strings attached gifts.
Join us in moving beyond outdated and problematic funding models, committing to shared power, listening deeply, and building lasting relationships. Let your gifting mirror the respect and trust you’d like to receive, embracing simplicity and humanity in redistributing money.
three principles
We urge foundations and philanthropists to embrace these three principles.
1. Let’s collectively strive for a philanthropic culture that values trust, respect, and non-transactional relationships.
2. Let’s acknowledge, value, and support historically underfunded artists, culture bearers, and communities with genuine partnerships, understanding, and respect.
3. Let’s push for this paradigm shift towards a more human-centric model of giving, which is essential for creating sustainable change and building a more equitable and compassionate world.
Take time to consider:
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Get inspired by and give credit to local, global, and ancestral cultures of mutual aid and giving circles. Share decision making power with local people and community groups through values and mutual trust to build local and hyper local capacity.
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Engage the locals doing the good work through conversations and relationship building as well as asking them for locally based nominations (new and longstanding). Paid foundation staff can do the research on who artists and cultural workers are and their work that is new to funders to activate networks in their region.
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Artists and culture bearers need wellbeing, time and space to build, grow and innovate. This radical approach funds artists to self-determine how they do creative work and cover their living costs. Imagine what could be achieved if healthcare, food and housing wasn’t an issue. Fund community wellbeing over building something limited.
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like big white-led institutions. Recognize that it is often the institution or individual who already has assets and access (to grant writers or foundations) who get grants. Instead, increase the flow to hyperlocal BIPOC led groups to build capacity. Fund both arts and culture work. Big impacts come from the people when we support local growth in urban and rural areas.
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Are you being a gatekeeper, are you funding the usual suspects? Be curious. Who else is out there? How can you help them get funding? How are you reaching deep into the community to bring equitable opportunities to artists, culture bearers, and communities you do not know?
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Resist the urge to ask for reporting but encourage and fund organizations and individuals to use storytelling to describe their work and help them tell their stories - cover their communication strategy expenses. Foundation staff can build relationships in the community to witness the work and collect the data for themselves.
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so we can continue our work as leaders in this method of philanthropy to make a transformative impact for BIPOC artists, culture bearers, and community members to heal and prosper from historical and ongoing marginalization by systems of oppression. We see our work as a regional pilot even as we are thinking beyond the borders of state lines, and decolonizing national borders. Lessons from which can be applied nationally.
WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED
We invite you to take away these insights and learnings and incorporate them in your own philanthropic practice.
Focus on relationships, not money.
By decentering of money (even though funding is obviously about money), we became conduits of giving, prioritizing relationships, joy, visibility, and community beyond mere financial transactions.
Gathering is good.
Deliberate time and commitment led us to deeper and long-lasting connections. Digging deeper helped us understand the multiple truths that exist across our lived experiences.
Make your own rules.
We went back to the drawing board to create our own norms and processes, building trust while challenging conventional philanthropic practices. We’ve aimed to democratize our process by bringing together diverse perspectives, building solid relationships, and offering transparency in communication.
Actual rural/urban balance takes time and capacity.
Achieving a rural/urban balance and equitable regional distributions is challenging, especially in reaching historically underfunded rural and Native American communities. This reflects a broader issue in philanthropy’s commitment to reaching beyond the usual suspects and resource allocation.
It’s not about us.
By decentering ourselves and centering others, we used our resources to aim to be good relatives. We involved community members in decision-making and adopted a consensus-based model that prioritizes shared values and seeks to always “do no harm.” Meaningful community engagement allowed us to stay vigilant against our implicit and systemic biases.
Communication is key.
People should have ownership of their narratives and the right to decide how and what parts of their stories are shared in an inclusive and respectful process. We strive to shift the narrative from trauma to resilience, empowerment, and strength. We offer resources, training, and workshops to help giftees tell their own stories authentically and comfortably.