Giving Compass' Take:

• Funders for Justice, a program of the Neighborhood Funders Group, interviewed two program officers working at the NoVo Foundation about racial justice and the role of philanthropy. 

• One of the officers makes the point that the sector as a whole needs to trust more people on the ground to do the work. How can this sentiment become a reality? 

• Read about tips for more trust and transparency in foundations. 

In October 2017, Funders for Justice (FFJ), a program of Neighborhood Funders Group, hosted a funder briefing on the Freedom Cities Movement at the NoVo Foundation office in New York City. FFJ got the chance to sit down and talk with NoVo's Ramatu Bangura, Program Officer for Advancing Adolescent Girls’ Rights, and Jesenia Santana, Program Officer for the Initiative to End Violence Against Girls and Women, about the foundation's vision and funding of the movement.

FFJ: The last year or couple years have been really the challenging ones in many parts of the country with police accountability and gender and racial justice. As you've tried to grapple with everything that's going on, what have you learned about the role of philanthropy in this work? 

Jesenia: A couple of things—our partners have always told us that the way that change that can happen is for philanthropy to support people on the ground to do base-building and organizing work, provide long-term and flexible support, make sure that groups have what they need to build and sustain their capacity to respond to these kinds of moments and acts of resistance.

Ramatu: As a sector, we must continue to question ourselves in terms of how we silo work. By necessity, the power of movements in the current moment is that the work is both intersectional and inter-related. We hope to challenge ourselves to reflect that back to our partners by continuously examining how we do our work

First, philanthropy needs to trust more that the people on the ground doing the work know what they’re doing and know how to use the resources. Second, it needs to be in a relationship with partners, where we can all vision together towards the world we want.

Read the full interview about improving philanthropy by Shannon Lin On at the Neighborhood Funders Group