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Racial inequities persist in every measure
of well-being, including health and wellness, school readiness,
economic success and civic participation. This is also true
in our GLBT communities where injustice and racism exist in
what is often seen as a white GLBT rights movement.
Funding GLBT people of color non-profits has
been inadequate, profoundly affecting the health and sustainability
of these organizations, and ultimately, the effectiveness
of our broader movements for social justice.
Racial Equity Initiative--new Leadership Cultivation Program launches
Application deadline July 31, 2008. Complete information and application.
In fiscal year 2008, PFund was awarded a $60,000
grant from Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues, a national
organization dedicated to increasing institutional giving
to GLBT communities.
The three-year matching grant will enable PFund
to build on our achievements and enhance our capacity to serve
GLBT people of color across Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota,
South Dakota and Wisconsin. This grant will help build the
organizational capacity and support the leadership of GLBT
people of color stand-alone organizations and projects. Specifically,
it will impact the inequity in funding of organizations for
GLBT people of color and cultivate a movement to achieve equal
rights.
The Racial Equity Initiative has two pieces:
first to increase funding to stand alone GLBT organizations
of color and second, to support and develop leaders in these
communities. The first round of grants from the Racial Equity
Initiative were just announced (the deadline is September
each year). In the first year, the Racial Equity Initiative
funded Two Spirit Press Room.
PFund Racial Equity Initiative convenes
leaders from GLBT communities of color. As part of
PFund’s Racial Equity Initiative, PFund Foundation is holding
a series of convenings at Marnita’s Table, a non-profit that
ignites enduring cross-cultural connections through intentional
social interaction.
The first Racial Equity Initiative gathering, in November 2007, was a great success with more than 30 individuals attending. Topics ranged from historical oppression of people of color in the broader GLBT movements, to leadership development in GLBT communities of color, to funding access for GLBT communities of color programs and organizations. The evening fostered networking, trust and community building and, as one participant said, “It was great and empowering just to be in a room full of queer people of color — from so many different cultural identities — talking about this stuff in a safe space.”
A second convening took place in February 2008; this time the conversation focused on identifying opportunities for leaders in GLBT communities of color to enhance their leadership skills. Out of this conversation the Racial Equity Initiative Leadership Cultivation Program was born.
PFund Racial Equity Initiative Leadership Cultivation Program.
PFund is collaborating with Family & Children’s Service and Pillsbury United Communities to implement a two-track leadership cultivation cohort; one track focusing on board leadership and the other on community organizing. The six month cohort will provide participants with an opportunity to build on their existing leadership skills, explore identities, develop a community with their cohorts and use learned and expanded skills to enhance local communities.
Board leadership cohort participants will learn ways to become a stronger leader on non-profit boards. Through the process, cohort participants identify and work with organizations in which they are interested in becoming involved. Cohort facilitators will guide participants through a series of workshops and activities to define a personal mission and explore how that mission plays out in board leadership. After completing the program, cohort participants will be poised to join non-profit boards as strong, effective and dynamic board leaders with an understanding of the roles and responsibilities of non-profit boards.
Community organizing cohort participants will engage in a series of workshops guiding them through the steps of implementing a community organizing project. Cohort members will identify a community project they wish to work on for the duration of the program. Each session will focus on a component of organizing that will be necessary to accomplish the community project identified by the cohort. Cohort facilitators will work with participants to strengthen their ability to mobilize communities around a cause. After completing the program, cohort participants will possess the basic knowledge of developing and implementing an organizing plan and understand the power that community organizing has in systems change.
Apply now! We are now taking applications for the program, due July 31. The program is open to any GLBT person of color interested in enhancing board leadership or community organizing skills Click here for application. Space is limited to 10 participants in each track.
When? The program runs August 20, 2008 to February 4, 2009. Cohorts will meet the first and third Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. A light supper will be provided at each meeting and a travel stipend of $150 will be offered to each participant who completes the program.
Communities of Color Endowment fund
PFund’s groundbreaking Communities of Color
Endowment supports and strengthens GLBT communities of color.
Our goal was to establish a permanent and lasting fund to
provide grants each year that serve this purpose. To date,
the fund holds more than $36,000, thanks to support from a
wide range of PFund donors and friends like you who have invested
in equity and justice for all GLBT and allied people. The
fund continues to grow, providing increased support for future
generations. Today this fund pays out approximately $1,000
annually for grant making to communities of color organizations.
The 2008 grant helped fund Casa de
Esperanza.
As PFund grows, it periodically assesses how
well it serves each of its GLBT constituent communities. In
2004 that assessment indicated that we could better support
our community members who are people of color by creating
a sustained source of funding. Leadership in this effort came
from people of color on PFund’s board, key community leaders
and our staff and volunteers. Through a series of community
conversations the structure and focus areas of this new endowment
emerged with a commitment to honor the reality that different
communities have different priorities, needs and ways of organizing.
A name for the new fund was selected; the Communities of Color
Endowment was born.
The endowment is important because it means
that PFund holds a permanent source of funding for communities
of color and that PFund will always have a focus on the needs
of community members who are people of color and organizations
that specifically serve GLBT people of color — building
community and capacity, eliminating discrimination and invisibility
and celebrating the full diversity and cultural expressions
of all our GLBT communities.
The Communities of Color Endowment is the first
and only permanently endowed fund serving GLBT people of color
in the nation and PFund takes great pride in the community
efforts that made this a reality.
Your support is critical
The Racial Equity Initiative is a challenge
grant and requires PFund to raise $60,000 in matching support
from our donors over the next three years. We need your help!
Every dollar you give will be matched, dollar for dollar.
We need to raise $10,000 for the Racial Equity Initiative
grant right now. Your gift will make sure PFund gets the full
grant amount and has the resources to address these racial
inequities. Thank you for your support.
You can send a check with this form—click
here, or you can have us charge your credit card monthly
using this form. You can donate online by clicking the button below. No amount is too small — remember,
every gift will be matched dollar for dollar!
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