PLACES Fellowship

NEW: Apply Now for TFN’s 2025 PLACES Fellowship

For 15 years, TFN’s PLACES Fellowship has given leaders in philanthropy the tools and understanding to embed the values of equity and justice in their work. Regardless of their grantmaking portfolios, PLACES Fellows are equipped with the tools needed to understand, challenge and change systemic inequities, and then translate that learning into meaningful action and impact.

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At TFN, we believe that grantmaking institutions hold tremendous potential to make positive change in the communities they serve.

We also recognize the obstacles many funders face — both externally and internally — in turning ideals into impact, especially when their work in vulnerable and distressed communities often falls short of intended goals or fails to make a lasting impact.

TFN’s PLACES Fellowship is a transformational leadership development program for professionals in philanthropy to better understand issues of race, equity and inclusiveness — and to then translate those skills and knowledge in to their grantmaking practices.

By the end of their year-long fellowship, participants are equipped with the tools and resources to understand, challenge and change systemic inequities. Our hope is that by cultivating and connecting a diverse cadre of leaders passionate about racial equity and social justice, PLACES not only benefits those individual grantmakers, but enriches their institutions and the field of philanthropy as a whole.

PLACES — which stands for Professionals Learning About Community, Equity and Sustainability — uses learning, coaching and reflections to explore structural racism, community empowerment and equitable grantmaking practices.

We envision that all graduates will have a deep understanding of the following concepts:

• Personal leadership development
• Equity, inclusiveness and smart growth principles
• Understanding the constructs of race and racialization
• Collaborative grantmaking and community engagement to increase equity in philanthropy
• Influencing the field and encouraging change in culture and equitable practices through leadership and action

In addition to the PLACES curriculum, Fellows learn from the people and places we visit. Our Fellowship Cohort, selected annually from a highly competitive pool of applicants, embarks on year-long journey that includes four site visits to communities across the U.S. and Canada. (The site visit locations vary each year. To read more about our Fellows’ experiences on the road, check out our Going PLACES blog series below.)

The PLACES Fellowship concludes with a capstone presentation and graduation — but that rarely marks the end of the PLACES experience. As any PLACES alum will tell you, the deep bonds and professional connections forged by the Fellows extend well beyond the end of their cohort year.

TFN’s vision is to create generations of courageous philanthropic leaders who are engaged, emboldened and equipped to bring about a just society.

That’s why we are so proud to announce the 2024 PLACES Fellows — 16 exemplary grantmakers who will embark on a year-long curriculum focusing on racial equity and justice.

They will work together to not only deepen their understanding of structural racism and its malign impacts, but to acquire the tools and resources needed to challenge and change systemic inequities through their grantmaking.

For more than 10 years, PLACES has welcomed more than 140 fellows to participate in this unique opportunity intended to help grantmakers embed the values of racial, social and economic equity into their work.

Our alums hail from all corners of the United States and Canada, representing national, regional and community foundations. Their grantmaking portfolios encompass a wide range of passions: building healthy communities, spurring inclusive economic prosperity, fighting climate change, combatting social injustice, supporting local artists, and rebuilding civic trust — to name just a few of the areas where PLACES fellows are making an impact.

At the end of their cohort year, PLACES Fellows are welcomed into the robust and highly engaged PLACES Alum Network. The PLACES Alum Network offers peer learning opportunities, timely webinars, and our annual Alums Gathering. PLACES Alums also have the opportunities to further hone their leadership skills by volunteering on the PLACES Advisory Board and other TFN boards and committees. For a list of our alums, please visit our PLACES Alums page.

For the 10th anniversary of TFN’s PLACES Fellowship, we worked with two award-winning journalists to help capture the stories shared and the lessons learned through the PLACES Fellowship. The result is our PLACES Impact Stories project, which includes profiles written by WLRN social justice reporter Nadege Green and videos created by documentary filmmaker Oscar Corral. View the full project here.