This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of the Funders’ Network’s most significant efforts to foster leadership in philanthropy: the PLACES Fellowship. PLACES — which stands for Professionals Learning About Community, Equity and Smart Growth — has welcomed 127 fellows to participate in a yearlong learning opportunity to help grantmakers embed the values of racial, social and economic equity into their work. By the end of their fellowship, participants are equipped with the tools and resources to understand, challenge and change systemic inequities. Our alums hail from all corners of the United States and Canada, representing national, regional and community foundations. We are proud to share just a few of the many stories of our alums here as part of our PLACES X: Stories of Impact project.
“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed.
But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”Audre Lorde
Patricia Smith
TFN President & CEO
“BY THE END OF THEIR FELLOWSHIP, PARTICIPANTS ARE EQUIPPED WITH THE TOOLS AND RESOURCES TO UNDERSTAND, CHALLENGE
AND CHANGE.“
CHALLENGING. IMPACTFUL. TRANSFORMATIONAL.
CHALLENGING. IMPACTFUL. TRANSFORMATIONAL.
The Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities (TFN) was founded with the purpose to help grow and support philanthropic leadership that creates communities and regions that are sustainable, prosperous and just.
We believe that cultivating, connecting and empowering a diverse cadre of professionals to recognize and work at the intersection of the environment, economy and equity benefits not just individual grantmakers — but the field of philanthropy as a whole.
This year, we celebrate not only the 20th anniversary of TFN, but the 10th anniversary of one of the network’s most significant efforts to foster leadership in philanthropy: the PLACES Fellowship.
Over the past decade, PLACES has welcomed 127 fellows to participate in a year- long learning opportunity to help grantmakers embed the values of racial, social and economic equity into their work.
PLACES — which stands for Professionals Learning About Community, Equity and Smart Growth — uses site-specific learning, coaching and reflections to explore structural racism, community empowerment and equitable grantmaking practices. By the end of their fellowship, participants are equipped with the tools and resources to understand, challenge and change systemic inequities.
Our alums hail from all corners of the United States and Canada, representing national, regional and community foundations. Their grantmaking portfolios encom- pass building healthy communities, spurring inclusive economic growth, combatting climate change, improving access to quality healthcare, supporting local artists, and rebuilding civic trust — to name just a few of the areas where PLACES fellows are making an impact.
While these fellows come from diverse professional and personal backgrounds, we’ve noticed that they often use similar language in describing their PLACES experiences: Challenging. Impactful. Transformational.
My thanks to the fellows profiled in this publication for taking the time to share their individual stories and the robust network of PLACES alums whose passion and commitment to social justice can be seen every day within and outside of philanthropy. You are making a difference.
The generous support of The Annie E. Casey Foundation — and the vision of Scot Spencer, Casey’s associate director for advocacy and influence — made this publication possible. TFN is also indebted to the award-winning journalist Nadege Green, who skillfully extracted the uniqueness and richness of each fellow’s experience.
PLACES’ decade of success would not have been possible without the direction and guidance of its Advisory Board, staff and facilitators and the foundations whose support ensure that this impactful and important program can continue to grow and thrive. This work could not have been done without you, and we are all the better for it.
Scot T. Spencer
Associate Director for Advocacy & Influence
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
“IF YOU ASK A PLACES ALUM, YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT THE FUN AND LEARNING IN THE FELLOWSHIP, BUT YOU WILL ALSO HEAR ABOUT DIRECT DIALOGUE ON REAL ISSUES.”
A HEARTFELT URGENCY TO CHANGE THE STATUS QUO
What happens when an investment partner entrusts your stewardship of their resources to help advance your commitment to a more inclusive field? That was the fortunate position TFN was in when former board member and Ford Foundation program director Carl Anthony invested in TFN and a next generation of leadership. With a concept first led by then TFN staffer Anthony Colon, PLACES was created.
It was a slow start, but that first class of seven graduates helped grow a movement that currently boasts an alum network that is 127 strong. If there’s one thing you learn when visiting the places we have gone, it’s that while many may be similar, no two are alike. The same can be said about PLACES alums and the PLACES experiences. But whether you were in the first class or tenth, there are similar experiences:
Hartford Mary. “The Incident” in Wichita. The third world outside Albuquerque. Every class has at least one site visit that provides a bonding memory for that class. Some were laughable in their absurdity, others anger- ing in disbelief. The experiences in the cities, towns and communities fostered lessons of what to do – differently, better, larger – and what should never occur again;
Little Rock’s Central High School. The Medgar Evers house. The Scott Joplin house. The Vancouver Chinese Garden. These are the places where we learned about history that is too often glossed over, culture that we had a glancing knowledge about and the sometimes-painful past that has shaped our currency and calls out to lead the charge for a better future.
If you ask a PLACES alum, you will hear about the fun and learning in the fellowship, but you will also hear about direct dialogue on real issues. PLACES talks about race. About whiteness. And blackness. Straightness and gayness. Power and privilege. Strength and resilience. PLACES fellows discuss in heartfelt sentences and paragraphs of a new urgency to change the status quo. And they speak of the embrace or hesitation that may greet them upon their return home.
PLACES alum leaders have been tasked with leading their institutions on the quest to plant racial equity in their place-based work and within their foundations. Others have left their foundations to lead the charge for racial equity closer to the ground. And they are re-writing the rules in their new places of work.
Ten years. Thirty-six site visits. One-hundred twenty-seven alums. This and much more is what can happen when an investment partner entrusts your stewardship of their resources. To borrow a phrase: ‘Oh, the PLACES we have yet to go.’ Forward.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nadege Green is an award-winning journalist who covers social justice issues for the Miami-based public radio network, WLRN. For her, journalism boils down to not only telling the stories of the people who are accessible, but also seeking out the voices we don’t hear from, and telling those stories too.
Her work has received numerous awards, including a 2017 Regional Ed- ward R. Murrow Award about children lost to gun violence, 2016 first place investigative reporting award from the National Association of Black Journalists and Florida AP Broadcaster awards.
In 2018 Green was recognized by the Miami Foundation with the Ruth Shack Leadership award for her body of work that gives voice to communities that are often not heard. Green’s reporting has appeared in the Miami Herald, NPR and PRI. Her work has also been cited in Teen Vogue, The Root, Re- finery 29 and the Washington Post. She previously worked at the Miami Herald covering city governments and the Haitian community. Green studied English with a specialization in professional writing at Barry University.
ABOUT PLACES X
PLACES Tenth Anniversary: Stories of Impact, captures and shares stories from alums of TFN’s PLACES Fellowship. Interviews were conducted by Miami-based journalist Nadege Green, and may have been edited for length or clarity. This project has been made possible with the support of The Annie E. Casey Foundation. For print copies, please reach out to TFN Communications Director Tere Figueras Negrete, tere@www.fundersnetwork.org.