San Francisco, CA - The Libra Foundation proudly announced today that social justice philanthropy leader Supriya Lopez Pillai will shepherd their organization forward as the next President. Supriya brings 30 years of deep movement experience to the role, including two decades focused on gender, racial, and environmental justice philanthropy. Her extensive experience, deeply relational leadership style, and unwavering commitment to funding grassroots organizing, made Supriya distinctly suited to lead Libra into its next evolution. 

The Libra Foundation proudly announced today that social justice philanthropy leader Supriya Lopez Pillai will shepherd their organization forward as the next President. Supriya brings 30 years of deep movement experience to the role, including two decades focused on gender, racial, and environmental justice philanthropy.

Libra Foundation Announces Supriya Lopez Pillai as Next President

With democracy under threat here and around the world, this election year poses the question: what are the requirements of a multi-racial democracy?  What must be in place to ensure that our right to participate survives for all of our children? There are many elements, of course, and at the Democracy Frontlines Fund we support power building organizations that protect and enhance our right to vote, as well as groups that are creating community-led strategies to keep us all safe and designing solutions to the climate crisis. 

With democracy under threat here and around the world, this election year poses the question: what are the requirements of a multi-racial democracy? What must be in place to ensure that our right to participate survives for all of our children? There are many elements, of course, and at the Democracy Frontlines Fund we support power building organizations that protect and enhance our right to vote, as well as groups that are creating community-led strategies to keep us all safe and designing solutions to the climate crisis.

What Will It Take?
The Requirements of a Multi-Racial Democracy

News

To have a functioning democracy, we need to ensure that people, and in particular Black people who are closest to injustice, are safe and thriving.  With this pivotal election year, our DFF blog series  will focus on our civic engagement pillar and three aspects within: vibrant and well-resourced community organizing, free and fair access to voting, and addressing disinformation.

We’ll start with organizing in this inaugural blog, because that is where the hard, often unsung work of democracy begins. We can’t fully exercise our democratic rights unless groups in our communities have first laid the groundwork by tilling and sowing the ground – that’s like trying to grow a garden without any soil.  True organizers don’t just show up and try to harvest votes in an election year – they are at their work in the winter, in the fallow times, and as we write this they are seeding this fall’s successes in the spring.

Organizing is the diametric opposite of despair —the belief that no one cares and nothing can be done about the threats to our democracy. Organizing at its best can stoke our precious sense of hope, and help us imagine coming back together as vibrant, whole and well – while steering us from this fragile moment to that destination. This is because organizing leaves people feeling connected to their neighbors, part of a network in their community. It can also help overcome toxic divisiveness.

People’s Action gets this, and that’s why their “Organizing Revival” takes us beyond transactional spurts of organizing that fall conveniently in election years. Their goal is a much more longterm “strategic alignment and shared movement infrastructure that will help independent as well as networked organizations build and wield power more effectively across issues, geographies, and constituencies.” They’re bringing poor and working people back into a process from which they’ve too often been sidelined or excluded.

Our grantee partners in the Democracy Frontlines Fund know better than most that organizing is a long-term investment that builds deeper relationships over time. No one understands the deep and lasting role of organizing better than Black Voters Matter, working to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. “This isn’t about one election, this isn’t about one person winning or one party being in power,” LaTosha Brown reminds us. “I have the audacity to believe that there are far, far more of us that want an inclusive, representative democracy than those who seek to undermine and destroy it.” Amen.

In preparation for this year’s consequential election, Black Futures Lab is leading a five-state electoral organizing strategy to engage Black voters through deep canvassing, relationship-building, and voter education. Alicia Garza shares, “Every election cycle, there’s a lot of hand-wringing about whether or not Black voters are going to show up. We know that our communities show up when we invest consistently and with curiosity - when we listen to, rather than talk at our folks.” Black voters have made a significant difference in every election, and this cycle will be no different.

There are so many more amazing folks out organizing our frontline communities, too many to mention by name here, and their compelling work at the grassroots desperately needs resources. So it’s shameful to see many funders scale back their racial justice work in this critical moment. This is a time for funders to follow the bold lead of DFF and move their money to organizing – now.  After completing our first round of multi-year investments of $39 million in Black power building from 2020-2023, our funder community came back to the table with starting commitments of $35.5 million through 2026. In election years, organizers need the money early to engage and inform their communities. 

We are proud to sign on to the All By April campaign, joining nearly 200 pro-democracy funders and donors in accelerating our 2024 giving to frontline civic engagement partners. We thank our funder community who, through our swift and collective efforts, make possible the accelerated awards of $11.5 million to our 11 grantee partners building power in Black communities across the nation six months ahead of our normal grantmaking timeline. We must have the vision and the bias to action to get the resources to the grassroots.  As we’ll discuss in future blogs, this is not the sole requirement of our democracy. But organizing is the beginning, the core element that makes it all possible.

Democracy Frontlines Fund (DFF) is an initiative of the Libra Foundation. Crystal Hayling is the Executive Director of the Libra Foundation and Founder of DFF. Daniel Lau is the Initiative Officer for DFF.

“We are so excited to welcome Supriya to the Libra Foundation,” said Board Co-President, Susan Pritzker. “It is an incredible honor to join forces with someone so talented and values-aligned to advance our critical work funding BIPOC-led groups organizing for change and combating inequality, injustice, and discrimination in all forms.” 

Supriya spent the last six years leading the Hidden Leaf Foundation, an important peer funder with which Libra has many shared values. “In each of the different roles in which I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with Supriya for the last twenty plus years, she has been steadfast in her efforts to build strong social movements grounded in grassroots power,” said Alta Starr, Director of Training at B.O.L.D., and Hidden Leaf Trustee. (B.O.L.D. is also a grantee partner of Libra.) “An inveterate bridge-builder, as Executive Director of Hidden Leaf, Supriya led efforts to enact trust-based grantmaking principles, shift endowment investments to regenerative economies, and partnered with peer funders to support transformative approaches within social justice movements. I look forward to this next chapter of Supriya’s leadership, which I expect will be similarly visionary while growing from the strong roots of her past work and her deep relationships in both social movements and philanthropy.”

“I am honored to lead with Libra’s board and staff at such an enormously consequential time in history,” Supriya said of her decision to join Libra. “I have witnessed Libra’s tremendous impact and in joining the foundation we converge on a shared, deep commitment to advance philanthropy and resources for movement building.” 

“In Supriya, we have a philanthropic leader and partner committed to grassroots power building, supporting a healthy democracy, and protecting our planet with community-based solutions,” said Board Co-President, Regan Pritzker. “We are incredibly proud to welcome Supriya to the team and look forward to working closely with her and the Libra staff to build on our mission to fund the communities and organizations closest to the most pressing issues of the time.”

Supriya will begin her new role at Libra in September. In the interim period, Ashley Clark will remain Acting President of Libra.

Looking at the injustices that are engulfing marginalized communities, a clear pattern emerges: how deeply gender is woven throughout all of these struggles. Our carceral punishment system, so clearly weighted against people of color, also comes down heavily on women and LGBTQIA+ people. This discrimination and its harsh consequences are both historical, and very much in the present moment, unfolding around us in real time.

Taking a look at the carceral system through a gender lens is more than illuminating – it highlights often overlooked connections that justice funders must see and act upon. This isn’t one issue, with a one-off solution, it’s a web of interconnected issues that have gender as the common denominator. It all adds up to tremendous trauma and hardship for the 173,000 women and girls who are locked up in America today, and the thousands more who are trans. They face daily risks and hardships – which ripple out to their families, as they are often economically marginal, and the sole caregiver. 

Most recently, the Dobbs v. Jackson decision last year has brought in its wake the widespread criminalization of health providers and people seeking reproductive care. Within our current culture of mass incarceration, says researcher Hayley McMahon, "we're gonna see more people being criminalized, more people being arrested and more people being incarcerated." It’s not a matter of back-alley abortions anymore – it’s people seeking reproductive health care and ending up behind prison bars.

While providers in states banning abortion are clearly under threat, most people don’t realize that pregnant individuals themselves are also at risk of criminalization. In Idaho, a statute from 1973 remains a potential danger: a woman “who purposely terminates her own pregnancy otherwise than by a live birth” can be found guilty of a felony.  Similarly, some states have begun to explore criminalization approaches based on “fetal personhood,” aiming to increase prosecutions targeting pregnant people by classifying abortion as homicide.  

Even prior to Dobbs, prosecutors sometimes charged pregnant individuals in situations where their actions during pregnancy had allegedly harmed the fetus – including using drugs (even where prescribed by a doctor), drinking alcohol, and even falling down stairs. These seeds of criminalization have been sown for a long time, but Dobbs has allowed them to take root and grow in more communities – creating a culture of fear.

There is also nothing new about the criminalization of LGBTQ people, but now it is a trend that has gathered momentum.  Data from Interrupting Criminalization show that people incarcerated in women’s prisons (currently the fastest growing prison population) are disproportionately LGBTQ. A stunning forty-two percent of this population either identifies as lesbian or bisexual, or has had a same-sex experience. 

Behind these numbers are a larger and very frightening trend.  Arrests for women, the overall number driving this increase, are dropping much more slowly than those of men and are actually rising in several categories, including drug offenses and “broken window” offenses like vagrancy. Overall, the number of women incarcerated in the U.S. has skyrocketed, increasing 475 percent in the last four decades.

Adding to the harms, a large proportion of the women behind bars have already experienced some form of interpersonal violence. According to a recent study, 86 percent of women who have spent time in jail report that they had been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. As well, while women represented just 13 percent of the jail population between 2009 and 2011, they represented 67 percent of the victims of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization. Sexual violence is so pronounced among jailed and incarcerated women that Sen. Cory Booker, (D-NJ,) labeled the overarching phenomenon as "a survivor-of-sexual-trauma to prisoner pipeline." 

Disrupting the criminalization of women, trans and gender non-conforming people demands looking at these patterns, according to Interrupting Criminalization: “Movements focused on police and prosecutorial reform should focus on where, how and why women are arrested.”  For example, behind arrests for weapons charges or even violent offenses you will often find a woman or trans person defending themselves against interpersonal violence or sexual assault.

When we fail to use a gender justice lens in our work to promote community safety and justice, we fail to fund critical interventions that support the full spectrum of people and experiences behind and across prison walls.  Conversely, when more holistic solutions are created by those most marginalized in our society, all of us benefit together from this broader approach. The data today compel us to both see differently and act differently.  Including gender in the picture is essential in getting community safety and justice right for all of our communities.

______________________________________________________

maisha quint is a senior program officer at the Libra Foundation. 

Artwork by Jessica Jiang, commissioned by CCWP for their 25th Anniversary Celebration, originally published on the cover of The Fire Inside, Issue #65, November 2021.

Looking at the injustices that are engulfing marginalized communities, a clear pattern emerges: how deeply gender is woven throughout all of these struggles. Our carceral punishment system, so clearly weighted against people of color, also comes down heavily on women and LGBTQIA+ people. This discrimination and its harsh consequences are both historical, and very much in the present moment, unfolding around us in real time.

Gender Behind Bars: A Deeper Look

Looking at the injustices that are engulfing marginalized communities, a clear pattern emerges: how deeply gender is woven throughout all of these struggles. Our carceral punishment system, so clearly weighted against people of color, also comes down heavily on women and LGBTQIA+ people.

Originally published on May 31, 2023 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Grant Makers Join Together to Learn About - and Fund - Racial Justice, tells the story of Libra Executive Director Crystal Hayling’s deep roots in the movement for racial justice and creation of the Democracy Frontlines Fund, a nationally aligned giving strategy founded by Hayling.

“When the murder of George Floyd in 2020 set off a national outpouring of grief, anger, and demands for change, Hayling saw an opportunity. She created an entity called the Democracy Frontlines Fund and persuaded a dozen grant makers, most of them family foundations, to donate $3 million each for a minimum of three years. The donors gave up not just money but control over how it would be spent, part of an approach sometimes called trust-based philanthropy,” writes Marc Gunther, author of the piece. Read the full article here. 

Thank you to the Chronicle of Philanthropy for their critical reporting on racial justice funding. 

Grant Makers Join Together to Learn About - and Fund - Racial Justice tells the story of Libra Executive Director Crystal Hayling’s deep roots in the movement for racial justice and creation of the Democracy Frontlines Fund.

Grant Makers Join Together to Learn About - and Fund - Racial Justice

San Francisco, CA – The Libra Foundation announced today that Executive Director Crystal Hayling will be stepping down in 2024, wrapping up a six-year tenure marked by extraordinary accomplishments, including the founding of the Democracy Frontlines Fund in 2020. This transition will also mark the end of her extraordinary 32-year career in philanthropy.

“In hindsight it seems almost unbelievably fortuitous that Crystal came to the Libra Foundation when she did. Her unique skill set, leadership ability, vision, and courage transformed Libra’s giving strategies,” said Libra Foundation Board Co-President Susan Pritzker. “As a result of Crystal’s leadership and vision, she thoughtfully and strategically pushed the progressive edges of philanthropy, making Libra Foundation an example of the best philanthropy can aspire to.” 

Hayling led the foundation – and urged the philanthropic sector – toward a new vision of giving that is trust-based, and invests in power-building at the grassroots.  When COVID hit, she worked with the Board to double down on grantmaking to meet the moment. When George Floyd was murdered, Crystal spearheaded the creation of the Democracy Frontlines Fund to further the cause of multi-racial democracy, an initiative which has just renewed its commitment.

“It has been my honor to serve the Libra Foundation at the cutting edge of change in philanthropy,” said Hayling.  “I am filled with gratitude that I could make a difference for the frontline communities that are doing the hard work of realizing our dreams of justice and equity.  I am proud of the terrific team we’ve built at Libra, and confident that they will carry this urgent work forward.”

Hayling was named as Executive Director of the Libra Foundation in September of 2017.  Under her leadership, a total of nearly $200 million in grants  was awarded, primarily to BIPOC organizations working to build power at the grassroots in three program areas:  Community Safety and Justice, Environmental and Climate Justice, and Gender Justice.  “The frontline communities Libra supports will continue to guide Libra’s work,” Hayling says.  “We have built a strong tradition that honors interdependence, disrupts philanthropic patterns that prioritize productivity over humanity, and supports a new culture that centers justice and liberation.”

In addition to working closely with the Pritzker family at Libra, Hayling has gathered support from other funders to advance shared strategic goals, most notably the $74.5 million Democracy Frontlines Fund.  Hayling will continue to serve as a strategic advisor to the Fund after stepping down from the Executive Director role in 2024.

Hayling’s 30-plus years in philanthropy are marked by start-up energy. She was part of the founding teams of The Los Angeles Women’s Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, The California HealthCare Foundation, the Blue Shield of California Foundation, and finally, The Libra Foundation. At the Blue Shield of California Foundation, she spearheaded groundbreaking work to achieve universal health coverage and domestic violence prevention. At The California Wellness Foundation, she launched an initiative to shift youth violence prevention from a criminal justice issue to a public health effort. She helped found and lead the Medi-Cal Policy Institute during her time at the California HealthCare Foundation, providing key policy support for major Medicaid expansion and the launch of Health-e-App, the state’s first online Medi-Cal application. Along with her family, Crystal lived in Singapore for 6 years where she served on the boards of the Lien Center for Social Innovation and Asian Venture Philanthropy Network. 

Crystal currently serves on the boards of Community Change, the Essie Justice Group, Democracy Fund and Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. She frequently writes and publishes on leading edge topics in philanthropy. In 2010, ABFE awarded her the James Joseph Award and Lecture, Five Things We Know but Keep Forgetting. Recently in Stanford Social Innovation Review, her article “A Vision for the Future of Philanthropy,” also captures wisdom gleaned from her years of experience in the field. Inside Philanthropy named Crystal “2021 Foundation Leader of the Year" and "One of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Philanthropy" in 2023.

In retirement, Crystal is looking forward to more being and less doing. That will include working in her gardens—physical and spiritual. And more writing. “I have loved this work in philanthropy. Looking back, I feel graced by the extraordinary people I’ve had the honor of partnering with over the years. And I’m looking forward to the next chapter,” she says.

The Libra Foundation announced today that Executive Director Crystal Hayling will be stepping down in 2024, wrapping up a six-year tenure marked by extraordinary accomplishments, including the founding of the Democracy Frontlines Fund in 2020.  This transition will also mark the end of her extraordinary 32-year career in philanthropy.

Libra Foundation Board Lauds the Leadership of ED Crystal Hayling As She Announces Retirement in 2024

Published December 12, 2023 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Retiring Philanthropy Leader Was Always ‘A Step or Two Ahead of the Pack’ recounts the storied career of Libra Executive Director, Crystal Hayling, as she announces her retirement.

“Crystal Hayling continually challenged conventional wisdom, practicing trust-based philanthropy before it was fashionable.” Read the full article.

Published December 12, 2023 by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Retiring Philanthropy Leader Was Always ‘A Step or Two Ahead of the Pack’ recounts the storied career of Libra Executive Director, Crystal Hayling, as she announces her retirement.  

“Crystal Hayling continually challenged conventional wisdom, practicing trust-based philanthropy before it was fashionable.” 

Thank you to the Chronicle of Philanthropy for their detailed reporting on this breaking news.

Retiring Philanthropy Leader Was Always ‘A Step or Two Ahead of the Pack’

San Francisco, CA - Three years after its founding in 2020, the Democracy Frontlines Fund (DFF) announced that the initiative’s urgently needed support for racial justice organizing will be extended by three more years. $35.5 million in additional funding has been committed by a group of 14 funders. The $35.5 fund will be disbursed to 11 organizations focused on power-building at the grassroots. DFF continues to be guided by its Brain Trust, which is seven experts in grantmaking who are women of color and trusted allies of the movement. Read the Inside Philanthropy coverage.

“In the face of anti-Black backlash, and a curtailing of racial justice funding by philanthropy in general, DFF is determined to be a beacon of hope,” said Crystal Hayling, Founder of DFF and Libra Foundation Executive Director. “George Floyd was murdered because he was a Black man. We cannot fight racism without addressing race.”

The mission of DFF to fund organizing remains consistent, and DFF’s core support to each grantee will be $1.1 million a year. Returning slate members are: Black Futures Lab, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project, Black Youth Project 100, Communities Transforming Policing Fund, Movement for Black Lives, National Black Food & Justice Alliance, Southern Power Fund, and State Voices. DFF also welcomes a new grantee to the core funding slate: Taproot Earth, an organization focused on advancing climate justice and democracy from Appalachia to the Gulf Coast.  Vision Change Win will be awarded $1.5M over three years for strategy and security support, essential in this environment of rising hate crimes.

“DFF’s commitment to empowering Black voters and advancing social justice is truly commendable,” noted Cliff Albright. His co-founder LaTosha Brown, added, “We are honored to be a DFF grantee and are inspired by the impact we have collectively made. Together, we will continue to fight for a more equitable and inclusive society for all."

While many foundations are retreating from racial justice funding, thirteen foundations have recommitted to funding Black organizing: Crankstart, Hewlett, JPB, Kataly, Libra, MacArthur, Schmidt, Sobrato, Someland, Stardust, Tao Rising, Tides, and an anonymous donor. One new foundation, Heising-Simons, is joining the community.

“We at the MacArthur Foundation have learned so much by being a part of the Democracy Frontlines Fund and are excited to renew our financial commitment,” said John Palfrey, President of the MacArthur Foundation. “Our democracy is in crisis, and DFF provides a powerful way forward, grounded in racial equity, justice, shared learning, and trust."

“These funding amounts are a floor and not a ceiling,” Hayling said. “We don’t all agree on everything but DFF allows us to mobilize resources for critical democracy-strengthening work in our communities.” 

One of the innovative aspects of Democracy Frontlines Fund is the learning journey funders have taken over the past three years, engaging in deep discussion of the historical anti-Black roots of racism, police brutality and voter suppression. Speakers have included Heinz Award winner Colette Pichon Battle, TransLash founder Imara Jones, authors Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates, and civil rights leader Bryan Stevenson. Sessions have addressed wedge issues like intersectionality and Critical Race Theory. Learning journey convenings take place virtually and in-person. The in-person convenings have been multiday learning experiences in Montgomery and Minneapolis, with visits to the sites of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Legacy Museum, and George Floyd Global Memorial, respectively. 

“Their approach of organizing inside of philanthropy mirrors our approach of organizing in our communities – bringing us together inside of one movement that is building power for social and political change," said Alicia Garza, Principal at Black Futures Lab. "DFF is a trailblazer in our movement – providing flexible funds for organizations that are building power at a time when our rights are being eroded,” 

“The support of the Democracy Frontlines Fund has been vital to our work, and DFF’s use of trust-based philanthropic practices has made the process truly collaborative instead of extractive,” said Jeree Thomas, Program Director for the Communities Transforming Policing Fund. “The political backlash following the 2020 racial justice uprisings makes DFF all the more critical to the strength, safety, and sustainability of movements for democracy, safety, and justice for all.” 

Launched after George Floyd’s murder in solidarity with the historic civil rights uprising, DFF was originally designed as a three-year initiative to quickly move resources and coalesce funders around supporting Black organizing. At that time, the expectation was that DFF would sunset this year. Beginning last year, DFF stakeholders initiated a discussion around continuing the grantmaking and DFF’s unique learning journey to understand and confront the roots of racism.

Democracy Frontlines Fund is an initiative of the Libra Foundation.

Three years after its founding in 2020, the Democracy Frontlines Fund (DFF) announced that the initiative’s urgently needed support for racial justice organizing will be extended by three more years. $35.5 million in additional funding has been committed by a group of 14 funders.

DFF Announces Recommitment to Racial Justice Groups and $35.5 Million More in Funding

If the phrase ‘civil rights’ brings to mind 1960’s black-and-white photos, you, like many Americans, are ignoring the present even as you selectively remember the past. Today’s battles – over community safety and policing, over voting rights (which incredibly are again under siege), and over LGBTQ rights, are led by new Black voices speaking out on TikTok and Substacks, more than sermons and pulpits. When it comes to civil rights, we can’t only look back, we need to look around. 

Today, on this anniversary of the March on Washington, I remember the determination of my father, a Florida civil rights activist, and his contemporaries, who led groundbreaking 1960s marches and swim-ins. That history fortifies and informs us which is why authoritarians seek to erase it. That same deep-rooted commitment to freedom I see echoed among extraordinary leaders all around us who bring a fresh approach to pushing justice forward now. We must remember our history and celebrate new faces making history today.

When I think of current civil rights leaders, I’m struck by the brilliant, unstoppable LaTosha Brown, one of those most responsible for the survival of our multi-racial democracy through her voting rights work. LaTosha co-founded Black Voters Matter and is the driving force behind community organizing efforts criss-crossing the South. She challenges us with her passion and moral clarity. Long before the nation paid attention to the South, Brown proclaimed that the path to the multiracial democracy we’re building must be rooted in the Southern states, “We know a thing or two about outwitting authoritarian racists.”

Another powerful Black woman challenging the status quo is Alicia Garza, principal of Black Futures Lab and author of The Purpose of Power. And the originator of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Undaunted by death threats and online doxxing, she reminds us that protesting and Black voting is not enough – we must put policy-making power in Black hands to drive real change. Her Black to the Future Public Policy Institute is training cadres of Black leaders to help create positive change in our communities – whether the issue is community safety and policing, civil rights, health care or economic rights. She has taught us that, “Organizing isn’t just about protesting injustice. It’s about organizing a coalition of the people who believe in a world where we all have freedom and joy.” And she is doing exactly that. 

Sent to law school by her southern bayou community Colette Pichon Battle, founder of the Gulf Coast Center on Law and Poverty and partner at Taproot Earth returned to her community to fight big oil and gas companies’ devastating impacts on the very survival of her coastal community. Rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina she witnessed the trauma that comes from loss as well as the economic losses experienced by already depressed and disenfranchised communities. “Climate change isn’t the problem,” she’s been known to say, “the problem is a system that has systematically extracted wealth and agency from the many for the benefit of a few.” Taproot Earth is laying out a strategy for coal mining country in Appalachia to organize alongside gas refining communities in Louisiana. They have laid out a plan for collectively addressing the worst impacts of climate by building a more equitable economy. 

Facing down the twin scourges of racism and transphobia is the brave, brilliant Imara Jones, a Black trans leader on Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2023 whose work “loudly and proudly” asserts the civil rights of trans Americans to thrive. At a time when anti-trans attacks are well-funded and increasing, her TransLash media platform provides a powerful explainer. Scrupulous research uncovers the overlap between far-right Christian nationalist funders of anti-trans screeds and legislation turning back women’s rights, curtailing abortion health care, and suppressing voting rights.

The Libra Foundation's work spearheading philanthropic support for today’s civil rights leaders gives me an up-close look at their struggles and their strengths. They are every bit the measure of their own moment, and their vision has profoundly inspired me and the dozen other funders teaming up to make multi-year investments to resource their work.  As Dr. King said, “A true leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.” The civil rights leaders of today are standing on the shoulders of greats, while they bring our generation’s dreams to technicolor life.

If the phrase ‘civil rights’ brings to mind 1960’s black-and-white photos, you, like many Americans, are ignoring the present even as you selectively remember the past.

Don’t Just Look Back for Civil Rights Leaders – Look Around

“I’ve been doing this work for 25 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before. The level of crisis and death that people are facing is unprecedented. This grant was absolutely necessary for us.”   – Stephanie Guilloud, Project South

2020 was a year of momentous and heavy challenges, for us and for our grantee partners. We were caught up in an historic moment, trying to grapple with multiple crises affecting the communities we serve. Racial justice uprisings, COVID, the struggle for democracy. Day to day, we tried to figure out how to support them and hear their concerns. We asked our grantee partners: what more could we do to help alleviate these extra burdens?

We listened – with a responsibility to act on what we heard. Grantee partners told us about the deep threats to their core survival, about the burnout, about the funerals that must be attended, and the systems that had to be changed to adapt to lockdowns. We heard the pain and grief, the doubt, and also the determination and strength. Leaders said they needed time for adjusting to and reimagining the “new normal,” updating systems and infrastructure, transformative justice training, healing and wellness, succession planning, and many other things that crises had forced them to put on the back burner.

And then we acted. We didn’t study it forever, or debate it endlessly. We decided to focus our resources on small to mid-sized organizations (with budgets under $5 million) on the frontlines. Within months, we sent these grantee partners a note letting them know that we were giving them each $50,000 in general operating funds over two years “to support organizational sustainability and wellness.” We didn’t require paperwork. We affirmed the centrality of their work: “we all depend on movement leaders for our well-being and safety, and therefore we all depend on the holistic well-being of individuals and organizations.”

We also made a decision to build learning into this journey. At the outset, we shared a brief 3-question survey to find out how grantees intended to use the funds, and throughout our regular touchpoints with them, we asked how they used them. It was a way to enhance and deepen our own understanding of our grantee partners’ needs and challenges at this inflection point in history. It was important to understand as much as we could about how this $3.8 million in special grants had impacted the communities we serve – without being overly burdensome.

What came back to us was great gratitude for these additional resources, for the timing and responsiveness, and for the unfettered support. Our survey data found that the leading focus for organizational use of these funds was health and wellness – exceeding the projected expectations. This included offerings like meditation, retreats, alternative time off, and creative ways to heal from the trauma of the pandemic and other concurrent crises. Grantees felt supported to enhance their own health and wellness. The flexibility of the funds fostered innovation, and some groups took this as a time to step back and reimagine their structure and operations.

We learned that a small amount of money can have a big impact. At Justice for Migrant Women, the grant came at a very crucial time. It allowed them to work with their Board to pass a resolution to create a wellness fund, as well as provide coaching for all members of their team, including additional educational opportunities on things like managing stress and trauma. 

The Center for Story-Based Strategy felt that the unfettered funds created a sense of spaciousness that allowed them to grapple with big questions of organizational capacity and sustainability. Essie Justice Group used their funds to pilot mental health services like weekly subsidized therapy for staff. The program was so successful that they expanded it into what is now a 2-year pilot program across the organization. The creative ways grantees used additional resources are just some examples of what is possible when funders listen to, trust, and fund grantees in more expansive ways. 

We wanted to share some key takeaways for the funding community from this experience:

When grantees face new challenges, don’t just stick to business as usual. Stop and listen – with a bias toward action.

Make grants that are significant enough to support real wellness and sustainability efforts, and make them multi-year.

While we make core support grants to all of these grantees, we recognized that this moment required an extra intervention. These grants told them that a funder saw their challenges and wanted to bolster the importance of caring for themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

Take the time to learn how your grant-making impacted your grantee partners. Be open to their feedback and honest reflection.

We are so grateful for our grantee partners, for their resilience and strength, and for the opportunity to provide this support to them. They inspire and guide us. They are on the frontlines of change, and we are here to support their leadership. The challenges of this year and next year may be different, but the values that steer our choices remain constant.

Jennie Agmi and maisha quint are Senior Program Officers for the Gender Justice and Community Safety & Justice portfolios at the Libra Foundation. Artwork ‘Uncle Betty’ by Emaan Faith Azim of Faith Fetish.

Don’t Just Listen, Act: Our Journey to Funding Wellness Grants

San Francisco, CA - Libra announced today that Director of Programs, Angie Chen, will be leaving the foundation for a new and exciting opportunity as Executive Director of Yellow Chair Foundation!

“It is a fantastic opportunity for Angie to continue to demonstrate her leadership in our field and help shape an evolving philanthropic institution,” said Libra’s Executive Director, Crystal Hayling. “Angie’s extensive philanthropic experience and her deep knowledge of climate justice will be particularly powerful as she moves into this new role.”

During her five years at Libra, Angie has made immeasurable contributions to the foundation, initially spearheading environmental and climate justice work for the Foundation, and most recently helping to grow and develop the team in her role as Director of Programs. Angie has been an inspiring leader, bringing great knowledge and strategy, but also care and commitment to building Libra’s current values and approach to grantmaking.

“It has been the opportunity of a lifetime to help grow Libra alongside this amazing team and community of partners,” Angie said. “I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned at Libra to continue shifting philanthropy toward trust-based practices and community leadership.”

Angie’s presence will be greatly missed, but all at Libra wish her nothing but the best, knowing that she will continue to lead, innovate, and organize in our sector. 

Angie Chen Leaves Libra For Exciting New Role

The Libra Foundation is guided by a trust-based approach that centers relationships, shares power, removes barriers, and eliminates unnecessary requirements. We can learn if we are meeting these aims by receiving and reflecting on honest grantee feedback.

In 2021, we turned to the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s (CEP) Grantee Perception Report (GPR) to help us with this task. We sought feedback from 171 grantee organizations and received 105 responses, attaining a 61% response rate. The results are compared to Libra’s 2018 findings, as well as results from other foundations in the CEP dataset. To read the full report, click here.

Here’s what we heard, and the ways we plan to remain accountable to this feedback.

Grantees told us that Libra has had a positive impact on their organization and field. Based on open-ended comments shared by grantees, Libra’s general operating support has been instrumental for building and facilitating grassroots leadership. The board’s decision to push greater decision making to staff in our grantmaking process has expedited resourcing grantees, which have allowed grantees to “directly influence the landscape.” As one grantee put it, “the support from the foundation has allowed us to lead and power the movement and has been critical and influential…which translates to influence in the field and community.” Our findings were much lower for local community impact, which may be attributed to our focus on aspects of movement ecosystems that are less localized, such as network infrastructure and movement sustainability.

The survey results confirmed we are deepening our relationships. Relationships are at the heart of social movements and are guided by honest dialogues. A key marker of trust is feeling comfortable talking about difficult situations. In philanthropy, this can be particularly challenging given the unequal power dynamics. The GPR results showed trust-based relationship building is one of Libra’s core strengths. Grantees said they felt comfortable reaching out when an issue arises and that Libra staff is aware of the challenges their organizations face. They also noted Libra staff exhibit high levels of transparency, openness to ideas about program strategy, compassion, and trust. For example, one grantee shared: “[our program officer] is so well connected in this space and really understands our ecosystem. [They are] willing to take risks on new ideas and fosters an honest, trust-based relationship with me and our team.” While another voiced that there is “care and collaboration” from the Libra team. Grantees also reported feeling no pressure to change their organizations’ priorities to receive funding.

Grantees praised Libra’s renewal and reporting process, and told us that the lack of bureaucracy allowed them to focus on their work. The Libra Foundation has come a long way. In 2018, the Foundation’s grantmaking processes were typical: lengthy applications comprised of questions that could be answered by visiting the grantee’s website or public platforms, such as Guidestar. Since then, with the support of the board, Libra staff has worked to eliminate these onerous requirements. For example, instead of written reports, program officers periodically connect with grantees through phone calls. These calls also allow the opportunity for program officers to provide an update on the foundation’s activities, so there is reciprocal sharing. According to a grantee partner, this process “lends itself to a much richer conversation about the work and feels more collaborative and like a partnership.” Speaking to our process, a grantee expressed:“Libra’s process is straightforward and non-bureaucratic. They seem to focus on getting the funds to us rather than focusing on applications and reporting” which therefore, “allows us as a smaller grassroots organization to focus on the work we are doing rather than the grant process.”

While we are encouraged by this positive feedback, grantees also told us about areas in which we can improve.

For example, grantees voiced wanting more consistent communication from the Libra Foundation and more touchpoints with program officers. Although survey results showed improved ratings for how Libra communicates its goals and strategies, grantees still mentioned they were unfamiliar with Libra’s work and impact. We received feedback that described Libra’s communication as clear and responsive, yet other comments asked for more touchpoints. This tension is best stated by one respondent who said, “We appreciate that there are not a lot of demands for communication from the funder. But we also want to have relationships with our funders and leverage their knowledge to grow relationships in philanthropy. I say this knowing that we are all pressed for time and are still in a pandemic.” 

Grantees voiced appreciation for our two-year funding, but challenged us to go further.  Besides the GPR, Libra Foundation gathers anonymous feedback after each cycle through a short, online survey and we have heard a consistent request: extend grant terms beyond two-year commitments. This feedback was echoed again by a grantee who shared the following: “One of the greatest things about Libra is that you understand the importance of unrestricted, multi-year funding. We’d love to see you take this even further, increasing average grant periods to 3-5 years. This is especially important as many nonprofits are still reeling from loss of income and need stability and certainty.”

This feedback identified areas of our grantmaking process that we could improve, and solidified the changes we were already beginning to implement. Here’s how we’re addressing these areas for improvement and deepening our commitment.  

 To improve communications and increase touchpoints, we’ve expanded our communications team and program officers have implemented office hours.  From the GPR, we learned that Libra program officer portfolios are almost twice the size of portfolios at other foundations in the dataset. We recognize it’s been a challenge to simultaneously provide updates from the Libra Foundation, learn about grantees’ work, and deepen relationships. By implementing office hours, grantees have the opportunity to connect on an ongoing basis if they choose to. With the expansion of our communications team, we have increased capacity to strategize and deliver additional ways to engage our grantee partners. 

We will also be piloting extending grant terms. We know that multi-year funding allows for movement sustainability, flexibility, and financial resilience. We also know that the uncertainty of the pandemic has made it challenging to plan ahead, especially with only two-year commitments. This year, we will be piloting extended multi-year funding grant terms for grantees that most closely align with the strategy of each program area. 

The results provided us with clear and useful information to better serve grantees. We aim to create an environment where grantees can set the tone of their engagement with the Libra Foundation. The engagement can range from a close collaboration where Libra connects grantees to other funders or movement leaders, resources, provides references, or serves as spokesperson to uplift their work. If a grantee prefers, receiving funds can be the extent of the engagement. 

That being said, we recognize that the GPR is very long and time consuming. While it is conducted every three years, we know it is a heavy lift for smaller grassroots organizations that already have limited capacity. Many grantees could not participate because of this barrier. We also know that many grantees are filling out multiple surveys from different funders using this tool, among several others. Through the GPR and the time invested in filling out the survey, we heard grantees’ priorities and needs, and how we better meet them.

We are grateful for respondents’ time, expertise, and thoughtfulness. We acknowledge this was yet another request for their time and we are deeply grateful for the appreciation, candor, and reflections. We are listening, and we are committed to being responsive to their needs. It is an honor to fund grantees’ work, as we all bear witness to the heightened attacks on our sacred earth, freedoms, bodily autonomy, and human rights.

Why Grantee Feedback is so Important  The Libra Foundation is guided by a trust-based approach that centers relationships, shares power, removes barriers, and eliminates unnecessary requirements. We can learn if

Feedback Powers Trust: Learnings from the Grantee Perception Report

We are living through cataclysmic shifts: a global pandemic causing more than six million deaths; fires, famines, freezes, and floods; far-right gangs threatening poll workers and public-health officials; and threats to democracy everywhere. The world order appears to be unraveling. Click here to read the full article.

The Future of Social Innovation: SSIR's Special 20th Anniversary Series

A Vision for the Future of Philanthropy

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate and support the global struggle for women’s rights, which are now under attack everywhere we look. We feel these  threats deeply, because we have both worked alongside our sisters in this movement. And we believe that it is now time to broaden this fight to gender justice. This wider path will lead to victory for all of us – all races, all genders, all communities. 

How did we get here? We have been on a long and deep learning journey in what was initially labeled our “women’s rights” work at the Libra Foundation. Over the past few years, we have listened to grantee partners tell us about their work and their funding struggles. 

We heard from reproductive justice leaders about how the erosion of reproductive rights is a symptom of other forms of oppression – racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, ableism, and others. We listened as they told us that even when we had Roe, it was never enough for Black, Brown, undocumented, and poor communities that never had access in the first place. We spoke with trans leaders who connected the tactics used to ban abortion rights over the last five decades to the anti-trans bills that are rapidly sweeping this country now. Black and Indigenous women and queer folks of color told us that the movement to end gendered violence was inextricably linked to the movement for racial, economic, reproductive, queer, and trans justice. 

As we listened, the connections became impossible to unsee, and we realized that we needed to chart a new path towards funding that allows movements to bring their full selves to the issues we care about.

That journey has now taken us to an exciting new place. We invite other funders to join us in refocusing their women’s rights work on the broader fight for gender justice. As we have learned, taking this path will bring you many beautiful new opportunities and gifts, removing artificial barriers and inviting in fresh synergies. No, it does not mean losing focus on women’s rights. Instead it widens the frame for our work, enabling us to effectively address overlapping crises that include the fall of Roe, the struggle for racial justice, and escalating attacks on trans people.

If our mid-sized family foundation can make this bold evolution, your organization can too. We are lucky to have a board that is curious about the field and open to change that will advance the foundation’s mission. We had a strong starting point, as the Libra Foundation was grounded in years of funding for women’s rights organizations. Our evolution was a product of authentic listening to communities we serve – not a sudden or top-down decision. Our new approach is intersectional – because we know that gender justice needs a racial, queer, and trans justice lens to reach the most marginalized and oppressed.  

So, what exactly do we mean when we talk about Gender Justice? What does this kind of philanthropy look like? We invite you to check out our whole funding portfolio. But we want to highlight a few examples of the grantee partners who inspire us:

Spark Reproductive Justice builds leaders to engage and educate communities in shifting power, shifting culture, and uplifting Black Women and Queer and Trans Young People of Color.

Third Wave Fund  resources youth-led, intersectional, gender justice movements to advance the community power, well-being, and self-determination of young Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color.

Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative that supports grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.

Black Trans Fund seeks to address the lack of funding for Black trans communities in the U.S. through direct grantmaking, capacity building support, and funder organizing to transform philanthropy.

Justice for Migrant Women aims to ensure that all migrant women are guaranteed human and civil rights, including the freedom of mobility, the ability to live and work with dignity, and the right to be free of threats of violence against them and their families.

With grantee partners like these shining lights as our teachers, we continue to learn, question our own thinking, and evolve our strategy.  We absorb ideas from others in the field doing visionary work, like Aldita Gallardo of the Fund for Trans Generations, who outlined how funders can build authentic relationships with trans and nonbinary communities in a recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review. We are constantly learning and expanding our field of vision. We read, we discuss, and we adjust as events in our communities challenge us to grow and as new issues arise. 

And we welcome company. If you currently fund in the women’s space, or in reproductive rights, we invite you to join us on this wider, more inclusive path to justice. We realize that the default position of philanthropy is to be siloed. The fear is that if you shift, you lose. Our message is: if you shift, all of us gain. Because our communities, and our struggles, are and will always be interconnected.

Jennie Agmi is Senior Program Officer for Gender Justice at the Libra Foundation. Susan Pritzker is Co-President of the foundation’s Board of Directors. Artwork by Amir Khadar.

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate and support the global struggle for women’s rights, which are now under attack everywhere we look.

A Wider Path to Victory: Centering Gender Justice

NDN Collective and Libra believe in the power of people and community to create a world that is prosperous, safe, equitable, and just for all people and the planet.

In their article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Angie Chen, senior program officer and community engagement director at Libra, joins Michael Johnson, director of advancement at NDN Collective, and lays out opportunities to transform philanthropy for the better, be in solidarity with Indigenous social and climate justice movements, and be in right relationship with ourselves and each other in the process.

Originally posted on March 11, 2021 NDN Collective and Libra believe in the power of people and community to create a world that is prosperous, safe, equitable, and just for

A Call-In to Grow Indigenous Power: Telling the truth about philanthropy is the first step to transforming it for generations to come.

Over the last few months, we have experienced tragedy upon tragedy. A nesting doll of death at the hands of white supremacy and patriarchy. It’s been hard to keep track and appropriately process and respond to each heartbreaking event. And now we must add yet another tragedy – the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade resulting in the loss of a fundamental constitutional protection over our bodies. Following the leak of the Supreme Court opinion, hundreds of articles have been penned expressing justified outrage about what a post Roe country looks like. We want to add to the chorus and urge funders who have traditionally watched from the sidelines, to take heed of this moment and join the fight. 

Abortion bans have always been a symptom, rather than the end goal of white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, and racism. It has been part of a larger fight to ultimately control the bodies of women, girls, trans, and gender non-conforming communities (TGNC) – with an intentional focus on keeping power away from communities of color. It is why Libra’s Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC)-led reproductive justice grantees have told us that Roe was always the floor and never the ceiling– that abortion bans are inextricably linked to anti-trans legislation, voter suppression, lack of medicaid expansion, and economic insecurity. It is why Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, youth and TGNC leaders organize to fight not only for the right to have an abortion, but for the right to have access to abortions and the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare, accurate sex education in schools, voting rights in local, state, and federal elections. They have been a part of the racial justice and defund the police movement, fiercely connecting that the dismantling of Roe also means increased criminalization, surveillance and policing that will disproportionately impact poor communities of color.  

As we sit with the devastating news of Friday’s SCOTUS decision, we must reflect on how the philanthropic sector can move differently and meet the needs of this moment. Too often, the funding world has brushed off the reproductive justice movement as simply a women’s issue. Traditionally women’s rights funders have over prioritized abortion litigation strategies while under-investing in organizing efforts that grow the base and build long-term power. The consequences have been a grossly underfunded RJ movement, leaving leaders of color with intersectional strategies receiving little to no funding.

It’s time to think and fund differently and collectively for the world we want rather than defaulting to statements of solidarity followed by little action. It’s time to create accountability structures for ourselves and our colleagues that actually track where our funding dollars go. If funders begin to think more comprehensively about the variety of issue areas they support and recognize the interconnected nature of the systems of oppression we’re facing, we would move in alignment with affected communities and truly support their vision of liberation. 

Health funders treated abortion access restrictions as a public health crisis? 

Reproductive Rights funders saw that adopting a reproductive justice framework can repair the structural and systemic failures that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) have endured under the majority white-led reproductive rights movement? 

Democracy funders realized that BIPOC-led RJ leaders have been fighting voter suppression laws and integrating civic engagement strategies throughout all of their base-building work? 

Criminal Justice & Safety funders saw that overturning Roe will lead to increased police violence and the criminalization of birthing people- disproportionately impacting poor communities of color? 

Economic security funders connected access to abortion as a critical factor for economic well-being? 

Education funders understood that supporting comprehensive sex education is not only supporting abortion rights, but also improving youth mental health? 

Youth development funders supported a robust young people’s movement that centers their leadership and vision on reproductive liberation and self-determination? 

Gender Equity and Justice funders saw that the fight for reproductive liberation is also the fight for LGBTQ rights and trans liberation? 

Immigrant Rights funders explored how abortion restrictions and the threat of criminalization further isolates undocumented folks? 

National funders remembered that the fight for abortion access has always started at the state and local level and that power-building organizations closest to the ground are the ones to fund to lead this work?

If you’re wondering where to begin, read Women’s Funding Network’s letter that outlines five immediate actions as a start. While this is in no way an exhaustive list of the many organizations working at the forefront of this movement, these are some of Libra’s cross-cutting partners in this work: 

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective 

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity 

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda 

Join us in breaking down the self-imposed silos of philanthropy. If your foundation operates in service of disenfranchised and historically marginalized communities in this country; if you care about the wellbeing of BIPOC communities – then this is an issue you must respond to, because it is ultimately the most economically vulnerable and politically disempowered communities in this country who are most intensely effected by abortion restrictions. 

Make no mistake –overturning Roe is part of the backlash against the racial reckoning and the multiracial, feminist democracy so many of us in philanthropy are supporting through our grantmaking, partnerships, and trust in our movement leaders.

When I think of all of the organizers in the movement that got up this morning to continue the fight, I am struck by their courage, resilience and enduring commitment to our collective liberation. As funders, we too must rise to meet this latest challenge and commit to funding this movement like our freedom depends on it, because that is exactly what’s at stake.   

Over the last few months, we have experienced tragedy upon tragedy. A nesting doll of death at the hands of white supremacy and patriarchy.

Reflecting on the SCOTUS Decision and What’s at Stake

Originally posted on November 8, 2021 as a part of Trust-Based Philanthropy Project’s series on Mapping The Movement to Redistribute Power.

“We’re still deepening our understanding about what trust feels like on both sides of the equation and how to keep building it with each and every interaction.  We see ourselves as on a learning journey with our grantee partners, and it’s unfolding as we go.” – Ashley Clark, Director of Operations, The Libra Foundation

In We’re About Building Relationships, Not Creating Barriers, Ashley Clark shares how Libra’s focus on centering relationships impacts everything we do, from hiring to the way we approach grantmaking.

Thank you Trust-Based Philanthropy Project for including us in your critical work.

Originally posted on November 8, 2021 as a part of Trust-Based Philanthropy Project's series on Mapping The Movement to Redistribute Power.

Mapping the Movement to Redistribute Power

On January 31st in Oakland, I joined a remarkable lineup of social justice leaders at Justice Funders’ State of the Movement. The event convened philanthropic and movement leaders who are committed to reimagining communities and building economies focused on care, cooperation, regeneration, and social well-being.

Crystal speaking at Justice Funders’ State of the Movement

In my brief address, I shared my vision for The Libra Foundation and the many ways we are attempting to redefine the way we do philanthropy. I’d like to share some of those thoughts here on where we’ve been and where we’re going.

The Libra Foundation was founded in 2002 with an endowment of $33 million by a progressive, Chicago-based family.  In 2017, the family decided to build an in-house team to help bring forth the next chapter of The Libra Foundation.

From left to right: Angie Chen (Senior Program Officer), Crystal Hayling (Executive Director), Ashley Clark (Knowledge & Grants Manager), Jennifer Agmi (Senior Program Officer)

Fast forward to today. This is the founding team of Libra 2.0. When I was hired in 2017 as their first in-house Executive Director, I knew we had to boldly support movement strategies that build collective power, hire brilliant, heart-driven humans with a longing to do philanthropy differently, and be brave enough to show up as our authentic selves with wealthy people. Here’s how we’re turning our principles into practice:

The Libra team’s guiding principle is that those who are closest to the issues understand those issues the best. They are not only the most equipped to build solutions, they are the most effective at implementing those solutions. This means low-income communities of color building power from the ground up, inspiring big local change that creates influence on the national level and national/transnational coalitions that are working with partners around the country and globe. This means focusing on key areas where human rights are ignored – criminal justice reform, gender justice, and environmental justice. We fund, when possible, at the intersections of these issue areas. No one issue solely affects a human being. We are not single-issue people; we are whole beings.

This also means funding people like Gina Clayton who founded Essie Justice Group, a network of women who have incarcerated family members. Each woman in the network is nominated by her incarcerated family member. Together, as Black and Latinx women, formerly and currently incarcerated women, transwomen, and gender non-conforming people, as sisters, they are driving fierce change to fight the injustices created by mass incarceration.

That means funding groups like Southerners On New Ground (SONG), which has been organizing LGBTQ communities across the South for 25 years. In their annual report, they write:

“How, with the boot of the state on our necks, do we build with a base of badasses in these grim political times? How do we embody the vision we hold while dealing with the stark reality of our context and conditions? We have one answer: US. Together we have been able to not just do more, but to leverage the capacity of our Kinship Network to tackle these questions.”

SONG pushes us to more deeply understand that supporting racial, economic, and environmental justice means a greater investment in Queer Liberation, especially in the South.

Photo Credit: http://southernersonnewground.org/2018/12/freedom-birthright-songs-2018-end-year-report/

At the end of 2018, we moved millions to new projects with greater mission alignment to each other than ever before, such as Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Project South, Business Alliance for Living Local Economies (BALLE), and We Got Us Now.

If we don’t know by now, then we really haven’t been listening – it’s not only about what you fund, it’s how you fund. We’re saying goodbye to stale bureaucratic habits – never-ending paperwork, low trust, and restricted funding (to name just a few). Hello general operating support grants, multi-year support, real conversations, and streamlined proposals and reports. If we want to make philanthropy more equitable, effective, and empathetic, these shifts are imperative first steps.

Privilege feels great, but privilege narrows our vision. It is actually impossible, when one has abundance, to completely remember what deprivation feels like. If one has never felt systemic oppression, it can be difficult to even see it, much less support work that addresses it. Our staff team includes two children of immigrants and two African Americans with deep personal Warmth of Other Suns family histories. Yet even those of us who grew up low-income, but now work in philanthropy, can’t claim to see these issues entirely from the perspective of those most impacted.

This is even more true for people who have grown up in wealth and privilege. The family behind the foundation is delving deeply into the question of what it means to be an ally. They are learning how to de-center their privilege and practices around not always being the deciders. They are learning how to organize and activate other people of wealth to support movements and progressive solutions. Our board chair, Regan Pritzker, recently hosted a book club for a group of her white friends to discuss Robin DiAngelo’s White Privilege. This gives us some common language from which to excavate the divides and build trust.

If we’re really committed to the potential of using wealth for good, philanthropic endowments also must align with our mission. The Libra Foundation’s endowment now stands at $420 million, all of which is invested for impact. The vast majority of the endowment is invested in screened funds and equities, with a minimum of 10% allocated for direct investing in companies with non-extractive practices committed to building just and equitable businesses.

When I first proposed to the family that Libra should be close to but not inside of the family office, they thought it was a terrible idea. But they listened. When I started talking about being on the ground floor, not in a hermetically sealed and secure high-rise, they furrowed their brows. I described a place with simple beauty and art. A warm, welcoming space that grantees could use for staff and board retreats, free of charge. A place that does not do what most foundation offices do: demand that those who enter stiffen their spines, switch their language, and chuckle instead of belly laugh.

Small meeting room / Wall of Resistance Posters in Community Conference Room

This is the new Libra Foundation office. We moved in two weeks ago. It is a house and it feels like a home. It has couches and kitchens and creaky doors and lots of color. More loud than hushed. A joyful place for discussing, debating, dreaming, and not just strategic planning. We are planning events that uplift a new vision for philanthropy. A few grantees are already planning on giving it a test run for their own small group gatherings in the coming weeks.

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.”

Our role in philanthropy is to fund the struggle. This is how we will build a shared practice for philanthropic transformation, and that’s our goal for The Libra Foundation.

Crystal Hayling is Executive Director of The Libra Foundation, based in San Francisco, funding organizations working to advance human rights and racial, economic, and social justice.

On January 31st in Oakland, I joined a remarkable lineup of social justice leaders at Justice Funders’ State of the Movement. The event convened philanthropic and movement leaders who are

The Libra Foundation: Where We've Been and Where We're Going

My husband is out of town. My son is at practice. I have a rare moment completely alone.

This catches me off guard. I’m not a crier. I’m a doer. I take action. I’m an activist. I run a California-based national philanthropy, where I try to be a changemaker. 

But truth be told, four years of Trump, an insurrection and two years of a pandemic and I’m not the woman I used to be.  Are any of us? I am shedding tears and losing patience. 

My husband is out of town. My son is at practice. I have a rare moment completely alone. So I sink down on my couch and sob. This catches me