Voices & Opinions
In future weeks and months we will seek to encourage expanded field leadership knowledge and exchange on key diversity and effectiveness in philanthropy issues by featuring opinions and commentaries from significant thinkers and practitioners. These entries will appear either in print or video format. Please weigh in on the issues with your own thoughts and submissions. We are anxious to hear your ideas and reactions!
- AB624: California Diversity Legislation
- Read the diverse reactions and comments of 12 field leaders who have responded to AB 624 and the recent compromise agreement between California foundations and legislators.
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- Voices from the Field
- Click here for recent and otherwise important perspectives on diversity in philanthropy issues as reflected in philanthropic and major media reports, opinion pieces and addresses.
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- Executive Commentary
- Click here for up-to-the-moment and archived commentaries and reflections on the issues by leading philanthropic sector and partner executives. We feature a new commentary section and additions to two earlier special features. The first focuses on disability. In order to build knowledge and provide resources around the persistent and evolving support needs of the disabled, DPP senior writer Robin Templeton asked three leading funders associated with the Disability Funders Network (DFN) to provide their insights on what foundations can and should do to increase their responsiveness in this important area of social investment. Our expert commentators include Kim Hutchinson, the Virginia-based president and CEO of DFN, which is the nation’s leading organization of private grant makers concerned about disability issues in philanthropy and the larger society; Kevin R. Webb, director at the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation in New York and a leading board member of DFN; Catherine Hyde Townsend, also a DFN board member and associate philanthropic advisor at Wellspring Advisors, LLC, a private philanthropic consulting group; and Irfan Hasan, program officer for health and people with special needs at the New York Community Trust.
To add perspectives to our earlier exploration of human rights and marriage equality, Robin Templeton worked with LGBTQ community funding leaders Urvashi Vaid, president of the Michigan- and New York-based Arcus Foundation and Karen Zelermyer, executive director of the New York-based philanthropic affinity group Funders for LGBTQ Issues (formerly Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues) to present their perspectives on the issues.
We also add to our coverage of diversity and inclusion's essential role in advancing recruitment and leadership at the highest levels of our field with commentaries from Martha Montag Brown, principal of Los Angeles-based Martha Montag Brown & Associates and Anthony Tansimore, Executive Vice President in the Silicon Valley office of DHR International, a global executive search firm based in Chicago. DHR is the fifth largest search firm in the country and has more than 50 offices worldwide. Tansimore has been a foundation executive and has long promoted diversity on boards and at the executive level of foundations. - Learn more
- Interviews
- This section features occasional interviews with leading thinkers, authors, and activists who are working to build our sector’s diversity. We are pleased to present a CEO interview with one of organized philanthropy’s leading diversity champions and commentators – Dr. Emmett D. Carson, CEO and President of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Read this interview or download PDF version .
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