This week, Sankofa Summer will be approaching racial justice and equity from two very different angles, with one talk that focuses on the interpersonal by Having More Effective, Genuine, and Humanizing Racial Justice Conversations and another that spotlights how data impacts equity in Reimagining Evaluation and Research in Service of Equity. We'll also be holding another affinity group space that brings together people with similar identities for sharing and healing.

And we're not done yet - over the few weeks we'll have sessions on everything from Healing Divides at the US-Mexico Border to Navigating Entrenched Philanthropic Systems from Within.

Click here to register and join us!

Week 3 Recap: A Deeper Look at Abolition

Week 3 of EPIP's virtual learning series Sankofa Summer featured a talk, Abolition: Re-defining Free & Safe for Communities of Color By Those Most Impacted, that was filled with resources to better understand and support the movement to eliminate imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and create lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.

The session ended with a call to action that we heard at the CHANGE Philanthropy Unity Summit and that has been echoed by many organizations and organizers doing the work of change.: Support Black-led organizations. Fund the unsexy work of implementation. Fund experiments and the work of figuring it out. Fund us like you want us to win.

We hope you're enjoying Sankofa Summer, EPIP's summer virtual learning series. The series runs until mid-August, and in the first 2 weeks alone, we've heard from women of color about leadership in philanthropy, learned about healing justice and brave space building, and looked at ways to make an impact through philanthropic practice. If you haven't registered yet, don't worry! You can see replays of most of our sessions to date as soon as you sign up, and we have a full month of content left, including sessions on Abolition (this Thursday, July 23rd), Racial Justice conversations, Reframing and Shifting power in the sector, and more.

If you haven't yet registered, click here to learn more and sign up today!

Join Chapter Events Across The Country

Sankofa Summer isn't the only opportunity to participate in an EPIP event this month. EPIP chapters across the country are hosting conversations, social events, happy hours, community check-ins and more! Click here for the full line-up!

Share Your Thoughts about Virtual Meetings

Want a chance to share what's working and what's not in virtual meetings, webinars, and webcasts? It's likely that virtual meetings and convenings will remain a part of the philanthropic (and overall work) landscape for some time to come - this is your chance to help shape what that landscape looks like.

Click here to take this quick 10-minute survey...and if you provide your email, you'll be among the first to get the results.

EPIP's virtual learning series, Sankofa Summer, kicked off last week with healing, reflection, and inspiration.

• Our Opening Plenary featured a free-flowing conversation between women of color leaders from EPIP's past and present, with words of wisdom including:

"Everything you do in philanthropy takes good research and courage." - Linetta Gilbert, EPIP Initial Angel Investor

"I believe we are all powerful in our own ways, whatever our titles may be. It's what we do with that power that matters." - Storme Gray, EPIP Executive Director

• A Healing Justice 101 session asked participants to consider what sustains us in our work, which personal and structural barriers deplete us, and how impacts of oppression show up within ourselves, our institutions, and our communities. The facilitators, Erika Totten and Naimah Efia, then shared strategies for applying healing justice to individuals, organizations, and communities.

• And our opening Happy Hour brought together the community for fun and conversation.

In week 2, Sankofa Summer will help you deepen your understanding and practice of philanthropy. Join us for People's Orientation to Grantmaking for a Just Transition, Creating a Culture of Healing and Emotional Self Care to Disrupt White Supremacy, and The Missing Ingredient in Land Acknowledgements.

Click here to register and join us!

EPIP's virtual learning series, Sankofa Summer, kicks off this week with events that help you heal, learn from the leadership of women of color, and virtually connect with the philanthropic community.

Join us for:

• An interactive workshop on Healing Justice that shares tools for wellness and resilience, breaks down core concepts of healing justice, and focuses on sustaining movement-building for the long term.
• Our opening plenary, Sankofa!! Paving the Way for Women of Color Leaders in Philanthropy, which brings together several of the women who have helped lead EPIP to where it is today, including former EPIP board members and current EPIP ED Storme Gray. Listen in as they talk about the impact and influence of EPIP on the sector and the challenges and opportunities for women of color leaders in philanthropy.
• Our opening Happy Hour - a chance to connect with other Sankofa Summer attendees from across the philanthropic sector.

And that's just the beginning...over the next 6 weeks we'll have sessions on everything from Creating a Culture of Healing and Emotional Self Care to Disrupt White Supremacy to Can't Change What You Can't See: Demographic Data Learning Lab.

Click here to register and join us!

And In Case You Were Wondering...

We've gotten a few questions about Sankofa Summer since announcing the virtual learning series, and we wanted to answer them here in case they were also on your mind:

What role does philanthropy have to play in our current moment? As many call for action now...

• ABFE calls on the philanthropic sector to increase investments in Black-led organizations, push for structural change beyond emergency response efforts, use endowments to bring greater resources to critical issues, and more in their Statement on COVID and Police Shootings
• Sidney Hargro, president of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, challenges philanthropy to confront white supremacist practices, commit to dismantling white supremacy, and prioritize liberation as a philanthropic goal.

...others caution that philanthropy must commit to change for the long-term...

Recently, philanthropic futurist (and EPIP Minnesota chapter founder/former EPIP Board Chair) Trista Harris joined EPIP to talk about the ways that futurism can help the philanthropic sector imagine (and help create) the post-pandemic world.  The full talk is here but four pieces of wisdom that stuck with us were:

1) Stop loving the problem. Avoid making whatever problem or social issue that you’re trying to solve the sole focus of your work. Your discussions (both internally and with grantees) should be about what is being built in addition to what is being overcome.

2) Look for the future in the present. Make time to look at trends, best practices, and places where the changes you want to implement are already happening. You can always learn from the work of others.

The struggle continues. And so does the work of philanthropy. Join EPIP and our chapters across the country for discussions of how to look towards the future, be inclusive in our online workspaces, heal ourselves, and understand our sector better, along with times to come together to share and connect with each other. 

Coming up in June (all times local as noted):

• Thursday, June 18th, at 1 PM Eastern: Emerging Post-Pandemic: Being A Future-Focused Leader Now - Join philanthropic futurist Trista Harris for an EPIP webinar that asks how we can use the lessons of this moment to become future-focused leaders now
• Thursday, June 18th, at 1 PM Central: EPIP Minnesota Lunch and Discussion - Join members of the EPIP Minnesota community for lunch and a discussion of the EPIP webinar Emerging Post-Pandemic: Being A Future-Focused Leader Now 
• Friday, June 19th, at 5 PM Eastern: EPIP Philly BIPOC Virtual Happy Hour - a space for Philadelphia BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and POC) to grieve, grow, and cultivate joy. Note: This event is for people of color only.
• Monday, June 22nd and Wednesday, July 15th from 4-6 PM Pacific: EPIP Seattle - Healing Ourselves, Healing Philanthropy - a healing cohort led by visionary healer Amadeo Cruz Guiao, open to all emerging philanthropic leaders in Washington State. Participants should commit to both sessions, which will include the creation of a wellness plan, facilitated discussion about healing in philanthropy, and an exploration of how to use healing work to create a better future
• Wednesday, June 24th, at 4:00 PM Eastern: Virtually Equitable: Centering Inclusion In Our Online Workspaces - an EPIP webinar led by organizational change expert Joanna Gattuso, MPH on adapting to virtual work without replicating white supremacist culture remotely
• Friday, June 26th, at 5:00 PM Eastern: EPIP Philly Virtual Happy Hour - Join the EPIP Philly community to connect and unwind in an open forum for joy, connection, and sharing your thoughts on all things philanthropy.

A Note: After May's What We've Been Reading was compiled, EPIP released a statement - Black Lives Matter - which includes resources, reading, and action steps for those looking to stand up against racial injustice and police brutality.

That message is available here: Black Lives Matter. Please read, reflect, and act.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we continue to add to our COVID-19 resources page. This month, our newest resources include looks at ways that philanthropy could potentially evolve to address long-term big-picture issues…

• In Nonprofit Quarterly, Kururama Masomere calls for philanthropy to redefine its definition of urgency to include the racial inequities and systemic issues that Black and brown communities face daily.
• In Inside Philanthropy, Dimple Abichandani asks philanthropy to move from relief to power, with a “long-term, large-scale philanthropic response to shift who has power in our democracy and our economy.”
• Carmen Rojas, PhD, asks “What are we going to do to shift the balance of power and resources” in her essay on philanthropy during COVID-19 in Medium.
• Trista Harris argues that now is the perfect time to dwell on the future in a LinkedIn post (and will be speaking more about how looking forward can help us now in her upcoming EPIP webinar).

...and a continued focus on the impact of COVID-19 on communities of color

As we all learn to connect in new ways, EPIP chapters around the country have been holding virtual programming to help build community, share knowledge, and model self-care. Over the last few months, chapters from LA to Philly have held virtual book club meetings and screenings, hosted coffee chats and happy hours, and created check-ins and webinars. And there's more to come! Click to learn more about each event - we hope to see you there.

Coming up in late May and early June (all times local as noted):

• Wednesday, May 20th, 5 PM Pacific: a Wellness Wednesday session with EPIP Bay Area
• Thursday, May 21st: lunch with EPIP Minnesota (12 PM Central) and a virtual happy hour with EPIP Colorado (4 PM Mountain Time)
• Friday, May 22nd (and May 29th), 5 PM Eastern: a weekly virtual happy hour with EPIP Philly
• Thursday, May 28th, 8 AM Eastern: Morning Yoga with EPIP New York
• Tuesday, June 9th, 2 PM Eastern: the first session of a virtual webinar series from EPIP DC on understanding and reclaiming philanthropy

Also, for our members of color, please join EPIP on Thursday, May 21st at 7 PM Eastern for our People of Color Network Happy Hour.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, we continue to add to our COVID-19 resources page. Some new highlights include new looks at how COVID-19 (and philanthropy’s response to it) impact communities of color...

• Colorlines explores why COVID-19 is so dangerous for people of color
• A coalition of Washington, DC funders names the COVID-19 crisis as a racial justice issue that calls for prioritizing the power of POC (The Weissberg Blog)
• Inside Philanthropy takes a closer look at who in philanthropy is supporting communities of color
• A reminder from Frontline Solutions that capacity-building partners, especially those that are Black, Indigenous, and people of color-owned, remain crucial to the sector

...what the philanthropic sector can learn from this crisis for the long-term…