"Vote like your life depends on it" -Michelle Obama. These wise words, spoken to us by our forever First Lady, Michelle Obama, should not be taken lightly. EPIP NY is inviting you to help get out the vote in the upcoming November election.

We are joining Reclaim Our Vote to reach out to people in key states to encourage them to register to vote. Volunteers will receive a package with everything needed to write and mail postcards to potential voters with information on how to register. To volunteer, please email your mailing address so that you can receive the script, a set of 30 postcards, stamps, and labels. 

Sankofa is a West African concept that invites us to reach back to gather the best of what our past has taught us in order to reach our fullest potential as we move forward. In July and August 2020, EPIP held a series of virtual events that used the principles of Sankofa to meet this moment in history with a focus on Decolonizing Stories, Disrupting the Status Quo, and Embracing Collective Approaches to Healing. 

The loss of civil rights and racial justice icons John Lewis and C.T. Vivian this July brought inspiration and sadness to many…

• In Inside Philanthropy, Libra Foundation ED Crystal Hayling appealed to funders looking to support the movement for racial justice with words from John Lewis - “Get in and stay in.”
• Native Americans in Philanthropy’s ED Erik Stegman shared his reflections on Lewis’ legacy in John Lewis was Good Trouble for All of Us.
• And Lewis himself shared his final wishes for the world in an op-ed written shortly before his death, "Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation"

...many of the ideas and topics raised in Sankofa Summer sessions resonated in our reading, and two recent studies highlighted large gaps in the funding landscape. EPIP chapters from across the country also shared from their reading, watching, and listening lists, with resources focused on advancing equity and social justice.

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!

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.

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.

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Tony McDade. Ahmaud Arbery. We speak their names, honoring their humanity and mourning their untimely and unjust deaths.

To those who are hurting, who are raising your voices, and who are actively fighting back against oppression, we see and support you. Black Lives Matter. Today and every day. And Black people deserve more than what this country has historically given them. 

Right now, I am feeling a multitude of emotions. Sadness. Anger. Frustration. Devastation. Exhaustion. These names - these people whose lives were stolen - are but the latest in a long list of Black lives taken unjustly. It is a list going back as long as this country’s history, when Black and Indigenous people were dehumanized, their bodies considered capital as their labor was extracted and their families separated, all to build the country we live in today. 

It is a list lengthened by the insidious systems of oppression, injustice, and racism that manifest time and time again into illness, poverty, lack of opportunity, and violence. It is a list that has seen the country through slavery and segregation, forced migration and redlining, the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa Massacre, and the school-to-prison pipeline. 

This is America. 

And while nothing we do can erase a single name from that list, we can and must honor their lives by working to destroy systematized racism and injustice. Below there are some things that you as philanthropic professionals can do. If ever there has been a time for philanthropy to wake up, it is now.

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