Summer 2021 Newsletter
Letter from the co-directors
Dear Friends,
Collaboration between Stephanie Jackson and
jetsonorama.
Almost exactly one year ago today, on what would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday, the Hive Fund released a statement in support of movements for Black lives and racial justice. Looking back over the past twelve months, each day has held a milestone--the announcement of a verdict, the anniversary of a tragic event, or a fresh trauma that begins the cycle all over again.
These cumulative milestones take a heavy toll on grantee partners. Grantees continue to make progress in addressing the climate crisis while also being in non-stop crisis mode themselves—from back-to-back elections and legislative cycles, to extreme weather disasters, the pandemic, police shootings and other violent acts against people of color, and a tidal wave of attacks on representative democracy. Our Learning Lab focuses on red flags being raised by grantee partners on burn-out and exhaustion, and how funders can reduce some of their burdens.
As we head into summer, we’re excited to welcome 18 new grantee partners and some new staff members to the Hive Fund community. Stay tuned in the next few weeks for our summer grantee announcement and opportunities to meet them and our new staff.
Warmly,
Melanie Allen & Erin Rogers
Co-Directors
Voices From the Field
In Fall 2020, the Hive Fund hired the Ananse Consulting team of three healing justice practitioners to conduct a reflective listening praxis over a four-month period to gauge grantees’ experiences and better understand the healing and security practices they already use and their healing and security support needs. We’re sharing some findings from that inquiry in our Learning Lab, but we also wanted to share some perspectives on healing justice from practitioners themselves. Ananse’s Principal and Founder, Omisade Burney-Scott, and Emanuel Brown sat down with Melanie Allen to talk about this growing field of practice and how important it is to movement work. *Marisol Jimenez is also a member of this consulting team and is putting healing into practice by honoring her sabbatical.
Learning Lab
Exhaustion and burnout has emerged as a common theme across grantee partners jumping from crisis to crisis in this last tumultuous year. Funders often unwittingly add additional burdens in our attempts to support groups on the frontlines of disparity. In this month’s Learning Lab, we share insights from our Healing Justice and Holistic Security inquiry that can help us reduce and relieve those burdens and help our grantee partners build rest and healing into their work ahead.
What We’re Reading
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has been doing some good reporting on funding for racial equity and the impact of philantrhropic commitments in the past year.
How Black Voters Matter Uses Its Influx of Dollars to Build Political Power
Billions Pledged for Racial Equity Giving Not Necessarily Adding Up to Systemic Change
Thank you
Later this month we’ll be introducing you to some of our new staff, who will help us take our grantmaking to the next level and grow as a resource and a learning space for philanthropy. We’d like to thank Walker and Associates Consulting, the many people who gave generously of their time to serve on our hiring committees, and everyone who helped spread the word through their networks to get us a truly inspiring pool of candidates and some fantastic new team members.