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Opening remarks from Pilar Gonzalez, Social Justice Activist and Creative Philanthropy Advisor
Good morning, good people.... Welcome to your conference.
But I am also ... a social justice activist ... A creative philanthropy advisor....and a friend. I'm Lipan Apache-raised Mexican, born in this country with extended family in Mexico, and in the Global North...the North American Midwest. I'm honored and pleased to be here with you. I read over the program, and thought what could I possibly add to the discussion about JUST GIVING and grantmaking practices when 40 sessions with knowledgeable, dedicated, and enlightened presenters await you over the next few days. But it IS my job to get us started and I will do my best. Before I do though, I want to quickly tell you a story about my grandmother so you get an idea of WHO I am. Many years ago... Before my grandma died... she was 94 when she died... I went to tell her what I did for a living. I described to her in great detail... using all my big Foundation words... I told her what I did for work. She listened and looked unimpressed. So I decided to simplify it and put it in her own direct way. She asked me, "So mija what is it you do for a living? I don't quite understand." I hmmmed, I thought, I replied, "Well... basically, Grandmother, I get paid to ask white people for money." She was thrilled! And I'm sure you could imagine the justice in that! The full circle! Since she had been a woman who many times had NOT been paid for her work in the fields. This was true justice to her. To have her granddaughter doing this kind of work. One of our greatest contributions to the social justice movement is the formation of a strategic approach to social justice/social change. We call it... social justice philanthropy. The purpose is to harness some of those altruistic dollars in our movement for inquiry & analysis of societal, political or economic problems; provide response and action from grassroots leaders and other professional leaders and groups; to acquire financial investment and long term vision. It is understood that this kind of philanthropy must go beyond just good intentions and big hearts. Though we want those big hearts to be the underlying strength in this strategy. Social justice philanthropy respects wisdom and experience of local communities. It affirms the power from a grassroots level, and serves marginalized communities, causes, and groups of people. This is a phenomenal undertaking, PHENOMENAL..., one I'm sure none of us take for granted. SO... defining social justice/social change will be evident as I get to the end of my brief talk. The following came to me... and I wanted to share it with you. I have in my family three generations who sought or seeking social justice/social change. As some of you know, I am the granddaughter and daughter of migrant farm workers. Many, many times during a given month my family found themselves without food or other necessities. My grandmother gave up many things for herself so that I could have shoes to wear to school. This is a very vivid memory to me. Our white neighbors would sometimes give us old clothes or a bag of groceries. I had to translate, as my grandparents didn't speak English. It was hard for me to accept my neighbors' charity - even as a little girl. But my grandmother was brilliant. While I felt shame, she replaced hers with dignity. ... She would lean over and whisper to me in Spanish... "please, mija, take the bag of clothes, shake their hand and say thank you for all of us. We don't want to hurt their feelings. They've walked a long way and I can see the senora feels awkward. Their faces are turning red. And this is harder for them than it is for us." And magically, by accepting their charitable gift, I became the benevolent one. What a stroke of genius, and good manners, on my grandmother's part. It is a lesson I use to this day ... When I allow someone else the gracious space to give to me, I simultaneously give to them. Therefore my fundraising style certainly has absorbed this mutual respect between the person asking and the person being asked. My father grew up, left agricultural work, and joined the army. He felt this was his only hope out of poverty, he told me. When he came home, I saw my father starting to organize other Latino veterans down at the VFW hall. I saw his determination of not wanting us kids to end up in the fields, again. He felt he couldn't let us backslide and end up picking crops. But I did. I listened to my dad over and over again talk about fair wages, about ending racism, about living the racism of our country, and about renewing justice in our time. This is where I first heard JUSTICE being talked about in a way that allowed me to own it. Many years later, by 1990, I landed my first development job in a social justice foundation - specifically, fundraising from donors of wealth. I had never met anyone who wanted to give large resources to get to the root causes of poverty, inequality, and injustice. I wanted to know more, and I wanted to be of service to this incredible concept. My process into the social justice movement was only accentuated by becoming a fundraiser of wealthy donors. Now I would be closer to a new member of the puzzle, -- the donor/funder. What were they like? What did they look like? How were they different from me? And more importantly, WHY were they different from me? I also wanted to know: What did donors/funders need in order to make a social justice commitment - both philosophically and financially? What service could I provide as someone coming from a marginalized community? And the answers came to me. As a fundraiser of color, my face was needed amongst the ranks. We were few and far between. So I developed my style, and a reputation as a compassionate fundraiser who could cross class lines. And the rest is history. As you know, social change can take generations to put into place, cultivate, and grow. I think the most evident has been a change I've seen in myself - in attitude. Research shows that one of the most common indicators of social change is attitudinal shift. For example, I think that within my own life experience... I continue to have a love/hate relationship with money, or the lack of money, I should say ... but working with wealth holders has been the greatest challenge and the greatest gift in my work. I have been both temporarily alienated from co-workers for having the ability to extend compassion to people of wealth, and for wanting to interact with them. As it has not always been a popular idea to be the one asking for money. I've also been alienated sometimes by my farm worker/latino/native american communities, for wanting to better understand people of wealth. By working with white, wealthy people, it was thought I had left my community, but I had not. I was like an explorer, a scout, an inventor, even a reporter .... gathering new experiences and ready to take stories back to my people. I think the hardest thing for me to process or absorb was the notion that huge amounts of money were going to intermediate groups or to strategic analysis... or for anything else but feeding and clothing "mi comunidad." But I trusted and went along to discover. I now see the intelligence in diversifying our approach to social justice/social change. So much that my own giving towards an issue takes a three -pronged approach: I give for direct services; I give to a group doing legal/legislative/ public policy work on THAT issue; and I give to support leadership (i.e., legal advocates needing laptops, etc) within that issue area. I did promise that I would define social justice/social change. Social change has identifiable indicators. They vary from change of attitude in ourselves to new legislation/public policy, as well as increased civic engagement. It effects even those who are not marginalized. Social Justice, on the other hand, applies when societal ills have been solved from the grassroots level up, and there's been eradication, not just alleviation, of inequity, poverty, and suffering amongst marginalized groups of people. Social justice also works on behalf of the animal world and of course, for the environment. Regarding practices, I want to bring up... forgiveness and reconciliation and its huge importance. Whether it be across class lines. Between racial communities. Between governments and its people. And in other relationships. Without these two fundamental human practices of forgiveness & reconcilation, there is no trust, no renewal of faith, and certainly, no relationships that will be healed. This is so emphatic to me that I fear... we won't make good on the inclusiveness part we so boast about in social justice philanthropy. The most significant area to heal I encountered in social justice philanthropy is resentment between the haves and the have nots.
And it might sound something like this:
On the other side, I hear:
One quick spray of forgiveness and reconciliation, and you wipe the slate clean! I wish, I wish! I wish it were that easy. Minor groaning, you might think, but the deeper problem with these feelings of resentment is that they encroach on our fair judgement about collaborating with one another, or they keep us from working with diverse organizations, or they keep us from granting to worthy communities we think are not sophisticated enough to know what to do with money. So what does it take to forgive others for having what you don't have? Or for forgiving oneself for having? Can we be trusted to work together and be a unified front in our progressive movement if we have not reconciled our class differences? How do we eliminate, or change, or adjust those class lines if we choose to ignore the reality that is in front of us? The very element that separates us all IS our resources, and access to resources. It gives us value, stature, place, and opportunity. Yes, if we were to release into the world all the money of our social justice funders in this room---we STILL wouldn't rid the world of pain & suffering. And I must forgive them for not releasing all their money, because I probably wouldn't either, if the tables were turned. I would think first about my family, my neighbors, my extended family, & myself. Just releasing it all is not the answer. I don't think that forgiveness and reconciliation is nearly taught or modeled enough with intention in our philanthropic community! But both are integral parts of our social fabric, justice, and of social change. We ask grassroot fundraisers every day to cross class lines in their proposal writing and direct soliciting - without proper training and without any shield to protect themselves from these feelings of resentment, or generational grief. We ask donors of wealth to partner up with grantees, to suddenly create a community based on power dynamics, financial resource, and classism without asking them if they are up to the job. I am not saying it's easy ... to forgive. But it is a start. Forgiveness is what allows each of us to become more inclusive as the social justice definition says. And if we think that social justice philanthropy is behind in its charge, it is because inclusiveness has been the hardest part to manifest. Always a fundraiser..., I see the people, the discussions, and the hope behind each transaction. This is my idea of a tipping point towards social justice/social change, if you will... To participate in life with those most different from us, and to trust that we will know what to do with the money. THANK YOU.
Grantmakers Without Borders PO Box 181282 Boston, MA 02118
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