stop & examine practices
Engaging with the Maintaining & Strengthening Committed Community Connections digital workbook should be a catalyst to look inward and examine your organization’s policies and practices.
This includes grantmaking policies (if applicable), as grant award processes have frequently proven to be historically and systemically unbalanced. Do your research to see where your funds have generally been allocated.
consider this
consider this
Take a moment to think through the below thought starters. Your awareness of these considerations could lead to the identification of possible solutions.
01 / 06
Who gets the money?
What are the geographic and demographic representations of your grant recipients? How do those characteristics differ from those of non-recipients?
How do those characteristics differ from those of non-recipients?
02/ 06
Are we reaching everyone?
03/ 06
Is there community representation?
Is the composition of your grant panels reflective of the community?
04/ 06
How accessible are your resources?
What education and technical assistance do you provide to grant applicants?
05/ 06
What is the real barrier?
Is the primary issue a lack of available funds, or exclusive policies and guidelines (or both)?
06/ 06
Does practice equal policy?
your turn
Let’s make some lists! Scroll through the following prompts to interrogate the grant making processes.
GET CURIOUS: LET’S TAKE A DEEPER DIVE
The following definitions and activities can help you dive into some resources, root causes or drivers, and examples of how this intentional work can be pushed forward to break disconnection, distrust, and disinvestment cycles.
Off the top of your head, what are five arts and culture organizations in your community? What were the first organizations that came to mind? The first list of organizations that came to mind result from our brain making quick shortcuts. Were these organizations similar in geographic or demographic representation? Are these organizations repeatedly or currently funded by your organization? These shortcuts can be helpful but can also be exclusionary.
Our conscious minds can handle 40 to 50 bits of information a second, so our brain has to make shortcuts that can lend to unconscious or implicit bias. These shortcuts are called Heuristics. These shortcuts work automatically and effortlessly based on impulse, intuition, and assumptions. Take the time to examine your unconscious bias and where it comes from. Then challenge yourself to think through how to widen your net.
Race is a divisive social construct that refers to the perceived physical differences that groups and cultures consider socially significant. Race is sometimes viewed as a mixture of physical, behavioral, and cultural attributes, but it has no biological basis. Americans for the Arts acknowledges that racism is a system of structuring opportunity and assigning value based on the social interpretation of how one looks (also referred to as “race”). Racism unfairly disadvantages some individuals and communities. Americans for the Arts is in the initial stages of understanding what it means to be an anti-racist organization. Inspired by the methodological shakeout of the AEP6 process, we have made inclusion and equity the bedrock of community engagement in an effort to reach an unprecedented scope of diverse organizations and individuals to better support the advocacy efforts of those who have traditionally been excluded
During the AEP6 study, many local and statewide research partners had the opportunity to introduce themselves to BIPOC and ALAANA organizations with whom they have not previously engaged. This lack of previous engagement could be the result of systems that worked to marginalize and separate what “arts and culture” is, what it looks like, and how it is defined in your community. These systems will not change overnight. Acknowledging that the systems exist is the first step of change.
need help?
Check out the resource list below
Equitable Investment Policies and Practices in the Local Arts Field: “2018 Profile of Local Arts Agencies: "Funds distributed by grantmaking local arts agencies are distributed inequitably, with the largest 16 percent of grant recipients receiving 73 percent of the dollars awarded.
https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/equitable-investment-policies-and-practices-in-the-local-arts-field
Nothing is Broken: What Evaluation and Philanthropy Can Learn from Abolitionism
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/nothing-is-broken-what-evaluation-and-philanthropy-can-learn-from-abolitionism/
RE-TOOL: Racial Equity in the Panel Process
https://www.jeromefdn.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/Re-Tool_2018.pdf
Equity Choice Points: A Grant- making Reflection Tool for State Arts Agencies
https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/equity-choice-points/
Visualizing Equity in Grant Making
https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/visualizing-equity-in-grant-making/
Racial Equity in Arts Funding Workshops
https://www.giarts.org/arts-funding/racial-equity
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practices with Mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9-aVDaX9xg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practice with Sandra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrH_WmHHg8w
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practice With Angie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCoBdfORLA&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title
Equitable Investment Policies and Practices in the Local Arts Field: “2018 Profile of Local Arts Agencies: "Funds distributed by grantmaking local arts agencies are distributed inequitably, with the largest 16 percent of grant recipients receiving 73 percent of the dollars awarded.
https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/legislation-policy/naappd/equitable-investment-policies-and-practices-in-the-local-arts-field
Nothing is Broken: What Evaluation and Philanthropy Can Learn from Abolitionism
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/nothing-is-broken-what-evaluation-and-philanthropy-can-learn-from-abolitionism/
RE-TOOL: Racial Equity in the Panel Process
https://www.jeromefdn.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/Re-Tool_2018.pdf
Equity Choice Points: A Grant- making Reflection Tool for State Arts Agencies
https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/equity-choice-points/
Visualizing Equity in Grant Making
https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_research/visualizing-equity-in-grant-making/
Racial Equity in Arts Funding Workshops
https://www.giarts.org/arts-funding/racial-equity
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practices with Mark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9-aVDaX9xg&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practice with Sandra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrH_WmHHg8w
Maintaining Connections: Stop & Examine Practice With Angie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGCoBdfORLA&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.google.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title
It’s about building life-affirming institutions.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Key Takeaways:
Key Takeaways: do
1. Take your time & think it through.
2. Hold yourself accountable.
3. You can support change.
download your work…and show it off
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