Zeke Spier, Executive Director of Social Justice Fund Northwest, sat down with us to discuss his organization’s work funded through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Catalyzing Community Giving grant opportunity. Social Justice Fund Northwest is a member-funded foundation that offers small-scale grants to community groups in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Q: What are your current efforts to catalyze community giving?

A: We have several different Giving Projects that we facilitate, all which bring cross-class and cross-race groups together for community building, skill development, fundraising, and grantmaking. Each project is organized around an issue area (for example, environmental justice or economic justice) or identity (for example, our Next Generation Giving Project).

While it’s worth checking out our complete list of Giving Projects, one of the issues our members have been concerned about is the ongoing criminalization of communities of color. Our Criminal Justice Project looks at the broader issues at play when we talk about the criminal justice system and how it’s serving (or failing to serve) our communities. We look at the system broadly and consider how the criminal justice system intersects with issues like immigration, homelessness, and police violence.

Q: Do you think projects like the Criminal Justice Giving Project are part of a larger movement to link community-based giving with social justice issues?

A: Yes. Because we’re able to focus on small-scale grants at the grassroots level, we are able to be responsive to developing issues. With the increased attention to police violence in response to events in Ferguson, we have had an influx of folks interested in learning more about what kinds of programs they can fund to do something about it. Community-based giving is a great vehicle to get people connected.

This is something we see happening all the time. When people begin to feel overwhelmed by what’s happing in the world, they need a place to turn to that they trust and know is effective. That’s where Social Justice Fund Northwest comes in. We connect people across class and race divides to learn and take action collectively. Many of our donors wouldn’t normally have the relationships or contacts in place to leverage their dollars and support where they are needed most.

Q: What would you say is your unique approach to philanthropy?

A: We help donors engage with their whole identities, building relationships and skills in grassroots fundraising. We ask our Giving Project participants to move outside their comfort zones to participate in conversations about race and identity. These tough conversations are vital to address the disconnection between people with different amounts of privilege.

We’re also a regional organization. Our home office is located in Seattle, but we make grants in five states in the northwest and facilitate projects in three. The regional approach allows us to bridge the urban-rural divide by building relationships and moving resources to communities with little access.

Q: How are you documenting this project?

A: Most of our documentation right now takes the form of capturing stories from both our members and grantees and sharing them with our boarder community. We share these stories at events, through our email list, and on social media. We find inspiration from the transformative experiences our participants have as well as the impactful work of our grantees.

To learn more about our organization and how you can contribute, you can visit us online at http://socialjusticefund.org/.

Elaine Rasmussen is the Interim Executive Director at Native Americans in Philanthropy. We recently had a chance to sit down with her to learn more about the work she and her team are doing through the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Catalyzing Community Giving grant opportunity.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your project funded through Catalyzing Community Giving?

A: One thing we like to make sure people know about us before we start any conversation is that Native Americans in Philanthropy isn’t a grantmaking foundation. We’re a network of Native and non-Native nonprofits, tribal communities, foundations, and community leaders committed to engaging, learning, and sharing resources and best practices grounded in the Native tradition of reciprocity.

Together with the Common Counsel Foundation, we helped launch Native Voices Rising, which is a report that identifies sixteen recommendations for granting and collaborating in Indian Country as well lifts up the value and importance for funders to support organizing, advocacy, and civic engagement in American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian communities.

Q: What is the underlying need for this project?

A: Giving is a cultural and core value within Native communities. Native individuals rarely think of themselves as “philanthropists” in the Western sense. Instead, Indigenous peoples give and support their respective communities in a variety of non-monetized ways because it's the right thing to do and is for the community benefit.

This isn’t to say Native people aren’t giving money—just that they don’t always do it in a formal capacity that can be documented or supported on a large-scale level. Our goal is to change that conversation.

Q: How did the project get started?

A: In terms of a jumping-off point, I’d say you could look at the Foundation Funding for Native American Issues and Peoples report we put out in conjunction with the Foundation Center in 2011. According to our findings, only 0.3 percent of grant dollars in the United States are being given to Native-led projects; a large portion of the top funding is given to universities and faith-based organizations where Native people are grouped with minorities as recipients of those funds—which, in the end, means that even less of those dollars are reaching Native-specific projects, people, and programs. There are many reasons for this, but a large part of it is that donors don’t always know about specific Native community needs. Financial managers aren’t aware of opportunities, and many circles of wealth tend to leave these groups out.

Our goal is to open up conversations about tribal philanthropy, including how donors can contribute funding, best practices in the industry, and peer-to-peer communication. We’re also trying to focus on those who give from within the Native community. There are some tribal members who have accumulated new wealth, and Native Americans in Philanthropy wants to bring these individuals together to talk about culturally-grounded giving and what that looks like to them.

Q: Where can network members go to get more information?

Anyone hoping to learn more about our work can access the Native Voices Rising Report or visit us online at http://www.nativephilanthropy.org