Resources on racial justice for the Founders Pledge community

Our mission at Founders Pledge extends beyond giving. We advocate for ways to do immense good, and sometimes, this extends beyond donations.

While we focus most of our internal resourcing on advising ways to maximize the impact of philanthropy globally, today and into the future (read more about how we think about charity), our members are uniquely positioned for impact in their local communities and have come together time and again to make meaningful change. You are innovators, business leaders, influencers, policy advocates, activists, voters and citizens who use your unique positions of influence to contribute to social change.

In response to recent events which have transpired in the United States following George Floyd’s murder, three of our US team members - Research Advisors Anupama Khan and Samantha Carter, and Managing Director Danielle Gram - have compiled the below list of topics and resources which have informed our thinking on racial justice. We hope these resources can help inform how you think and act on the issues of racism, police violence and racial justice.

If you would like to share additional resources for us to consider adding to this list, please email our US Community Manager: emily@founderspledge.com.

Become informed

Learn about systemic racism in the US

• The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Explores how de jure segregation―the laws and policies of local, state and federal governments―promoted discriminatory patterns which continue to impact communities today.
• The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide - Looks at how government policy helped create, and can help tackle, racial disparities in wealth in the United States.
• Campaign Zero: - Integrates recommendations from communities, research organizations and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing, into policies which aim to protect and preserve life.
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Explores race’s influence on the application of criminal justice in the U.S.

Learn about racial equity and philanthropy

• Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table - Recent research by Echoing Green and Bridgespan that looks at the role of race in problems philanthropists address, and the significance of race when it comes to how philanthropists identify leaders and find solutions.
• From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth - Ford Foundation President Darren Walker convenes important voices in philanthropy to ask, and offer answers to, a vital question: If there’s a continuum between generosity and justice, how do we push our work closer to the latter?
• Race, Equity, and Unavoidable Challenges for Philanthropy: Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, discusses how Black Americans and Native Americans are suffering disproportionately from COVID-19 and how to address this inequity.

Tools for personal transformation

• How white parents can use media to raise anti-racist kids: A resource from Common Sense Media for parents seeking to educate their children on race and anti-racism.
• How to be an Anti-racist: Ibram Kendi’s book asks us to think about what an anti-racist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
• Read and contribute to crowdsourced resources: Two we've found are Antiracist Allyship Starter Pack from Tatum Dorrell, Matthew Herndon and Jourdan Dorrell, and Anti-Racism for Beginners from Melyssa Griffin.

Use your voice and support mass organising

• Funding Social Movements: How mass protest makes an impact - A report by Anyi Institute supported by our friends at Open Philanthropy Project looks at how to measure the impact of mass protest movements.
• How to Protest Safely During a Pandemic: An article in VICE with tips for protesting safely during the pandemic.
• Philanthropists Must Invest in an Ecology of Change: How a “social movement ecology” framework lent new insights into substantially reducing incarceration in the United States - An article in SSIR on a movement-approach to criminal justice reform from Chloe Cockburn who leads Open Philanthropy Project’s strategy for investing in criminal justice policy.
• Support protestors and the volunteer clean-up effort in your community.

Vote, advocate and engage in local and state politics

• How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change: President Barack Obama’s reflections on influencing change through protest and engagement in local and state politics.
• New Era of Public Safety: An Advocacy Toolkit for Fair, Safe, and Effective Community Policing - A toolkit for advocacy on safe policing created by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and supported by the Google Foundation.
• Toward a Just Economy: How a Universal Basic Income Can Curb Racial Inequality - An issue brief from the Roosevelt Institute exploring the role of guaranteed income in combating racial wealth inequalities.