Integrating Racial Equity in Foundation Governance, Operations, and Program Strategy

Abstract

· This article is intended to provide the field of philanthropy with a useful framework for organizing racial-equity efforts. · When the Washington-based Consumer Health Foundation became a staffed foundation in 1998, its initial grantmaking focused on health promo-tion and access to health care. As a learning organization, however, it took steps that led to greater support for efforts addressing the interconnectedness between health status and racial equity. This included support for advo-cacy as a strategy to create systems change benefiting low-income communities of color. · This commitment to racial equity is not a sepa-rate initiative; it is integrated into all aspects of CHF's governance, operations, and program strategy: board and staff education on struc-tural racism, developing diversity and racial equity indicators to guide operations, providing capacity-building support to grantees to enable racial-equity planning, and advocacy grant-making in areas such as language access for populations with limited proficiency in English. · This article presents historical milestones and the key drivers that stimulated an orga-nizational commitment to this approach, with examples of how racial equity is operational-ized in all aspects of the foundation's work and opportunities for continued growth.