Stories
Revoking Reproductive Justice is Only the Beginning
As the nation begins a long weekend commemorating Independence Day, Americans who champion democracy, social justice, a clean environment, and racial and gender equity are not in a particularly celebratory mindset. A series of regressive rulings from the Supreme Court has halted and reversed...
Welcome our New Staff Members!
The board and staff of the Babcock Foundation are thrilled to introduce you to five new staff members who joined our team this year. With a broad range of expertise and skills, these folks will help MRBF deepen our mission across the South. Their strong alignment with the Foundation’s vision,...
Announcing our New Strategic Directions
The South is evolving, and our work is evolving with it.
After two years of careful reflection and conversations with grantee partners and other experts across the region, the Babcock Foundation is pleased to share our deepened commitments to center power building and racial equity in...
Seeding a Better, More Equitable Normal
This article originally appeared as a guest post on the Center for Effective Philanthropy's website on November 10, 2020.
If 2020 has reinforced any lesson, it is that the people and organizations seeking to advance social, economic, and racial justice need flexibility and stability to adapt to whiplashing context changes in already hostile environments. Those of us...
Investing our Endowment with a Focus on Racial Justice
This article appeared in ImpactAlpha on August 13, 2020.
The disproportionate harms to Black Americans wrought by COVID and those wrought by police brutality are symptoms of the same disease: racism hardwired into our political, economic, social and cultural systems.
What Black and Latinx communities are experiencing is the culmination of four centuries of laws,...
Combining Forces to Help Southerners Weather the Pandemic
Foundations of all sizes are thinking creatively about ways to address the staggering implications of the COVID-19 crisis through our nonprofit partners. For the Babcock Foundation, an opportunity presented itself last month when our friends at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation invited us to submit a simple application for a $4 million “expenditure responsibility grant” to redeploy to...
Building a Bigger Table: COVID Response Funds Across the South
“If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table, not a taller fence.” - Unknown
While it has been said COVID19 doesn’t discriminate – anyone from any background can be affected by the virus – this sentiment doesn’t tell the whole story. The virus has and will continue to disproportionately affect our most marginalized communities. The South is home to uniquely...
Long-Term Trust Sparks Quick, Meaningful Action
The COVID crisis underscores the need to address short-term and long-term emergencies like the virus's disproportionate impacts caused by centuries of structural racism , and the very real threat to our democracy in this critical election and census year.
Philanthropy can and should play a major role by meeting the immediate crisis and supporting long-term power building through...
