Celebrating 2020 (Yes, Really)
We are in an era of transition, opportunity and hope. A new federal administration is beginning to address the atrocities and negligence of the previous one. Two new senators...
Stories
Georgia
Toward a New Democracy
“Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part.” John Lewis
It’s often said we don’t realize when we’re living through history. The events of this week are unmistakably historic, for better and for worse.
Georgians elected their first...
Welcome our Chief Equity Officers
All of us at the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation are thrilled to welcome two new staff members who will help us advance our equity work and that of our grantee partners. Both chief equity officers will serve on the equity, program and management teams, enhance our programs, learning and culture...
This is Personal: Our Statement on Anti Asian Violence
The board and staff of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation send our deepest condolences to the families of the eight people killed in Georgia this week, six of them Asian women. While the investigation continues, the horrific attacks by a 21-year-old white man cannot be separated from America’s long, ugly history of white supremacy, structural racism, socioeconomic inequity and misogyny....
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...
