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
North Carolina
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...
The Fierce Urgency of Now
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside Church, 1967
If there is any...
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,...
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...
Justice in the Time of Coronavirus
This article appeared in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 27, 2020.
When the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation grasped the severity of COVID-19 and its likely impacts on the people and places we care about, we began to brainstorm things within our power to mitigate the harm. We asked our grantee partners about the pandemic’s implications on their work. We asked the leaders of...
