Drawing from recent strategic planning discussions, BABIP‘s core work falls within three over arching priorities:
Influencing Philanthropy is at the center of BABIP ’s efforts.
Philanthropic presence: In order to influence philanthropy, BABIP must be a visible, active, informed, and effective participant in the philanthropic community. Put simply, we must be present. Fundamental to this outcome is the ability to be engaged as an organization in the critical dialogues and debates that will inevitably affect our core constituents and communities.
Black Agenda Conference: The culmination of the learning activities will result in the creation of a black agenda that will be shared with philanthropy at a daylong conference and through the broad distribution of published report. The agenda will form BABIP’s future operations and programs.
Addressing Race and Poverty Series: Katrina, the current political election, AB624 all point to the growing awareness of the impact of race and poverty on Black and other ethnic communities. While there have been several efforts to have conversations on race and poverty and toolkits have been created to expand grantmakers’ understanding of this issue, these efforts have had little impact on changing the how grantmaking is done. Building on the work begun by NCG on this topic, BABIP wishes to explore, through a planning grant and focused conversations with board and staff of selected foundations, options in expanding anti-racism practice in philanthropy, and to share those conclusions with a larger segment of the philanthropic community in the Bay Area.
Learning Community and Agenda Building: To sustain BABIP’s leadership and influence in the field, an on-going function of its work will be devoted to building knowledge on effective practice in addressing the needs and disparities confronting the African American community. A nucleus of BABIP’s activity will be concentrated on creating smaller learning circles that will focus on specific questions and strategies. The initial themes and question that will be explored over the next 12-18 months include:
- Civic activism: How can we take advantage of the energy generated by the 2oo8 election to increase youth and civic engagement in poor black communities?
- The educational achievement gap: How do we create a culture of learning and achievement among black youth?
- Support for Black men and boys: What are the nature of services, supports, and policies that need to be in place to empower Black men?
- The economy and jobs: How do we equip African Americans to be successful in the new economy?
- Health disparities: How do we improve health and environmental standards in our community?
- Race and Poverty: How do we talk about race and racism in philanthropy?
- Nonprofit Capacity Building: How can we best leverage our roles to help rebuild and strengthen the nonprofit infrastructure in black neighborhoods?
- Strengthening Black Arts and Culture
Our learning community will be structured around two recurring events: a President’s Circle, a bi-monthly in depth conversation designed around a learning theme and led by executive level staff and other experts and the Grantmaker’s Forum, a nuts and bolts dialogue highlight current and prospective program initiatives that fall within our learning interests.
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Serving our Members is a foundational element to our work.
With members representing more than 20 local foundations, bringing together foundation professionals from corporate, governmental, and association sectors, BABIP members are a strong leadership core within the sector, and individually and collectively, add a needed black perspective to philanthropic discourse and debate.
BABIP recognizes its responsibility to provide high quality learning and professional development opportunities and will use additional funding to enhance this core aspect of member services. In addition, BABIP will continue to grow its membership base and enhance its ability utilize technology to communicate with its members effectively. Besides a monthly e-newsletters, blogging capacity, and bi-monthly member meetings and programming, BABIP wishes to increase its capacity to host a talent bank and job link on its website; provide member driven Professional Development options; and create a Mentorship Program for emerging leaders.
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Investing in Black Communities has been an on-going concern for BABIP.
Throughout its history, BABIP has been particularly sensitive to the capacity requirements of grassroots organizations and have hosted a number of workshops that introduce communities to the philanthropic sector. The continued erosion of nonprofit infrastructure in Black neighborhoods however has caused BABIP to take a more systematic look at the management and program capacity requirements necessary for effective service delivery and policy advocacy. BABIP wants to research new capacity building tools including leadership fellowships; mentoring, capacity building cohorts; and various intermediary functions that could strengthen and rebuild the fragile systems currently serving Black communities.
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