The Importance of BIPOC Leaders in Philanthropy
By Melina Peña Anaya, NWHF Job Shadow
Melina is the Oregon Worker Relief Fiscal Agent Team Lead at Latino Network and graduated from Pacific University last year with a bachelor’s degree in public health and Spanish.
Philanthropy: a concept I had heard about before but did not exactly understand. Philanthropy is the desire to improve the overall well-being of others, which is generally expressed through donations of money. A lot of money.
Systemically, spaces with an abundance of wealth have excluded communities of color, and this is one of the reasons why many people of color, like myself, don’t know much about philanthropy. And this may be intentional.
My experience at Northwest Health Foundation allowed me to explore the world of philanthropy and have the opportunity to ask all the questions. And while I learned a lot about foundations, the one thing I know for sure is that IT ALL VARIES! Foundations have individualized control over how, when and where they spend their money.
NWHF invests in initiatives and programs that focus on creating opportunities for every person to have a healthy life, and they understand that health is impacted by all aspects of identity, including race, environment and socioeconomic status. Working in a nonprofit myself, I recognize the need for additional funding for the overall improvement of under-resourced communities. Being able to observe NWHF, I realized the need for building capacity within those organizations. The Justice Reinvestment Equity Program (JREP) is a great example of empowering organizations by providing both the tools and resources needed to further expand their work. NWHF program officers, Cleo Tung and David Navarro, provided me insight on how they searched for JREP applicants, and through this process could clearly see that the need was larger than resources available. It made me think of the money again. JREP is state-funded, and I couldn’t quite conceptualize where foundation money for other programs was coming from.
During my time with NWHF, I was introduced to donor-advised funds and investments. I learned that when a large portion of money is invested, the money just grows and grows, maintaining and increasing the wealth of donors and foundations. This might sound simple, but again, it was all new information to me.
As much as I value all the learning through this experience, the connections I made are much richer. I was able to chat with people about what they love and what they don’t about working in philanthropy, especially BIPOC employees. Being able to see BIPOC leaders working in philanthropy contradicts the idea that these spaces of wealth aren’t meant for us. I left this experience feeling empowered to continue to push the boundaries and continue to find ways to fill spaces that have predominantly excluded people like me, a woman and a person of color. My interest in philanthropy has increased exponentially, and I will apply what I learned in my future endeavors.