By Katrina Julien, program officer, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta and 2022 The Funders Network PLACES Fellow
For The Funder’s Network, PLACES stands for Professionals Learning about Community, Equity and Sustainability. I’m sure that like me, most decide to apply for PLACES to strengthen their leadership role and progress in their philanthropic careers. But what those who’ve gone through the program know is that this is more than a bullet on your resume; it’s an opportunity to connect what you do with who you are as a person. It’s also a chance to see opportunities in difficult situations and envision a world where philanthropy as a tool does more good than harm. PLACES is both a professional and personal journey.
Our first meeting was virtual but dynamic. We learned a little about each other and broke out into groups to begin to connect with our peers and prepare to head to our first site visit destination, Burlington, Vermont. There, the PLACES team wasted no time getting us talking about ourselves, our work, and how overwhelming it can be to work in a sector that upholds white supremacy culture while trying to dismantle it from the inside. We heard from foundations at different stages of embedding equity into their work. I got to hear what I must have sounded like when I started at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta—speaking about equity but knowing it hadn’t yet been operationalized within my own organization. That was hard to watch but incredibly informative. I realized that in order to achieve the goals we strive for, philanthropy needs to listen and learn from the examples community and nonprofit partners present.
When I returned to work, I grappled with these questions: What is the role of philanthropy in dismantling broken systems? Do we work in institutions that are really ready to do that? What is my responsibility to ensure equity in my work? The great thing about PLACES is that you work through all of…
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