Watch here beginning December 3rd, 2025
To screen this film for your organization or at your conference, please contact us.
Episode 1 — Philanthropy and Racial Justice Funding
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 led to an unprecedented outpouring of financial support for racial justice work across the country. Soon, however, some corporations and foundations backed away from their commitments. In this episode, we look at that history and how it relates to the current moment.
Speakers include Steve Phillips, Crystal Hayling, Ash-Lee Henderson Woodard, Nwamaka Agbo, Regan Pritzker, Vu Le, and Vanessa Priya Daniel.
To screen this film for your organization or at your conference, please contact us.
SELECTED RESOURCES
BOOKS
David Callahan, The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age, 2017.
Vanessa Priya Daniel, Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning, 2025.
Anand Giridharadas, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, 2018.
Vu Le, Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector, 2025).
Ray Madoff and Benjamin Soskis, editors, Giving in Time: Temporal Considerations in Philanthropy, 2023.
Maribel Morey, White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation's An American Dilemma and the Making of a White World Order, 2021.
Steve Phillips, How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good, 2022.
Rob Reich, Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How it Can Do Better, 2020.
Edgar Villanueva, Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance, 2021.
OTHER
John H. Jackson, Evolving Trust-Based Philanthropy for Racial Justice, Stanford Social Innovation Review, August 16, 2022.
Cheryl Dorsey, Peter Kim, Cora Daniels, Lyell Sakaue & Britt Savage, Overcoming the Racial Bias in Philanthropic Funding, Stanford Social Innovation Review, May 4, 2020
By Aria Florant, Tonyel Edwards, Cora Daniels, Alexandra Williams & Maurice Asare, A Reparations Roadmap for Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Sept 27, 2023.
Adriana Rocha and Manisha Vaze, Philanthropy Can & Must Help Dismantle Racial Capitalism, The Forge, June 17, 2021.
Nancy Jo Sales, The New Rules of Old Money, Harper’s Bazaar, Oct 7, 2021.
Decolonizing Philanthropy, Panel discussion with George Suttles, Commonfund Institute, Cynthia Heard, Los Angeles Urban League, Hali Lee, Asian Women Giving Circle, and Rickke Mananzala, New York Foundation. Feb 16, 2023.
Three Years After George Floyd, Foundations Say They’ve Changed. Many Racial Justice Nonprofits Disagree, Chronicle of Philanthropy, May 31, 2023.
Barry Goldberg and Barbara Shubinski, Black Education and Rockefeller Philanthropy from the Jim Crow South to the Civil Rights Era, RE: Source, Sept 11, 2020.
Lori Villarosa, Ben Francisco Maulbeck and Gihan Perera, Racial Justice Programs Under Fire: Foundations Are Running Scared When They Should Double Down, Feb 6, 2024.
Cheryl Dorsey, Jeff Bradach, and Peter Kim, Racial Equity and Philanthropy, Echoing Green and Bridgestone Group, May, 2020.