Forbes: What Philanthropy Can Learn From Women Of Color Grassroots Leaders

Leaders gathered at a Boston Women’s Fund convening to discuss the preliminary findings and implications of the Carrying the Weight, Leading the Change study. (JayPix Photography)

"For women of color leading on the frontlines of social change, carrying the weight rarely comes with accompanying resources. There is an urgent need for new models of what can be possible when sustained investments replace extraction and partnership replaces paternalism. This is demonstrated in a new report, Carrying the Weight, Leading the Change: How Women of Color Grassroots Leaders Navigate Inequities While Driving Solutions, a collaboration between researchers, philanthropic leaders and movement organizers from the Boston Women’s Fund and UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics & Public Policy.

Philanthropy praises leaders’ resilience as they are being structurally denied the conditions that make sustainability possible. When the applause fades and the grants fall short, women of color are left holding communities together while their own bodies and lives absorb the cost of structural neglect."

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