As many of you may be aware, the Social Justice Fund NW received a very generous grant of $470,000 over two years from the Kellogg Foundation to advance building leadership in philanthropy in communities of color.
As a result of this generous grant we will be making a number of exciting changes within the organization including: offering new political education, offering services that can make us more attractive to new members, developing a People of Color Advisory Task Force, and making some staffing changes.
I have spent a great deal of time planning these staffing changes to ensure these smooth transitions. While the final goal only increases us by one staff, it does change our organizational structure and significantly expands our capacity to fundraise.
As we get closer to our goal of granting one million in our region and expanding our membership, we need to be very mindful of a staffing structure that allows us to raise and grant more money.
We are extremely fortunate to be the recipient of this very generous grant. The Kellogg Foundation is particularly interested in how we have been able to diversify our membership so dramatically over the last three years. My goal with the above changes is to continue to build a thriving, democratic, and diverse philanthropic organization.
Thank you all for your generous support and I look forward to reporting on the progress of all of this work to you at the Annual Member meeting.
In unity,
Bookda Gheisar
Executive Director