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# Race to Lead
by  | Jun 14, 2024
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From the Building Movement Project, this series of Race to Lead reports confronts the nonprofit racial leadership gap and provides survey data to show how people of color encounter systemic obstacles to their advancement.
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The LeadersTrust is a proud project of the Tides Center
# Demos’ Racial Equity Transofrmation
This report shares the inside story of Demos’ journey to transform internally and externally, including key components, process & lessons.
# Racial equity and lberation virtual learning series
Move to End Violence facilitators, Monica Dennis and Rachael Ibrahim, lead this 6-week virtual learning series to help participants integrate liberation and racial equity into personal leadership and organizational practices.
# Crossroads
Crossroads provides antiracism organizing and training.
# Equity in the center
Equity in the Center works to shift mindsets, practices and systems in the social sector to center race equity. Services include convenings, working sessions, coaching, and training.
# Vision change win
VCW is a team of experienced consultants who deliver solutions to social justice organizations including a broad range of workshops on topics such as racial justice, economic justice, community safety and anti­‐violence campaigns.
# Racial equity tools
This library of more than 3,000 tools, tips, curricula, research and other resources supports people working to achieve racial equity at every level – in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.
# Fund the people talent justice toolkit
The resources in the Talent Justice Toolkit can be used by nonprofits and funders to increase their investments in talent justice at all stages of the nonprofit career lifecycle, including hiring, compensation, etc.
# The proinspire leadership model for race equity impact
This framework for professional growth centers equity in leadership at all levels.
# Conflict Transformation
Conflict Transformation Fund provides a compilation of everything about generative conflict transformation.
# The Leaderstrust Language Justice Framework
This framework outlines The LeadersTrust core language justice practices.
# Building lasting growth from viral moments
How can social justice organizations innovate to leverage moments of viral visibility to build power and raise money for the long haul? Commissioned by the LeadersTrust and the Haas, Jr. Fund, in collaboration with NEO Philanthropy, this report shares examples, tips, and takeaways.
# Taking Charge of your strategic plan: Tips for small to mid-size organizations
Many organizations prioritize strategic planning with support from their Flexible Leadership Award (FLA) grants. In this report, Capacity Coaches and LeadersTrust staff share tips and insights from their decades of experience partnering with social justice leaders in the design, planning, and facilitation of strategic plans.
# Board development: Real World insights from the haas leadership initiatives
The LeadersTrust (formerly the Haas Leadership Initiatives) has included support for board development as a core component of the Flexible Leadership Awards for almost two decades. This brief shares insights about effective board development and stories of three diverse organizations tackled the question: “What do we need our board to be – and do – in order to succeed?”
# Beyond Fundraising
What does it mean to build a culture of philanthropy? This paper drills down on an emerging concept in nonprofit fundraising.
# Fundraising Bright Spots
What can we learn from nonprofits that are beating the odds? This report explores common themes and practices across 16 social change organizations achieving breakthrough success in individual giving.
# Underdeveloped
National study sounds alarm about nonprofit fundraising: Nonprofits across the country work tirelessly to make positive change in their communities. A new study confirms a major shared challenge that threatens their ability to do so: fundraising.
# Community Centric Fundraising
Community-Centric Fundraising is a people-of-color–led group of fundraisers and researchers who are committed to building more equitable fundraising practices.
# The Ethical Rainmaker
In this podcast, Michelle Shireen Muri hosts conversations grappling with the fundraising questions that we don’t often ask in the nonprofit world.
# “I’m not asking for me”
In this video, social justice leaders speak from the heart on the challenges and the rewards of fundraising — and offer clues from the inside about what it takes to do it right.
# Compasspoint’s fundraising Bright spots learning series
How are fundraisers navigating the obstacles and opportunities of an uncertain and quickly changing landscape? Join CompassPoint trainers for their monthly Fundraising Bright Spots sessions: 90-minute online gatherings with fundraising leaders who share your challenges and questions.
# Inside out fundraising
In this guide, fundraising consultants Mark Rovner and Alia McKee show how to create a culture of philanthropy by treating systems instead of symptoms, identifying five primary points of intervention for addressing problems and moving toward change.
# A Case study of Foundation investment in nonprofit fundraising capacity
This case study, part of the Grantcraft series, showcases how the Haas, Jr. Fund invested in strengthening capacity and innovation in nonprofit fundraising and provides insight to the philanthropy landscape and strategies for foundations, consultants, and practitioners.
# **News & Views**
Inspiration, information, and perspectives from the LeadersTrust team and our partners
Theo Rigby
# The Knowledge Hub & The LeadersTrust
Mar 1, 2023 | 
The LeadersTrust is pleased to introduce its partnership with the , an initiative of Leadership Fellows New York. The Knowledge Hub team curates articles, videos, podcasts, and toolkits to keep nonprofit leaders inspired and educated, and organizes those materials in a searchable database. People can sign up directly with the Knowledge Hub to secure a weekly newsletter which highlights the latest materials added to its searchable database.
The LeadersTrust sought this partnership to facilitate ease of access by leaders and their teams to well produced, thoughtful discussions of leadership and social justice sector issues. We are appreciative as well of the guiding principles employed by the Knowledge Hub team in its selection of materials to site – these include that:
1. The resources on the Knowledge Hub should empower nonprofit practitioners in alignment with the values of Leadership Fellows New York.
2. The resources should be varied, coming from a range of sources and mediums, covering all our content categories.
3. Resources should be readily accessible. Content blocked by a paywall (i.e., subscription-based or requiring purchasing the content to access) is not preferred unless free access is approved by the publisher.
4. Resources should promote the core values of lifelong learning, equity, and equality.
5. Resources should promote solutions over describing problems.
6. Whenever possible, resources should uplift the voices of nonprofit practitioners, especially those who are not in the public eye.
We encourage you to explore the  site!
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# Introduction to the Thrive Perspectives Series
Sep 5, 2024 | 
For many decades now, knowing that their ability to achieve their vision is only as strong as that of their organization partners, many foundations have been offering grantees capacity-building support as a complement to their primary grant. In recent years, there has been some important pushback, , on the traditional forms that much of this capacity support has taken, and valuable reframing by ,  and others about how it can more effectively center equity and  philanthropic practices.
We welcome this reimagining, as we have certainly seen how funders have offered capacity-strengthening resources in ways that are more or less helpful to leaders and their organizations.
With that in mind, and in advance of the launch of our  Advisory Service (Thrive), we have been getting the lay of the land for funder-supported capacity strengthening and what it can look like at its best, when rooted in trust and respect for organizations. Along with a literature review, our exploration has included conversations with the staff of eleven foundations who invest in the leadership and capacity of the organizations they fund. We also spoke with the leaders of eight “practitioner” organizations who have years of experience supporting foundations in delivering those resources and hearing from hundreds of leaders about what they need and want.
The interviewees are, like us, deep believers in the importance of capacity funding and the need for much more of it. Yet, they reminded us that many others in philanthropy remain unconvinced of its value and impact. Most notably, the majority of foundation interviewees — even those who have been making capacity grants for many years — still find themselves needing to make (or remake) the case for those grants to their own colleagues and to peers in the sector. Practitioner interviewees observed the same, and also shared their experiences of funder practices that still fall far short of the more trust-based and flexible approaches that the current moment calls for.
**Because there are**  **who make significant capacity grants and other resources available for their grantees, a compelling case for such funding and its value and impact is clearly needed.**
**And because some foundation-funded capacity programs are still being experienced by****organizations as something** ***done to them*** **rather than** ***designed with them*****, it is important to outline what trust-based capacity strengthening at its best can look and feel like.**
This blog series offers our perspective on both of these fronts. It is informed by our recent discussions with many valued colleagues (see acknowledgments below) and by the personal experience that we, ****, have garnered from many decades as grantmakers, designers of capacity supports, consultants and coaches to leaders, and as nonprofit staff and leaders ourselves.
Recognizing and building on existing research and models, our goal is to contribute another set of practical resources, frameworks and insights that we hope can add value for multiple audiences: funders who want to be as supportive as possible of their grantee partners; organizations that wish to think expansively about what capacity funding can help them achieve; and all of us who wish to see more dollars made available to our leaders, organizations and movements.
## **About the Authors**
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Paula and Holly are former directors of, and current advisors to, the Resilience Initiative and the Flexible Leadership Awards program of the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund (now The LeadersTrust). They bring decades of experience in organizational leadership, development, philanthropic practice, and capacity-strengthening.  
We want to acknowledge and thank the following individuals who contributed to the research on which this blog series is based: Kay Suarez & Niki Japal, Equity in the Center; Darlene Nipper & Bex Ahuja, Rockwood Leadership Institute; Elissa Sloane Perry & Aja Couchois Duncan, Change Elemental; Maura Bairley, Viveka Chen and Monica Dennis of co-LAB Collective LLC, Move to End Violence; Nikki Dinh & Ericka Stallings, Leadership Learning Community; Jeanne Bell, Just Org Design; Rusty Stahl, The Fund the People; Andre Oliver, James Irvine Foundation; Sarah Shanley Hope & Ena Coleman, The Solutions Project; Dalia Yeddida, Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative; Neesha Modi, Kresge Foundation; Jen Wei & Kathleen Badejo, Hewlett Foundation; Erin Frederick & Demetria Smith, Zilber Family Foundation; Jean Ries & Marissa Guerrero, David and Lucile Packard Foundation; Kathy Reich & Shireen Zaman, Ford Foundation; Judy Wright & Trishala Deb, Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity; Karen Cunningham, Inatai Foundation; and Molly Smith, Pivotal Ventures.