A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

October 2020

Return to the Calls and Convenings page.

 

We held our October convening virtually over three days (October 5-7). During this time, we deepened our relationships and provided peer coaching for one another. We mapped out work that our organizations have done over the past two years related to racial equity and came to greater clarity on how FRE can continue to work together. During our virtual convening, we also received a re-introduction to the Equitable Evaluation Initiative and listened to a vision for housing justice by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Pre-Work

  1. Register for this live webcast: Racial Equity and Housing Justice During and After COVID-19 with Ta-Nehisi Coates and NLIHC.  
    • Please note: This webcast takes place during the first hour of our meeting on Tuesday, October 6. You should watch the webcast through NLIHC’s webcast portal and then join the Zoom call at 2pm ET / 11am PT after it concludes. If you encounter technical difficulties, please try these options:
      • Use Stephanie’s password for the webcast: 1Mcz5QZg
      • Email Stephanie to see if there’s a hidden YouTube link that she can share after the webcast starts
      • Log in to Tuesday’s Zoom meeting and Stephanie can try sharing her screen
  2. Complete this knowledge mapping activity, which builds off a mapping activity we did at our very first convening in Portland.  
    • Update or add your organizational updates to this document
    • Feel free to drop a comment with questions about anyone else’s work
  3. OPTIONAL -- Volunteer to do a case consultation. If you have a challenge related to racial equity that you would like some coaching or advice on, please let Stephanie know. Looking for 4-5 volunteers, and the challenge can be about internal organizational work, external work with grantees, or related to work you’re doing in your community with partners.

Meeting Materials

Follow Up

Equitable Evaluation Initiative

  • If you and/or any of your staff are interested in possibly participating in a Making the Case Collaboratory in early 2021, please attend this informational webinar on October 27 at 12 ET/9 PT.
  • I think Jara’s presentation might be similar to the one she did for FRE, but if you have colleagues who would be interested in participating with you, you should invite them to this webinar so they have the background. We hope to also have some logistics (like a participation fee) and a FAQ page figured out by then.

Facing Race virtual conference

  • Registration is still open for the conference on Nov 10-12.
  • Connecting during the conference: As we discussed, I’m scheduling a time for us to connect and debrief during the conference: Wednesday, Nov 11 at 5:45 ET / 2:45 PT. Calendar invite coming after this email. I’ll created a Slack channel (search for #facing-race-2020 in Slack and join the channel) where we can drop in live comments to each other in it during the plenaries and keynotes.
  • Grantmaker Strategy Convening: PRE (Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity) is hosting a funder strategy convening in advance of the Facing Race conference on Nov 9-10. I’ll forward you the email with the details, or if you know you want to sign up do so here.

November FRE call

  • I will need to adjust the date and/or time of our November call (originally scheduled for Nov 18 at 2ET/11PT). Please let me know which of these is better for you:
    • Monday, Nov 16 at 1pm ET / 10am PT
    • Wednesday, Nov 18 at 3pm ET / 12pm PT

Upcoming programming

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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