When we named racial equity as a priority in our strategic plan, we also named it a value to start our own internal learning journey as an organization and as individuals. Starting in 2019, each month, we feature a "What We're Reading" section in our Member News that highlights what people in the Funders Together network are reading to expand their understanding of racial equity. This page is an archive of past articles, blog posts, and books that were featured in past editions of the FTHJ Member News. We hope this will spur inspiration for your personal or organizational racial equity work and that you'll learn alongside us.
What We're Reading in: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019
August 2025
What We're Reading: For Us, By Us: How Black Women Are Rewriting Philanthropy in the South by Samjah Iman
Who's Reading It: Joshua Perrin, Communications and Program Manager, Funders Together for Housing Justice
As philanthropy in the South continues to be shaped by inequitable power dynamics, this piece highlights how Black women are reclaiming the field through giving circles built on trust, love, and collective leadership. By centering those closest to the work, these efforts redirect resources toward grassroots priorities and redefine what it means to give. The article underscores that when Black women lead, philanthropy becomes not just about charity, but about building power and community for lasting liberation.
July 2025
What We're Reading: Facing Racialized Individualism for a Collectivist Future by Radical Communicators Network
Who's Reading It: Lauren Bennett, Chief of External Affairs at Funders Together for Housing Justice
This article challenges us to examine the "scarcity mindset" and how it fuels individualism—a framework deeply connected to anti-Blackness and racism. It reminds us that in order to move toward a collective and liberated future, we must interrogate the narratives that tell us resources are limited, and that people are solely responsible for their own circumstances.Written through a narrative lens, I appreciated how the authors surface the role of racialized individualism in shaping the conditions we’re navigating—not just in culture, but in policy. The questions this piece poses to communicators are powerful reminders that our messaging can either reinforce individualism or help make collective care possible.
May 2025
What We're Reading: Block & Build: But Make It Abolitionist by Interrupting Criminalization
Who's Reading It: Michael Durham, Director of Networks at Funders Together to End Homelessness
At our Funders Institute later this month, we will explore how the Block and Build framework can move us towards housing justice and the roles philanthropy should play in it. Popularized (if not coined) by Convergence Magazine, Block and Build emerged last year to describe what is required of those of us committed to liberation: defending against the harmful consequences of authoritarian threats while we remain committed to structural transformation.
Even as I support the concept, I had hesitations when I first encountered the framework during the election because I felt the "block" actions reinforced harmful systems while the "build" ones stopped too short. That's why I was so grateful to read this new resource from Interrupting Criminalization: Block & Build: But Make it Abolitionist. Both theoretical and practical, it invites us to home in on the most dangerous actions to obstruct while softening the soil for liberation. As always, I am eternally grateful for the clarity Black women abolitionists so generously offer us.
April 2025
What We're Reading: Racial Justice is a Public Good by Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE)
Who's Reading It: Lauren Bennett, Chief of External Affairs at Funders Together to End Homelessness
As the authoritarian attacks continue, I find myself drawn to perspectives on what is happening and how it relates to the opposition's resistance specifically to the progress made around racial justice. In her piece, Lori Villarosa, Founder and Executive Director at the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), makes the pointed case that philanthropy's fight back against attacks on our communities isn't just about the First Amendment and the "freedom to give." Instead, it is about the legitimacy of racial justice, equity, and inclusion as basic needs and public goods that are essential to democracy.
She ends it with a powerful reminder: "The right to give will mean nothing if we don’t defend the right to build a just and multiracial democracy. That fight is now. And philanthropy must show up."
March 2025
What We're Reading: How We endUP: A Future Without Family Policing by the upEND Movement
Who's Reading It: Rachelle A. Matthews (RAM), Director of Membership and Programs at Funders Together to End Homelessness
In alignment with recent conversations across our network on abolition, care, and accountability, and following our recent webinar, I’ve revisited this critical piece from the upEND Movement. How We endUP boldly reimagines a future where the harms of the current child welfare system—what the authors aptly name the family policing system—are replaced with systems rooted in healing, support, and community-defined well-being.
This document centers the historical and ongoing targeting of Black, Native, and Latinx families, and offers a vision for abolition that is deeply intersectional and community-driven. It has challenged me to reflect more critically on how philanthropy can be part of dismantling carceral logic—not just in criminal legal systems, but in systems often seen as benign or protective. It’s especially resonant in the context of housing and family stability work, where state-sanctioned separation and surveillance are too often the default.
This is not light reading—but it is essential. It offers a roadmap not just for what to end, but what to build. If you’re engaging with questions around liberation, abolition, and care, this is a must-read.
February 2025
What We're Reading: Democracy is a Verb! by Dr. Tiffany Manuel
Who's Reading It: Carey Cabrera, Membership and Knowledge Coordinator at Funders Together to End Homelessness
In her recent Substack post, Dr. Tiffany Manuel calls us to love justly in the pursuit of true democracy. She prompts us to think: What does love of community look like in this political moment? How do we ingrain love into our fight for real democracy, something our nation has never achieved? If we understand that love is a verb- an action- we must make the case for a democracy that centers radical love in policies that produce justice and repair, and not give up that fight.
January 2025
What We're Reading: Nonprofit and philanthropy and our white moderate tendency to obey tyranny in advance by Vu Le
Who's Reading It: Lauren Bennett, Chief of External Affairs at Funders Together to End Homelessness
The inauguration has come and gone, and it is clearer than ever we are in a new political environment that aims to overwhelm and burn us out so we can't do the necessary work for justice for those at the sharpest intersections of marginalization and oppression. It is also clear that as people who care about collective liberation, we cannot obey in advance as the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors often do, as Vu Le points out in this article.
This timely article provided some truth-telling about what we cannot do in this moment, along with antidotes to that through critical and community-centered actions, like doubling down on our commitments to racial justice and DEI work, educating our boards and trustees about the importance of staying committed to this work, and preparing our grantmaking to abundantly resource proactive strategies. As we move forward, I encourage us all to keep this article bookmarked as a reference to evaluate whether our actions are leaning into housing justice values or if we are falling into "our white moderate tendency to obey tyranny in advance."