Read on Twitter
In addition to ‘what’ our new strategies are to advance equity and climate solutions, I’m super excited about the ways in which we’ve dug in to ‘how’ we do our work as well. A thread. https://twitter.com/McKnightFdn/status/1304072581927047168
We started saying to ourselves during the design process that actually the “wow is in the how”, as we also make a shift in the way in which we think about ‘how system change happens’.
There are a lot of strengths we can build off of, including in our Arts and International programs, and the examples below all start with existing bodies of work we’ve been moving, but now want to dig deeper and go further on, expanding on what works while building new skillsets.
Recognizing that not everybody benefits from Minnesota’s social, cultural and economic assets, especially Black, Indigenous and people of color in Minnesota, and that a race neutral, color blind approach to systems change is not sufficient for the scale of the challenges we face
In addition to focusing on shifts in policy, practices and resource flows, we recognize we need to be more focused on additional powerful conditions for change such as shifting relationships, power and mental models.
Making shifts at all 3 of these levels together we believe are more likely to contribute to lasting systems change on the complex issues we are focused on addressing.
The role of ‘bottom up’ organizing, movement building and people power become more central to our analysis recognizing they serve as complements to work that starts from the ‘top down’, again recognizing it takes a both/and approach to make progress on climate and equity issues.
Building bridges across differences also rises up as we think about the ways in which we need to both build power with communities that have traditionally been marginalized and excluded from decision making spaces, while also building bridges with traditional sources of power.
Bridging across race, culture, geography, sector, all are important to how we do the work moving forward as well.
We recognize there are not risk-free options, and that the work is emergent, requires real time learning and more systematic ways to learn with and from our partners and communities.
And lastly, we will continue to pay attention to how our values as expressed in our strategic framework are lived out in the work and in relationship to our partners. Curiosity. Stewardship. Respect and Equity
Resources to dig deeper on:
https://www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/why-we-need-to-center-racial-equity-in-the-climate-movement/ by @AimeeWitteman
https://www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/why-we-need-to-center-racial-equity-in-the-climate-movement/ by @AimeeWitteman
Our strategic framework: https://www.mcknight.org/wp-content/uploads/01-17-19-2019-2021-mcknight-strategic-framework.pdf
Grantmaking with a racial justice lens https://racialequity.org/grantmaking-with-a-racial-justice-lens/ by @RJGrantmakers and @rinkuwrites
@fsg Water of Systems Change publication https://www.fsg.org/publications/water_of_systems_change
What we learned through our engagement and listening: https://www.mcknight.org/news-ideas/what-we-learned-when-we-listened-to-community-voices/
