Julian Grace Foundation
Commitment to Racial Justice
The Julian Grace Foundation is committed to funding and investing with an intersectional racial justice lens because we firmly believe this will help our communities create a more just, and unified world.
We acknowledge many social, economic, and political disparities are deeply rooted in racism and white supremacy. The Julian Grace Foundation intentionally supports organizations that work to dismantle structural racism by continuously building access, opportunity, and power so that all can thrive.
We believe that the communities that are most impacted by poverty and injustice have the information, tools, and experiences to address the inequities they endure. Furthermore, we believe that community members should be involved in decision making and leading change whether that be through non-profit or for-profit entities. Specifically, we also know that historically Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) leaders have not had equitable access to philanthropic or investment capital.
With this commitment, we will center the communities and people directly impacted by structural racism in our grantmaking and investment strategies by committing to using all forms of capital to advance our mission. We will practice this commitment in the following ways:
• We will continue to have a Board of Directors that is majority Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and will strive to have a staff that is also majority BIPOC.
• We will strive to have more than 90% of our overall annual funding specifically go towards initiatives and organizations working with and in BIPOC communities.
• We will aim to have more than 75% of our grant dollars each year specifically supporting BIPOC-led organizations.
• We will continue to evaluate and screen our public equity portfolio to remove corporations with missions that disproportionately negatively impact BIPOC communities (private prisons, fossil fuels, etc.)
• We will track the percentage of BIPOC-managed private equity investments and BIPOC-led businesses supported by our investments with a goal of having more than 75% of our private equity investments managed by BIPOC and women-owned asset management firms and supporting BIPOC-led businesses.
• We will increase our annual funding in the next 3 years for organizations specifically working in community organizing, systems change and advocacy addressing issues rooted in structural racism.
• We will increase the percentage of general operating grants in the next 3 years for BIPOC-led organizations.
Finally, we always try to approach our work from a partnership lens and recognize we need to meet partner organizations on their journey. Specifically for existing partners who are not representative of the communities they work with and for, our goal is to work with the organization to support them in shifting their leadership within 3 years. This work starts with a written commitment toward Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) and a plan with measurable goals, approved by the organization’s staff leadership and board.
Note on definitions:
The Julian Grace Foundation is defining BIPOC-led organization as the majority of the Board, staff and leadership team identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). We are defining investments as BIPOC/women-owned as having at least one general partner or founder of the firm identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and/or female, as an under-represented identity in investments.