Facing Threats to Racial Equity Work, Borealis’ REACH Fund Continues Consistent, Steady Approach

When we last looked at Borealis Philanthropy’s Racial Equity to Accelerate Change (REACH) Fund in 2019, the then-new fund had just announced its first $1.2 million in grantmaking to nine organizations providing racial equity training to nonprofits across the country, thanks to the support of funders including the Ford, David and Lucile Packard, and NoVo foundations.

A few things have obviously happened since then — the COVID-19 pandemic, the movements that sprung up after the police murder of George Floyd, and a backlash to the country’s nascent efforts to recognize and remediate systemic racial inequities in fields including philanthropy.

No one could blame Borealis, or REACH Fund’s backers, if they were reeling or even stepping back in the face of the past several years’ worth of crises and seemingly whiplash-quick changes in support for racial equity efforts.

Instead, REACH has attracted 10 new funders. Its list of grantees has grown to 19. In May, the collaborative released a report that tells the story of how racial justice work can happen within organizations. And while the total amount it has been giving every year has grown relatively slowly, topping out at $1.9 million last year (with an expectation of another $1.9 million to be announced this fall), REACH is planning on hiring its first director.

REACH feels like something distinctive in progressive philanthropy: The initiative may well end up demonstrating that even a relatively small amount of money, if invested consistently over time with a long-term strategy, can create a ripple effect of change. The comparative scarcity of funds hasn’t thwarted the collaborative or caused its organizers to look for a strategy that might appeal to more donors. Instead, they’re staying the course.

This isn’t to say that REACH has been immune from the giving downturn. “We know that Borealis is resourced in a way and is working to build an infrastructure that’s set up for long-term success and sustainability, but we also feel the tensions of folks pulling back or making a commitment that they don't necessarily commit to for the long term,” said Borealis Director of Communications Dr. Kholi Murchison. “We understand that as a resource partner to movement, if we are in a position to better receive resources and we're feeling this, then we imagine that [grantees are] feeling it tenfold.”

The grantees are definitely feeling those tensions, according to REACH Fund Program Officer Ribkah Naga. That includes a concern among the grantees’ partner organizations that they’ll need to protect themselves from attack and/or may have less money than they had in the recent past to work with racial equity trainers. But just as REACH was able to help stabilize its grantees’ finances during the worst of the COVID pandemic, Naga said, “I've heard from multiple grantee partners that the REACH grants have really helped sustain them during this time of retraction.”

“It’s change within people”

No one with even a passing interest in racial justice work believes that change will come quickly. Even if the current backlash hadn’t started, 400 years of not only policies, but accepted ways of thinking would still take years or even generations to undo. At the same time, most people in philanthropy are well aware that funders — like people generally — don’t have a lot of patience with slow, incremental change. The next sexy, shiny new thing is always going to boost endorphins in ways that will never be matched by the incremental approach needed to tackle generational issues. But one unique aspect of the REACH Fund’s approach is that the grantees it supports, when they’re successful, aren’t just helping organizations change themselves one by one.

The work of REACH and its grantees, Murchison said, is about helping people understand: “How do I put those practices inside of myself? How do I put those practices inside of myself in relationship to other human beings that I work with on a daily basis? And then how do we begin to interpret and move on those practices and watch them spread, not just within our organization, but watch them really take shape out in the world as we continue to move throughout other organizations in the sector?”

“It's change within people. It's like a ripple effect,” Naga said. “So no matter where these individuals go, they bring their changed selves. And then we also are seeing these really significant changes as highlighted in the case studies within organizations and how folks are then organizing other organizations to do this kind of shift.”

It’s easy to look at an investment of less than $10 million over five years and scoff that this kind of money, and this kind of slow approach, can’t possibly have the impact of the “big bet,” big-check strategies that we cover so often here at IP. At the same time, as Murchison said during our interview, Borealis and the REACH Fund are engaged in much the same kind of long-term visioning that the right has employed for decades now. If anything, current events seem to have proven that this is an approach that can pay off big for those with the patience to pull it off. We can only hope that more funders in fields including racial equity, workers’ rights, environmental protection, and women’s and LGBTQ rights start to catch on.

In addition to racial justice/equity philanthropy, Dawn Wolfe covers issues including philanthropic reform, the nonprofit burnout crisis, and LGBTQ and women’s/abortion rights. Contact her at: dawnw@insidephilanthropy.com

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