2021
Kenyatta Leal is living proof that having a secure job after being incarcerated can be a defining lifeline. After serving 19 years in prison, he not only found employment for himself, but eventually led a nationwide effort working with tech companies like Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox to create pathways to high-skilled engineering jobs for formerly incarcerated people.
How can companies establish a more equitable social and corporate sector? Tides' Corporate Impact Leaders Forum brought together corporate social impact leaders to share their insights on removing barriers imposed by historically inequitable systems, and the criteria for an authentic corporate commitment to equity.
Marsha Jackson, co-chair of Southern Sector Rising, fought and won to have “Shingle Mountain,” a 100,000-ton pile of toxic roofing debris, removed from her southern Dallas neighborhood. Now she continues to use her voice to help other communities like hers seek justice.
Trans Justice Funding Project, a Tides Foundation initiative, supports visionary, pragmatic leaders in a way that truly honors their leadership: by gathering trans activists together each year to make funding decisions they are so often shut out of, and by believing in the leadership of grantees.
Our communities are in crisis, and they have been for a very long time. But we’re also more than our pain and sadness. Trans communities have been creating magic out of nothing for generations. As the trans justice movement continues to gain momentum, TJFP dreams of growing with it. We see our position not to set an agenda for a movement, but rather to fund it, allowing the people on the front lines to be the true leaders.
Kara Bobroff, a Dine’/Lakota woman and citizen of the Navajo Nation, is on a mission to uplift and sustain Indigenous culture and language in her home state of New Mexico and across the nation. With more than 25 years of experience in Indigenous education, Bobroff, who launched One Generation with Tides Center, is drawing attention to the importance of Indigenous culture, focusing on language preservation and sustainable farming practices that support and regenerate the earth.
We wanted to reimagine what education for Native American students looks like from language to culture to identity. We started by engaging and asking our community: What do we want to see for our Native American young people? What’s your greatest hope, what do you want to see change?
With the directive to center racial equity at the heart of philanthropic efforts, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, a project of Tides Center, is working to train emerging leaders to fund BIPOC-led organizations, build meaningful relationships, and direct resources toward where their values live.
Racial equity work can be very messy, because there is a lot we are still unlearning. I lean on lessons from the theory of Emergent Strategy: Change is small, change is incremental, and change is constant. That’s how I look at our work.
Katie Robinson and her team are working to solve the most pressing environmental issues. Robinson is the director of Mosaic, a Tides Center project and a national grantmaking initiative focused on strengthening the infrastructure that supports organizations and individuals working to protect our air, water, and climate.
I am eager to focus on the unique intersection of philanthropy and the environment. Mosaic’s lens on social movements recognizes that if you look at any large-scale social change that has happened in history — from marriage equality to civil rights — you’ll see that social movements always played a critical, underpinning role in broad-level change over time.
Chelsea Andrews, executive director of Tides Center project EveryOne Home, is working to end homelessness in Alameda County, California. The organization’s approach is unique and complex: bringing together a myriad of nonprofit providers, the county and cities, and individuals with lived experience to center the voices of those directly affected by homelessness.
To address homelessness holistically in our county, all of the stakeholders must come together and agree on policies, funding, and the strategies we need to adopt to make a significant impact in ending and preventing homelessness.
One year ago, I embraced the invitation to step in as the new leader of Tides. Amidst the most uncertain global context in recent history — a racial justice reckoning and a global pandemic — Tides experienced record growth. As I took on the role of CEO, this question sat at the forefront of my mind: How would Tides lean into this moment to create visible, palpable, systemic change that results in true shared prosperity and social justice?
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