Are Funders DOEs “Sacred Cow”?
I don’t know how environmental funders are re-examining their own practices in the wake of “Death.” However, it was noticeable that there was so little focus on the funder-driven processes and limitations that environmental (and other social justice) non-profits find themselves. In 2001, Faber and McCarthy found that less than 5% of environmental grant-making supported environmental justice. Furthermore, competition for such funding was stiff as community-based EJ groups were at a grant-writing disadvantage relative to larger environmental organizations with full-time development staff. My experience is that environmental funders are already more hands-on than funders in other movement sectors. As more foundations become operating institutions that carry out programmatic activities rather than fund them, problematic framing, issue choice and coalition development will be even more concentrated in the hands, and minds, of a few elite white American men, if the trends for leadership of t
