2017-2018 Annual Report

Dear Friends,

When I took on the role as the Waldemar A. Nielsen Chair in Philanthropy a year ago, my goal was to provide research and teaching opportunities focused on the relationship between philanthropy and racial equity. I am so proud of what the Center – our staff, fellows, and community partners – has accomplished to further the understanding of what funders are calling, “grantmaking with a racial equity lens.” Our Nielsen Graduate Student Fellow, Edward Weizenegger, conducted research on philanthropists’ experiences. Luisa Boyarski, the Center’s Assistant Director, examined what nonprofits are doing to advance racial equity within their organizations. Tamara Copeland, CEO of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, and I taught a new McCourt School graduate course, “Philanthropists’ Response to Racial Inequity in America” in which students awarded $20,000 to Washington, D.C. nonprofits intentionally promoting racial equity within their organizations and in the broader community. We also added a session on implicit bias in the Center’s signature Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program.

This coming year, we will go deeper into the examination of racial equity in three different arenas: The U.S. public school system, housing policy in Washington, D.C., and the 2020 Census. We will use the findings to inform the Center’s education initiatives, training efforts, and programming in the future.

As always, we love hearing from you and wish you the best in the year to come.

Read our Annual Report

Warmest regards,

Kathy Kretman, Ph.D.

CPNL Director, Nielsen Chair in Philanthropy