ford foundation

The former US ambassador to Indonesia and Myanmar joins Reformasi Dispatch to share his views -- compiled from a career devoted almost entirely to diplomacy throughout the Asean region.  Ambassador Marciel's book uses a wealth of personal vignettes to highlight over-arching themes such as democratization, institution-building, and engaging with the region on its merits -- rather than as a foil to China.  Jeff and Kevin ask the ambassador about legal-system institutions, Indonesian democracy, conditions in Myanmar, and the tools available to US diplomats in SE Asia.

Get our special episode on the 4th Presidential Debate on:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/reformasi/extras

For the 2-year anniversary of the Ethical Rainmaker and Community-Centric Fundraising (CCF), Michelle sits with Rachel D’Souza Siebert and Henry Ramos to discuss where CCF is at today … and why it’s making itself at home because it’s here to stay.

Teddy Schleifer is a journalist for Vox’s recode, covering what billionaires in the Silicon Valley are doing with their money. 

• Teddy works for Vox as a journalist and hosts the podcast Recode Daily
• He’s active on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/teddyschleifer
• He says his reason for covering billionaires = 
  “just as reporters cover poverty in America, reporters must also cover and uncover wealth in America - offering the scrutiny that informs essential debates about income inequality, money in politics, and the role of private philanthropy. If we don’t have a common set of facts about how the wealthiest people in society spend their money or live their lives, then we are just shooting in the dark - arguing based on press releases, unfounded suspicions and our set-in-stone prior beliefs.”
• Teddy would love to hear from you with hot tips about badly behaved foundations or billionaires! Or anything else alarming in philanthropy. Hit him up.

References:

• During the pandemic, the number of billionaires spiked by 30%. Around the time of this podcast recording in Spring 2021, there is a record high of 2,755 billionaires. 86% of those billionaires are richer than they were a year ago. 
• We discussed the relative wealth of MacKenzie Scott who has given $5.8B (the single largest gift in the history of the US), but still gained in wealth in 2020.
• DAFs: As Teddy explains, a Donor Advised Fund, essentially serves as a place to set money aside for charity, “and the money then goes to charity later. It could be much later.” (it could also be never and keep power in the hands of family members.) There is over $140B sitting in Donor Advised Funds in the US. 
• Of the billionaires he covers, he recently spoke with who was relatively surprised to see how he could influence the presidential election with his donations
• This is where Silicon Valley is.
• Larry Page, is listed as one of the billionaires ($80-$100B Net Worth in a given day) that places the minimum 5% payout from his foundation, into a DAF, literally with no benefit to society at this time. He’s the worst case scenario. He’s a cofounder of Google.
• Teddy warns us that we have very little information about what billionaires are doing with their money, and that this lack of information is getting even worse!
• Effective Altruist Movement
• Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook “...is probably the most prominent billionaire philanthropist in effective altruism, and he's in his thirties, but he has a clear point of view on what he wants to do with the money and is working on it.”
• Here is the interview with young Billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried who talks about influencing the Biden election
• Stephanie Ellis-Smith of Philanthropy NW/The Giving Practice in Seattle, was listed as a philanthropy consultant who talks about “analysis paralysis”
• Jack Dorsey has a new charitable effort called Start Small, which is taking a lot of criticism because of its gifts to other celebrities.
• What Americans Really Think About Billionaires During The Pandemic is the Data for Progress poll Teddy mentions

We are self-funded. So. If you’d like to inspire this beautiful series through your financial contribution - we’ll take it on Patreon! 

Subscribe to this podcast to get the best of what we have to offer.I promise there are more incredible episodes on their way - every other Wednesday.

The Ethical Rainmaker is produced in Seattle, Washington by Kasmira Hall, and Isaac Kaplan-Woolner, and socials by Rachelle Pierce. Michelle Shireen Muri is the executive producer and this pod is sponsored by Freedom Conspiracy. 

“I have had an identity of being different from such an early age that it's never even occurred to me to try to fit in with those around me.” That’s how Adriane Armstrong, CEO of the nonprofit social enterprise Juma Ventures, explains why she chose a career in the nonprofit sector while her classmates were pursuing for-profit, high tech startups.
 
For many, going against the grain isn’t easy. In this interview, Adriane tells her story including the early experiences that motivated her to want to help others and the strategic, deliberate steps she took to build a career where she could do exactly this. It’s an inspiring story filled with practical advice that anyone can use, especially those considering working in the nonprofit sector.
 
Our long-time listeners know that every year around the holidays, we like to feature the career journey of someone making a difference in the lives of others. This year, we’re thrilled to have Adriane as our guest and to highlight the work of Juma Ventures. Juma operates businesses with the purpose of employing young people. Its mission is to break the cycle of poverty by paving the way to work, education, and financial capability for youth across America.

Meet the Guest
Adriane Gamble Armstrong has dedicated her career to the nonprofit sector, working on issues ranging from education and community development to public health and environmental justice. Common threads in her work have been the pursuit of social justice and serving underserved communities. Adriane found Juma as a volunteer in 2005, joined staff as Managing Director of Programs in 2011, and became CEO in 2017. Prior to her appointment to CEO, Adriane served for three years as COO, and oversaw the programs & partnerships, evaluation, finance, information technology, human resources and operations functions of the agency. Through Adriane’s efforts in team building, partnership development and strategic execution, Juma has grown from a $3M organization in three cities, to the current footprint of six markets serving more than 1,000 youth per year with a budget of $7M.

Adriane serves on the board of the Hidden Genius Project, and sits on the Council of Nonprofit Leaders for Charity Navigator. She previously served on the board of Huckleberry Youth Programs, and is an alumna of the American Express Leadership Academy. Prior to joining Juma, Adriane managed a housing and social services program for youth aging out of foster care with Local Initiatives Support Corporation. Adriane holds an MBA with an emphasis in nonprofit management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as an M.A. in social psychology and a B.A. in comparative studies in race and ethnicity from Stanford University. She resides in Oakland with her husband and two sons.

Links
If you’re interested in getting involved or donating to Juma Ventures, visit Juma.org. 

Links referenced in/relevant to this episode:

-New York Times story on the Alexandra Waterbury case: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/arts/dance/new-york-city-ballet-lawsuit.html
-BTS' performance of "IDOL" on "The Tonight Show": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXFkjMNXfpY
-Dance Data Project's index of ballet programming: https://www.dancedataproject.com/resources/2020-2021-season-updates
-The Washington Post article that broke the America's Cultural Treasures story: http://bway.ly/q331fg#https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/ford-foundation-160-million-grant-to-minority-arts-groups/2020/09/23/68093dfe-fd9f-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html
-New York Times' comprehensive summary of ACT: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/arts/ford-foundation-grants-people-of-color.html
-Siobhan Burke's review of Eiko Otake's "A Body in a Cemetery": https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/arts/dance/review-eiko-otake-a-body-in-a-cemetery.html
-Humans of New York Instagram page, with Tanqueray's series: https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/
-The "Tanqueray Trust" GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-tanqueray-trust
-More about Black burlesque from historian and performer Bebe Bardot: https://bebeblogger.tumblr.com/
-Heidi Duckler Dance website: https://heididuckler.org/
-Information about HDD's "The Quest": https://heididuckler.org/event/35th-anniversary-celebration-the-quest/

Join Abby and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker (@darrenwalker), as they discuss modern philanthropy: how it has evolved, how its success is measured, and who it benefits, on both sides of the ledger.

Links from this episode's conversation:

Darren Walker’s book, From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel Of Wealth
The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie
The Highlander Folk School
Monticello Is Done Avoiding Jefferson’s Relationship With Sally Hemings (New York Times)
NAACP Legal Defense Fund

To kick off season one, we break down the past, present, and future of a very particular kind of public art: the permanent monument. At the core of this episode is a conversation between Public Art Fund artist and Board Member Hank Willis Thomas and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, both of whom have thought deeply about the “monument” as history, ideology, and form as it relates to both their personal and professional lives. We’ll also hear about some of the activists and civic organizations shaping the future of monuments—and the women in whose honor New York City’s next monuments will be built. And everyday New Yorkers will join the conversation to weigh in about who and what they’d like to see commemorated permanently in our city.

Learn more about Darren Walker and The Ford Foundation for Social Justice: https://www.fordfoundation.org/

Teresita Fernández defies expectations. For more than 20 years, the Miami-born, Brooklyn-based artist has pushed boundaries, literally and figuratively, through her large-scale sculptures, mixed-media works, and high-profile public installations, such as the seemingly illusory “Fata Morgana” in New York City’s Madison Square Park in 2015 and cocoon-like “Autumn (... Nothing Personal)” at Harvard University last year. Her highly evocative work, at its heart, explores the many complex layers embedded in things—an idea that’s inspired, in part, from the traditional East Asian garden concept of shakkei, or “borrowed landscape,” something she discusses in-depth with Spencer Bailey on this episode of Time Sensitive.

Even if Fernández’s beautiful, affecting art can be enjoyed on the surface, to fully grasp her shrewd explorations of landscape and her exquisite experimentations with materials—from ceramics to charcoal to gold to graphite—viewers must look at them closely and read them deeply. If they do, they’re likely to come away with a greater, and certainly more real, understanding of the complicated colonial history of the Americas, as well as the sublime beauty inherent in so many of the natural wonders around us.

In the lead up to her mid-career retrospective, “Teresita Fernández: Elemental”—perhaps her most ambitious exhibition yet, opening at the Pérez Art Museum Miami this fall (Oct. 18, 2019, to Feb. 9, 2020)—the 51-year-old artist recently came by The Slowdown’s New York City headquarters to share stories about her life and work, from being raised by hardworking Cuban exile parents in Miami to studying for her M.F.A. at Virginia Commonwealth University in a then largely Confederate-proud Richmond. As this interview makes clear, Fernández’s life is as wonderfully layered and complex as her art.

If you’re white and middle class, you were probably raised thinking that discussing race was impolite. Color blindness was seen as a virtue. But in truth, color blindness is an insidious form of racial oppression, says Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. In this episode, Walker and Jeff Raikes, former CEO of the Gates Foundation, speak with Michele Norris, director of The Bridge at the Aspen Institute, about how color blindness affects social policy.

Find the Aspen Insight episode, "What Would MLK Say About Today's America" by clicking here. Discover more about the Aspen Institute program The Bridge. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to aspenideastogo@gmail.com.

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