Catalytic Change: Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment

The Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) developed the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment following ARC’s 2004 publication of Short Changed: Foundation Giving in Communities of Color. That report documented, as recent reports have confirmed, decreasing grantmaking with clear racial justice impacts, as well as decreasing support for organizations led by people of color. As foundation executives grapple with the meaning of racial disparities in philanthropy and how to remedy them, we hope that the ARC-PRE assessment will help all of us understand how foundations can advance racial equity more effectively.

The purpose of this report is to share lessons learned from piloting a Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment developed by the Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) with two different foundations—the Consumer Health Foundation, a private foundation in Washington, DC; and the Barr Foundation, a family foundation in Boston, Massachusetts.