Philanthropy Cannot Be Neutral.
This Moment Calls for Bold Action.
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Dear Colleagues and Friends,
The decisions being made right now, in the White House, in Congress, in statehouses, in courts, and in communities, will shape what is possible for children and families for a generation. Health coverage and food programs that families depend on are being deliberately cut. Rights that took decades to secure are being challenged and stripped away. Immigration enforcement is separating children and families and detaining families in unsafe conditions. Families are sliding back into poverty after public investment proved that poverty is a policy choice, not an inevitability.
The scope of the harm is overwhelming and the pace of it is dizzying. Despite this, people all over the country are refusing to be paralyzed by fear. Front line community organizations are responding to increasing needs while facing greater uncertainty themselves. Brave plaintiffs and their attorneys are defending their rights in court—and they are winning most of the time—preserving Head Start’s ability to carry out its mission and preserving birthright citizenship.
Our decisions matter, too. We can choose to get off the sidelines and to ask ourselves each day how we can do more. Many ECFC funders have not stayed on the sidelines. They have been putting more resources into the field, protecting grantee partners, building power in communities, and speaking out for those who are at risk. Sharing boundary-pushing work builds momentum and collective courage.
That is why we are introducing ECFC’s BOLD Framework for naming, connecting, and amplifying the ways philanthropy is responding to this moment with intention and courage.
BOLD calls philanthropy to:
B – Build collective power
Strengthen alignment across funders to advance coordinated, community-centered strategies.
O – Organize for systems change
Invest in policy, power building, and structural reform.
L – Leverage influence
Use philanthropic voice, networks, and capital to elevate community voices, shape narratives, and support equitable public decision-making.
D – Double down on equity
Center racial equity and justice explicitly in funding, messaging, and partnerships.
Each foundation is unique. Across our network, funders are taking a variety of bold actions that share common elements: a willingness to stretch beyond usual limits and to take on a measure of the risk that communities are already carrying.
Building Collective Power and Organizing for Systems Change: Funders the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment’s Child Care Power Building Table is investing in parent-led organizing so families themselves help shape child care policy and advocacy. Imaginable Futures is investing in 501(c)(4) organizations, as well as 501(c)(3) organizations, to accelerate the pace of policy change—and they are encouraging others to join them. The Birmingham Foundation helped incubate the Hilltop Empowerment Collective, a community-powered movement in their Pittsburgh neighborhood building civic infrastructure that families can rely on in moments of crisis and change. One partner, Hello Neighbor, fosters relationships with refugee and immigrant families to ensure that all families in the neighborhood can thrive.
Leveraging Influence: When HUD proposed a rule that could strip housing assistance from tens of thousands of mixed-status families, the Foundation for Child Development (FCD) authored public comments that put philanthropy’s voice on the public record on behalf of children and families. ECFC and members including the CARE Fund, the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, and the LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment co-signed these public comments.
Doubling Down on Equity: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Truth, Repair and Transformation process is doing something rare: publicly reckoning with its own history, commissioning an external examination of past harms, and committing to change how it funds, governs, and operates as a result.
Perigee Fund’s Families at the HEART initiative invests in community-developed, culturally rooted mental health models while simultaneously building the organizational resilience and leadership that sustains them.
Finally, funders are finding ways to invest more and give big, which is sorely needed now. Ballmer Group is partnering with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission in the Washington Family Housing Fund to build more than 10,000 affordable homes for families. Others, like Headwaters Foundation and FCD, signed the Level Up Pledge, committing to increase their grantmaking.
These demonstrations of leadership give us hope and energy. As leaders of a philanthropic community, our job is to tap into that energy to catalyze more money and allyship for justice for families.
Still, we can do more. Look at your current funding portfolio and identify where you can increase flexibility, provide long-term general operating funding, and increase giving. Use your voice or platform to amplify communities’ needs. Join colleagues to build something together rather than separately.
If you are already doing these things, we appreciate you for responding to this moment with purpose. We want to hear more about what is working well.
We will be lifting examples of BOLD actions from across the ECFC community throughout the year. Share yours here.
The challenges facing children and families right now are not abstract. They are happening to real children right now, because of decisions made by people with power. Each of us has power too. The question is how we will use it.
Shannon L. Rudisill Keami Harris
Executive Director Chief of Equity & Strategy
Early Childhood Funders Collaborative Early Childhood Funders Collaborative