August Member Meeting: Trauma-aware Grantmaking: Caring for our partners, caring for ourselves

In a landscape marked by repeated shocks and threats — from immigration raids and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks, to “DEI” prohibitions and drastic cuts to vital services — the toll on our communities and partner nonprofits is immense. Many grantmakers are from those communities ourselves, and we have developed deep, longstanding personal relationships with organizational and community leaders. This challenging environment demands that we take a conscious and compassionate approach to philanthropy, both with our grantees and toward ourselves.

Join your fellow grantmakers for our August member meeting, a vital peer-to-peer conversation dedicated to exploring trauma-aware grantmaking. We will delve into the distinct yet interconnected experiences of trauma in our sector: both the immediate trauma affecting our community partners on the frontlines, and the secondhand trauma felt by grantmaking professionals.

This session will explore how we can be present with our grantees in their own time of difficulty, while also addressing the heart-level and embodied impact on us. We will candidly discuss the moral injury that may arise from witnessing hardship while also having to navigate institutional constraints limiting our ability to fully respond to the communities from which many of us come.

This confidential peer conversation is an opportunity to resource ourselves and support one another toward meaningful action in our own contexts. Together, we will ask: How are we holding pain and supporting resilience? What does a trauma-informed site visit or grantee communication look like? And what can we do as individuals and a funder community to create more personal resourcing and support? By sharing our own practical, strengths-based strategies with one another, we will explore how we can build a grantmaking practice that is healing and sustainable for everyone.

Please RSVP below to reserve your spot! As a “connecting” meeting, this member meeting will be held completely in person at COPE, 1505 W Highland Ave Suite 1, San Bernardino, CA 92411.