The Kalamazoo Community Foundation (KZCF) has been on its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) journey since the early 2000s, formally declaring the community foundation as an anti-racism organization in 2010 and establishing DEI as a core value. Since that time KZCF has also named anti-racism as a core value, deepening their understanding of the impacts of structural racism both within the institution and in the community as a whole. 

The community foundation shared that in 2018 KZCF developed the Anti-Racism Transformation Team (ARTT) with a goal to transform the institution by creating strategies to dismantle racism, develop an identity based on anti-racist values and redesign structures to be more accountable to people of color and other oppressed groups.

The team is composed of approximately 10 to 15 members of diverse identities, cultures, races, genders, religions, ages and life experience with members from within the community foundation and from the community.

As KZCF continues to expand its ARTT with community members and other stakeholders, Sandy Barry-Loken, senior community investment officer at KZCF and Elena Mireles-Hill, DEI director at KZCF, shared with CMF some key elements of this work.

CMF: What has this work looked like in action?

KZCF: We’re exploring ways to change policies and practices to center anti-racism values like love, creativity, joy, abundance and inclusion with support from staff inside the community foundation and partners from our community. These practices are being elevated in how we want to embody these values in our culture, how we develop a shared analysis around anti-racism between staff and board, how we reconcile our history as a white dominant culture institution steeped in power and privilege, how we navigate real issues of power in the organization and how we name and interrupt our socialization in upholding white supremacy culture in our institution. We understand our influential role in the community and we are in a strategic role to impact how vital resources are distributed to those hurt most when we let racism go unchallenged. We have an opportunity to dismantle barriers and rebuild our institution so that it can include all voices of our community. The ARTT partnership is our best strategy to deconstruct the structures and barriers deeply embedded in our organization.

CMF: What are some direct bodies of work that have been influenced?

KZCF: The majority of our board has completed anti-racism training and we’ve advanced conversations and a DEI curriculum for them as well. Our board also recently passed a board policy to prioritize individuals with diverse and oppressed identities as members of our board. ARTT has advocated for institutionalizing a DEI director and KZCF hired its first DEI director, Mireles-Hill, in March 2020. We’ve increased our spending policy to respond to dual pandemics and prioritize investments in Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities.

CMF: Please share some toplines from KZCF’s learning journey with ARTT.

KZCF: The work is really hard, messy and emotionally labor-intensive but necessary to build toward greater transformation from the inside out. External community members have been the “secret sauce” of the model in holding us accountable and deepening our analysis across the organization. Foundational to this work is relationship and trust-building and it takes time.

CMF: What would you want other organizations who are seeking to further their own journey in being an anti-racist organization to know?

KZCF: This is long, slow, complex work. It is critical to have support at the board and leadership levels. Naming and owning responsibility for historical harms requires humility, courage and integrity. This work requires deep relationships and a culture of trust. Truth-telling is emotional and yet healing. Begin with doing some shared anti-racism analysis training and building with a critical mass of people and key leaders across your institution. Awareness of the key issues at play and naming them is an important first step before proceeding to solve issues at hand. 

CMF: What are some of the initial steps organizations who are considering a model such as your ARTT journey may want to consider?

KZCF: Research your organization’s policies, practices and behaviors. Who do they center? Who inherently benefits? Who inherently is ignored, left out or made uncomfortable? Also, check out the Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multi-Cultural Institution and see where your organization falls. How can you move toward being fully inclusive? Talk to other organizations on the journey.

CMF: What’s next for the ARTT?

KZCF: In 2020, we were intentional about prioritizing the recruitment of more people of color staff and white community members. We’ve added some exceptional new voices and perspectives to shape our work and look forward to the next phase of our work. We’re focused on how we can increase investment in BIPOC individuals and institutions; be transparent about historical patterns of harm to advance healing; embedding anti-racism into our day-to-day practices, policies and structures; advancing and retaining people of color in our institution; and monitoring the capacity and wellness of our ARTT members to do this work over the long-term in sustainable ways.

Want more?

Learn more about KZCF’s ARTT.