A new report from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation highlights how community foundations can use the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to help respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and advance racial equity in the communities they serve.

In 2015, 193 members of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a commitment to and blueprint for a sustainable future. The SDGs were created as a framework for sustainable community development to address inequities. SDGs specifically address issues such as poverty, hunger, environmental preservation, justice and inclusion, among others.

The Mott Foundation’s report: “How the Sustainable Development Goals Can Help Community Foundations Respond to COVID-19 and Advance Racial Equity” connects community foundations’ work with the SDG framework and shows how community foundations can work to advance the 190 SDG indicators that are relevant in the U.S.

When using the SDG framework to address the COVID-19 pandemic, the report highlights key questions that leaders of community foundations can explore to connect their work to the SDGs, including:

• What role can community foundations play in leading productive conversations about the consequences of inadequate health care coverage in the U.S.?

• How can community foundations address gaps in local health emergency preparedness?

• How can community foundations strengthen the social safety net, particularly nonprofit organizations working with the most vulnerable populations?

• How can the nonprofit sector be reimagined to protect against personal, social and economic destruction caused by local and national disasters?

The report notes how philanthropic response to COVID-19 was complicated due to the rise in calls for racial equity and justice after the murder of George Floyd. While crafted in 2015, the SDGs have an implicit theme of racial equity that community foundations can use to guide their strategies to create more just communities.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development notes that SDG indicators “should be disaggregated, where relevant, by income, sex, age, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability and geographic location, or other characteristics, in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.” This is to ensure that SDGs are met in ways that promote equity and justice throughout communities. The report suggests that community foundations identify indicators that can be broken down by specific subgroups beyond race and ethnicity to ensure that community development and sustainability is pursued with equity at the forefront.

The Mott Foundation partnered with Community Foundations of Canada to create a guidebook and toolkit for community foundation staff, leaders and board members to align their work to the SDGs. The toolkit provides options for community foundations to use apply the SDG framework within their own communities to ensure sustainability and equity for future generations.

Mott Foundation’s president and CEO, Ridgway White, a CMF trustee, is also a co-chair of the Michigan Philanthropy COVID-19 Working Group, an ad hoc committee of CMF, composed of 25 foundation leaders and partners collaborating to help connect, strengthen and mobilize the Michigan community of philanthropy in advancing collective responses to the short- and long-term challenges of the pandemic. Central in their planning and efforts has been a recognition of the inequities that have been exacerbated during this crisis among Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC).

Want more?

Read the Mott Foundation’s report.

View the SDG Community Foundation Guidebook and Toolkit.

The Sustainable Development Goals: A Framework for Equity was a session featured at CMF’s 48^th Annual Conference. Conference registrants can access the session recording in the conference platform’s Resource Center.

Learn more about the Michigan Philanthropy COVID-19 Working Group.