Keecha Harris and Associates, Inc.’s Post

"When I learned about Dr. Dorceta Taylor’s research on the lack of racial diversity in environmental organizations, the data hit me like a ton of bricks. I’d never thought about the inequities in our field before, but seeing the numbers made me realize we were complicit as an environmental funder. I knew we needed to do better. Fortunately, a colleague knew Keecha Harris, DrPH, RD and recommended I speak with her. She instinctively knew how to approach someone like me who was at the very beginning of my racial equity process, providing hard data, research, and results that I could immediately understand. Initially, I wanted to keep our objective at the Foundation simple: diversify our staff. But to Keecha Harris and Associates’ credit, they ultimately helped us broaden our #racialequity progress far beyond where I thought we’d be able to go. KHA know how to push you out of your comfort zone just enough to overcome resistance and continuously create forward momentum. We’d reached a point in our work where we held a much more informed intellectual understanding of how communities of color are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation without adequate representation or access to power. As a white male in a position of power, I needed to hear some hard truths in order to operationalize racial equity in real, measurable ways. “Joe, you’re racist,” Keecha told me one day. “You have the money, and you’re not giving that money out. To have the power to make a difference but not to use it … that’s a form of racism.” She took a gamble in her bluntness but it worked. She was absolutely right. From there, we hatched a plan to use our foundation’s pool of discretionary dollars as ‘matching funds,’ incentivizing program directors to fund BIPOC-led environmental groups. The ‘matching funds’ strategy was so effective that it’s become a cornerstone of our foundation’s approach to #grantmaking. Each of our program directors now make racial equity a priority, with certain programs’ grantmaking consisting of upwards of 80% BIPOC-led organizations. We’ve also signed and met the Donors of Color Network Climate Funders Justice Pledge, which holds us accountable to committing at least 30% of our funding towards organizations that are run by, serving, and building power for communities of color. While we may have started our journey with KHA using data, Keecha also integrated interpersonal facilitation and external experiential learning components for a more holistic – and impactful – approach. She helped foster the right environment for important conversations to take place, giving us permission to not have all the answers while still striving to take responsibility and action in meaningful ways." - Joe Sciortino We are grateful to work with the Schmidt Family Foundation as they work to restore a balanced relationship between people and planet! #philanthropy #environmentaljustice