FOR FUNDERS
Funder Tools and Resources
As funders, it is imperative that we both resource efforts towards Black disabled liberation and implement disability justice principles in our own policies and practices. We are proud to uplift the following resources to support our funders colleagues in this work:
Disability Justice: An Audit Tool
“Disability Justice: An Audit Tool,” written by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and envisioned by Stacey Park Milbern and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, is aimed at helping Black, Indigenous and POC-led organizations (that are not primarily focused around disability) examine where they’re at in practicing disability justice, and where they want to learn and grow. It includes questions for self-assessment, links to access tools, organizational stories and more.
A Guide to Document Accessibility
Digital downloads are a common way for foundations and organizations to share
knowledge and resources. Check out the Disability & Philanthropy Forum’s guide to learn about the steps you can take to make your download more accessible to people with disabilities.
Creating Accessible Resources
Creating and sharing resources–Word documents, PDFs, slides, etc.–is a key part of how foundations and organizations communicate about their efforts. Check out the Disability & Philanthropy Forum’s guide to understand how to implement accessibility in your development and design processes.
How to Make Accessible, Inclusive Self-Introduction
The process of introductions during group gatherings are an important way to ensure a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible experience for all. This article by the Disability & Philanthropy Forum outlines what information to share in your self-introduction.
Creating Accessible Videos: A Brief Guide
This guide developed by Rooted in Rights briefly covers each component of an accessible video, explaining why it’s essential, how it can be created, best practices in utilizing it, and where to find additional information.
Free Audit Templates
These templates, developed by radical access mapping project, provide a means with which to audit spaces, venues, and locations for accessibility.
Creating Transformative Online Spaces
This resource from PeoplesHub offers guidance on how organizations can shift programming and work to the digital space, while also maintaining a sense of connection through our shared humanity.
We believe that participatory processes are key to shifting power, which is necessary for collective liberation, including Black disabled liberation, and suggest the following tools to learn more:
What does it look like to engage and center our grantee partners in our evaluation methods?
How can philanthropy align its approach to evaluation with how organizers measure and track their own progress? How can the philanthropic sector utilize reporting processes to better understand what our grantee partners need to thrive? The Movement-Defined Learning Project, co-stewarded by Borealis Philanthropy’s Black Led Movement Fund and Communities Transforming Policing Fund, is a participatory learning and evaluation project designed to support communities in defining their own impact and success and reflect back their wisdom to resource and cultivate a culture of learning.
Ths self-assessment tool, co-created by Diana Samarasan and Katy Love, is for grantmaking foundations to gauge where they currently are in terms of participatory practice across all areas of work and operations. (Interested in learning more about Borealis Funds’ journey with participatory grantmaking? Check out Beyond Dragonhood: Funding Liberated Futures through Participatory Grantmaking; Participatory Grantmaking: Building Power Through BIPOC Leadership; and Participatory Grantmaking Is Your Future.
Additional Relevant Tools and Resources
We’ve gathered a number of additional resources from across the Black disabled liberation ecosystem here, and are honored to put them forward for your mulling:
Disability Justice 101
- Working Definition of Ableism (Talila Lewis)
- 10 Principles of Disability Justice (Sins Invalid)
- Skin, Tooth, and Bone: A Disability Justice Primer (Sins Invalid)
- Ableist Language (Sins Invalid) * Note: This resource is behind a paywall.
Articles, Videos, and Reports About and For Philanthropy
- Time for Philanthropy to Confront Ableism (SSIR)
- Focus on disability rights growing, but intersectional support lags (Philanthropy News Digest)
- How Ableism Shows Up in Philanthropy (Disability & Philanthropy Forum)
- We Need More Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy (Exponent Philanthropy)
- Simple Ways for Philanthropy to Move Towards Greater Disability Inclusion (PEAK Grantmaking)
- Race and Disability: A New Reckoning (Disability & Philanthropy Forum)
- Disability Justice & Philanthropy: A Message to Funders (Ford Foundation)
- Real Equity Means Including People With Disabilities in Philanthropy (The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
- There Is No Justice That Neglects Disability (SSIR)
- 2022 Summit: Using An Anti Racist Lens to Dismantle Ableism (Upswell)