This episode offers spotlights how one foundation has made an ongoing commitment to supporting “healing justice” as a major part of its grantmaking. We're pleased to speak with Desiree Flores, Executive Director of the General Service Foundation.
As they say on the Foundation's website, "Social justice work can be affirming, invigorating, and nourishing. But for leaders in the struggle, the work can also be rife with conflict, overwork, isolation, trauma, and oppression...we have heard movement leaders struggling increasingly with burnout and exhaustion. At GSF, we’ve been exploring how we, as funders, can support movements in creating space to cultivate resilience, wholeness, and well-being among the individuals and organizations that comprise our movements."
Toward that end, since 2018 General Service Foundation has funded healing justice work in two ways:
- Supporting organizations that offer healing and resilience services and trainings to social justice leaders and organizations, and
- Supporting the Foundation's grant partners (aka grantees) with healing justice stipends.
This is the third in our three-episode series called "How Funders Can Support Nonprofit Workers in the Age of Burnout." You can listen to the series in this Spotify Playlist. You can also catch all these episodes here on our website or on our podcast feed (links to the feed are below Desiree's bio).
This episode and the series it's part of are based on Fund the People's presentation at the Center for Effective Philanthropy Conference in Fall of 2023. Our session focused on how funders can support nonprofit workers in the age of burnout. Thanks again to CEP for including us in the conference.
Resources
General Service Foundation's Healing Justice grants program
"Funding Resilience, Safety, and Joy," a General Service Foundation
blog post
General Service Foundation website
General Service Foundation on LinkedIn
Playlist of Podcast Episodes on Nonprofit Burnout
Bio
Desiree Flores brings 20 years of social justice grant making and program development experience funding social justice movement building at the local, state, and national levels. She was previously the Program Director of U.S. Social Justice at the Arcus Foundation, a global LGBTQ philanthropy, supporting policy and culture change determined by LGBTQ people pushed to the margins. Earlier in her career, she served as Director of Board Affairs at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and as a longtime program officer at the Ms. Foundation for Women supporting more powerful gender and racial justice movements. Desiree earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Season 6 is sponsored by Loftis Partners. They've launched the Pay Equity Collective, a peer learning experience that provides capacity building, strategic resources, and a supportive community for nonprofits seeking pathways to pay equity. Visit payequitycollective.com to learn more! Loftis Partners – Empowering organizations and advancing equity, one collective step at a time!