Marguerite Casey Foundation

Thank you National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP) for publishing this timely article on humane investing! And a huge shout out to Daniel Gould, CFA, CAIA—MCF's Vice President of Investments and Operations—for your leadership in ensuring our endowment aligns with our vision for a better world, and for sharing these powerful lessons far and wide.

As we mark the anniversaries of landmark federal investments like the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the impact on everyday Americans is undeniable. Justin Maxson and Sarah Jaynes highlight exactly what happens when our taxes—the people’s money—work for us all. Take, for instance, a small business owner in southwest Michigan who tapped into IRA funds to expand his solar arrays, grow his business, and create local jobs. Or the Cocopah Tribe in Southwest Arizona, which used BIL funds to build a solar farm on a closed landfill, a move that will save them over $14 million in the next 30 years. These stories are the embodiment of MCF’s #PublicDollarsForPublicGood (PDPG) initiative, which strives to ensure that public funding reaches working people, strengthening our economy from the ground up. That’s why I'm proud Marguerite Casey Foundation's PDPG initiative supports Sarah and Justin’s work. No matter who’s in the White House come January, these critical federal investments must keep flowing to those who need them most. As Sarah and Justin, leaders of the Heartland Fund and BuildUS, write in this op-ed in The 'Gander Newsroom, "We urge our partners in philanthropy, advocacy, and civic engagement to join us in maximizing these federal investments through a robust, nonpartisan effort." I strongly encourage others in our sector to back this essential work. Let’s make sure public dollars truly work for the public good.

We're thrilled to see MCF #PublicDollarsForPublicGood (PDPG) grant recipient Smart Cities Research Lab at Trinity College-Hartford getting love and recognition for their groundbreaking work! Led by 2022 MCF Freedom Scholar Dr. Davarian Baldwin, Smart Cities Research Lab researches and consults on best practices for building equitable urban communities nationwide. The lab assists organizers in ensuring that universities and other nonprofits support just land use policies, affordable housing mandates, accessible health care practices, campus police abolition, and more, for the benefit of the communities in which they’re situated. Housed at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and with support from MCF’s PDPG funding, Smart Cities Research Lab is leading a series of Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) campaigns that push nonprofits—especially colleges and universities—to "pay their fair share" of what should be public dollars back into struggling municipal budgets in consideration of their tax-exempt endowments and property holdings, and their growing physical footprint in underserved neighborhoods. Thanks to the work of Dr. Baldwin and the Smart Cities Research Lab team, we've already seen significant victories, including Yale University's $52 million pledge to New Haven. It's a powerful example of the lab’s efforts to reroute public dollars back to the communities that need them most. 💪

⏯ Catch our latest video from the #MCFSummerSchool series with Secretary Julián Castro, CEO of the Latino Community Foundation; Neidi Dominguez Zamorano, founding executive director of Organized Power In Numbers; and Dr. K. Sabeel Rahman, law professor at Cornell Law School.

Have you heard about the nation's first debtors' union, Debt Collective? This groundbreaking MCF #PublicDollarsForPublicGood grant recipient has led efforts to successfully abolish $180 billion in student, medical, and carceral debt and mobilized nationwide protests, helping tens of thousands of tenants fight their often debt-based evictions. Debt Collective is redefining the fight for economic justice.💪 Discover how debtors, in solidarity with labor and tenants' unions, are transforming debt from a burden into a powerful tool for change. This is more than a movement—it's a revolution in how we understand debt and collective power. Read the full article In These Times by Astra Taylor and Hannah Appel and learn about the vision for a debt-free future!

"You can't pay your bills. You're afraid of getting fired. You can't sleep at night because of your climate anxiety. . . . We all need a bit of self-care, but you can't meditate your way out of this crisis. This is absolutely a structural, social, and political phenomenon. And that means that we can only address it through collective structural solutions.” —Astra Taylor, author of “The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart” Marguerite Casey Foundation and Seattle Arts & Lectures are proud to present an MCF Book Club event in honor of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart, by Astra Taylor. I will be moderating this virtual event featuring author Astra Taylor, cofounder of the Debt Collective, along with Sarah Leonard, editor in chief of Lux magazine, and Maximillian Alvarez, editor in chief of The Real News Network. Join the conversation as our esteemed panelists explore how insecurity is a core product of the capitalist system, with a long, brutal history of creating profits for a small ruling class at the expense of everyone else. As part of our effort to help get this book into as many hands as possible, MCF is offering a FREE copy of “The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart” to the first 300 folks who register to attend the Book Club event—while supplies last. #MCFBookClub: Readings for a Liberated Future is proud to host this event in partnership with Seattle Arts and Lectures. “The Age of Insecurity” was published by the House of Anansi Press. Sign up at the link in the comments ⬇️

Ever wondered how power dynamics shape impact investing? Daniel Gould, CFA, CAIA from the Marguerite Casey Foundation had this sage advice for our #VCI fellows: "When we are looking at an impact manager, a power analysis is very important to us. Do you understand who holds power in the domain you're operating in? Who holds power along that threshold? How are you thinking internally about your own culture and those power dynamics? All of these factors are taken into consideration during our decision-making process." Founded in 2001, Marguerite Casey Foundation - a partner and funder of VC Include - is a trailblazer in promoting economic justice and has disbursed more than $615 million in grants and initiatives toward building a just economy and fully realized democracy. As VP of Investments and Operations, Dan has been instrumental in aligning MCF's financial strategy with its mission to foster racial equity and justice. Thank you, Dan, for challenging our fellows to critically assess power and culture in their work! #emergingmanagers #dei #diversityandinclusion #genderequality #impactinvesting #venturecapital #privateequity #alternateinvestments #DiversityInVC #ImpactinAction #esg #fundmanagers #equity #leadership #sageadvice

Congratulations to Ian S. Fuller, co-founder and CEO of Westfuller Advisors and esteemed Marguerite Casey Foundation board chair, on Westfuller being ranked 🏆 NUMBER 1️⃣ registered investment advisor (RIA) by USA TODAY and market research firm Statista. The ranking, published this week in USA Today, examined the best 500 RIAs and found our friends at Westfuller ranked TOP based on the growth of their assets under management over the short and long term and the number of recommendations they received from clients and peers. Congratulations again on being the very best of the best!

Recently, I got to sit down with Jean Guerrero and Dr. Daniel HoSang for an important conversation on the “Framers of Fascism: Knowing the Protagonists on the Right” as part of Marguerite Casey Foundation Summer School. Our conversation aimed to give our beloved MCF community a chance to explore how key figures responsible for architecting the right’s contemporary political formation have sought to achieve their fascist vision, *and importantly,* to understand what we can do to uproot their practices of radicalization. I’m eager to share this video highlighting some of the learning from our live webinar because I believe we urgently need to develop a common language around the threats our communities and organizations are facing from fascist forces. The MCF Summer School “Framers of Fascism” webinar ranged from pinpointing the right’s shifting ideological pillars to uncovering its diverse recruiting strategies to naming the ways they’re actively chipping away at the fundamental functions of government. A main takeaway is that the right is watching us closely, and we should watch them closely too. The ideological blueprint for the right’s resurgence over the last eight years is both complex and frightening, and if we are serious about contesting their political agenda we must understand how their protagonists plan, plot, and maneuver. The good news is that the repressive and divisive structures the right has worked so hard to create can be disassembled, but not without a plan. And a plan is not possible without an analysis of what they’re up to. By understanding the political terrain they’ve built, we can reject it and work to build a future our communities and our planet deserve. Please watch, like, comment on, and share this video to help spread the word. And join me for the next live MCF Summer School webinar by signing up at the link in the comments.

excited to be in this conversation about "Disclose and Divest" and how it opens up a larger analysis of the Higher Ed political economy and how to move forward with justice at the center thank you Marguerite Casey Foundation !