Inspiring collective action against inequality
Founders Pledge community resources
Founders Pledge community resources
I became a member of Founders Pledge in January 2017 by pledging 20% of my exit proceeds from one of my startup investments to Yari Foundation. I’ve since had the privilege of helping Yari further by coordinating their expansion to Vancouver, BC.
What is Founders Pledge?
We are a global community of entrepreneurs. Together, we’re finding and funding solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. We champion evidence-led and thoughtful approaches to impact.
By equipping members with charity research, streamlined giving infrastructure, and a global network of experts to learn from, members are empowered to bring their resources to the global problem solving table.
Collective action against inequality
Founders Pledge has put together excellent resources to inspire our community’s collective thinking and action. I’d like to share these with you and invite you to share what you have found helpful which we can add to this list for our community.
1. Become informed
Learn about systemic racism in the US
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America — Explores how de jure segregation―the laws and policies of local, state and federal governments―promoted discriminatory patterns which continue to impact communities today.
The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide — Looks at how government policy helped create, and can help tackle, racial disparities in wealth in the United States.
Campaign Zero — Integrates recommendations from communities, research organizations and President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing, into policies which aim to protect and preserve life.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness — Explores race’s influence on the application of criminal justice in the U.S.
Learn about racial equity and philanthropy
Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table — Recent research by Echoing Green and Bridgespan that looks at the role of race in problems philanthropists address, and the significance of race when it comes to how philanthropists identify leaders and find solutions.
From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth — Ford Foundation President Darren Walker convenes important voices in philanthropy to ask, and offer answers to, a vital question: If there’s a continuum between generosity and justice, how do we push our work closer to the latter?
Race, Equity, and Unavoidable Challenges for Philanthropy — Phil Buchanan, President of the Center for Effective Philanthropy, discusses how black Americans and Native Americans are suffering disproportionately from COVID-19 and how to address this inequity.
2. Tools for personal transformation
How white parents can use media to raise anti-racist kids — A resource from Common Sense Media for parents seeking to educate their children on race and anti-racism.
How to be an Anti-racist — Ibram Kendi’s book asks us to think about what an anti-racist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.
Read and contribute to crowdsourced resources — two we’ve found are the Antiracist Allyship Starter Pack from Tatum Dorrell, Matthew Herndon and Jourdan Dorrell, and Anti-Racism for Beginners from Melyssa Griffin.
3. Use your voice and support mass organising
Funding Social Movements: How mass protest makes an impact — A report by Anyi Institute supported by our friends at Open Philanthropy Project looks at how to measure the impact of mass protest movements.
How to Protest Safely During a Pandemic — An article in VICE with tips for protesting safely during the pandemic.
Philanthropists Must Invest in an Ecology of Change: How a “social movement ecology” framework lent new insights into substantially reducing incarceration in the United States — An article in SSIR on a movement-approach to criminal justice reform from Chloe Cockburn who leads Open Philanthropy Project’s strategy for investing in criminal justice policy.
Support protestors and the volunteer clean-up effort in your community.
4. Vote, advocate and engage in local and state politics
How to Make this Moment the Turning Point for Real Change — President Barack Obama’s reflections on influencing change through protest and engagement in local and state politics.
New Era of Public Safety: An Advocacy Toolkit for Fair, Safe, and Effective Community Policing — A toolkit for advocacy on safe policing created by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and supported by the Google Foundation.
Toward a Just Economy: How a Universal Basic Income Can Curb Racial Inequality — An issue brief from the Roosevelt Institute exploring the role of guaranteed income in combating racial wealth inequalities.
Finally, I’d like to share a great piece of actionable advice from Barack Obama taken from this post:
The bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform.
At times, I have wondered if the political system is broken and participating in it is a waste of time, but the above quote reminded me of the importance of every action, or inaction, in determining the fate of our society and global community.
Thanks to Founders Pledge and Danielle Gram for sending me the resources and helping to inspire collective action against inequality.
As a firm believer in abundance and entrepreneurship, I strongly advocate global thinking when partnering with startups. In the current environment, I am certain that entrepreneurship and global thinking are the only positive forces for change. May the world embrace entrepreneurship and global thinking with open arms once again.