Communities
A Blog for and about Funders Focused on Health and the Environment
Dana Kawaoka-Chen, executive director of the Justice Funders, encourages founders to adopt regenerative practices that realize a new vision of philanthropy that redistributes wealth, democratizes power and shifts economic control to communities.
What more – or different – actions can funders and a funder group take to build multiracial majorities strong enough to protect environmental health and justice? HEFN dove into this question through both learning and culture change at its 2018 Annual Meeting...
Shorey Myers, Executive Director of the Jenifer Altman Foundation and HEFN Steering Committee member, extends a personal invitation to funders to attend this year's HEFN Annual Meeting from Nov. 28-30 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to strategize, network and be...
With our democracy and climate in crisis, what if all of philanthropy channeled more of its investment gains into deeper support for grant making? Scott Fitzmorris, board chair of the Wallace Global Fund, and Ellen Dorsey, executive director, explain why the...
What does the future look like? Michael Lerner, President of the Jenifer Altman Foundation and the Barbara Smith Fund, and HEFN co-founder, reflects upon seeking the path to courage in the face of prospects for global and regional collapse and resilience in...
Climate change is impacting many natural and human systems that are critical for supporting human health such as agriculture, infrastructure, and the economy. Nearly eighty funders from different fields convened in Detroit, Michigan, to explore these...
In practice, the quality of drinking water varies greatly depending on where the water comes from and what system delivers it. In essence, where a person lives in the U.S. can define whether the water that he or she receives is clean and safe. In fact,...
In these disruptive times, it’s not always easy to know where the right balance is between staying a course and responding to changing realities, or between focusing on “our issues” and forging alliances across issues when there are so many challenges around...
The question I ask daily is, of these good people with kindness in their hearts, are there more outspoken than silent ones? Are there more activated people than passive ones? Are there more brave ones than cowards?
Over the past several years, the Environment & Health Program at The Heinz Endowments has prioritized work to help the Pittsburgh region become truly livable. But it is hard to imagine how a city with dirty air, a notably toxic built environment, safe...
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Who We Are
Development and Operations Director
Kojo Spencer has nearly two decades of development experience specializing in proposal writing, grants and relationship management, and strategic development for national, regional and community-based organizations.