Cheers to spring growth!
Greetings Kindle fam,
Nowruz mubarak. We are excited to share fresh energy and new branches of growth to come in what could be our busiest year yet: fun office shakeups including new team members, a bumping slate of programs, aaaand a new media experiment celebrating the amazing disruptors in our field. It’s shaping up to be a dynamic year, and we’re grateful to share the journey with you.
Office growth!
Team shakeup
We are happy to welcome two new faces to the team…
Sharon is a practitioner of facilitation, training, organizing, direct action and leadership development with over 25 years of experience. She is an indigenous, fat mother and propagator of racial and social justice strategies whose family is from Kuskatan (El Salvador).
Sara is a passionate feminist, writer, and generalist with over 15 years of experience in communication, management, human resources, and development across various sectors, including non-profit, government, fashion, and tech.
Click here to read their full bios. We are excited to work with them!
Title shakeup
Arianne Shaffer (the heart, backbone, and funny bone of Kindle Project) is taking on still more this year in her new role as Director of Programs: facilitating participatory grantmaking circles, innovating power-sharing work with awesome donors and community-based decision-makers, and generally leading with grace, style, smarts, and warmth.
Fiscal sponsor shakeup
We wrapped our longtime relationship with Common Counsel Foundation and cozied up to Amalgamated Foundation as our new fiscal sponsor. Amalgamated manages donor advised funds and pooled funds that in 2022 granted more than $160 million to organizations at the frontlines of social change, including 60% to BIPOC-led organizations, and we’re happy to be working with them. Nothing much changes; you can still support us. Please make sure to indicate that your donation is for Kindle Project Fund! (Speaking of… instead of burning a hole in your pocket, why not let your spare cash kindle radical change through grassroots funds like these?)
Program growth!
This year we are running a record number of programs in a variety of areas—all exploring new structures for moving money to frontline groups while simultaneously confronting structural inequalities. Many programs you know from previous years continue to thrive, such as the Indigenous Women’s Flow Fund. Others are brand spanking new, such as Crossing Divides and Reseed, and we’re psyched to tell you all about how they work, who they supported, and how you can get involved. Stay tuned throughout 2023 for updates in our newsletter, Nexus, and social media!
Podcast!
Considering how to encourage more people to rethink philanthropy and radicalize their giving, we looked around (in vain) for platforms that educate, illuminate, and uplift our field. Then it hit: we need to make that! So we’re cooking up a podcast that will be inspiring, challenging, and fun—while uplifting badass changemakers and weirdos who are disrupting philanthropy for good. As we develop this show, we would love to hear from you… Use this form to drop a line with ideas for show topics, interview guests, or questions for grantmakers, grantees, or other folks in the field.
And… Well, that’s all for now. Phew. We’ve got a lot on our plate, but we are eager to dig into all the deliciousness. So pull up a chair, tuck in your bib and grab a fork—we are happy to have you at our table, even if this metaphor has gotten insufferably corny.
Happy spring!