We started the year by onboarding our first ever COO - Kelli Murray. Join us in welcoming Kelli to the #CamelbackFam and get to know more about her in this Q+A.
“The [Capital Collaborative] gave me the safe space with a group of like-minded peers to learn and gain a richer understanding of power dynamics and the meaning of equity.”
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“The 2021 Capital Collaborative was such a transformative experience because it hit on so many components of my life: The personal (how race has played a role in where I sit in the world today), the familial (as a board member of my family’s foundation), the professional (as the Director of Philanthropy at a wealth management firm). While I expected I would learn a lot from others, I was not prepared for the ways in which the journeys of the participants – both funders and social entrepreneurs - would lead to huge shifts in my thinking and actions.”
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Here we go again! The Camelback Fellowship application is open October 1st - October 18th.
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“I am committed to building authentic, trustworthy relationships in the community and to ensuring that our grantmaking is reflective of our community. I will also aid in reducing the implicit bias that exists in many philanthropic processes and make certain that access and trust are at the core of our grantmaking. I don’t have all the answers and twenty years into my career I am finally ok with that. It is time to invest in the real experts in our community to see the shared goal of lasting, systemic change.”
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“The highlight of the Capital Collaborative for me was multifold. I was grateful for the history of white philanthropy. I was grateful for the foundational discussions of white supremacy. I learned to admit, regardless of what I thought I was, that I am a white supremacist by virtue of my white privilege.”
“I’m an optimist by nature. I rarely carry an umbrella when I leave my house because I’m sure it's not going to rain. I’m confident that I can get five things done in the 10 minutes I have before my next meeting. And even in the face of slow progress to fully support Black and Brown student success, I truly believe we can redesign our schools to be equitable places where all students experience love, connection, and support to pursue their goals and passions.”
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“Curiosity opens the door to conversations with folks at different points on their own racial equity journeys. Curiosity allows for interrogation of my own physical reactions and feelings. Curiosity makes receiving feedback – especially difficult feedback – easier. Curiosity builds relationships that move from transactional to trusting.”
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“The public health crisis in the last 15+ months has been a season of introspection. The pandemic has affirmed that the racial and economic disparities Camelback Fellows work to change is real. This period in time has also encouraged us to make sure that our mission and vision is aligned with our values and what we want to create in the world. Language is a powerful tool that can order your steps and be the light that others can follow.”
“It has been inspiring and uplifting to engage with other white leaders from across the country who are similarly interested in redistributing power and interrogating the way things are and have been done within the funding space. I’m grateful for the space to honestly reflect on failings and shortcomings, with an optimism that, as we know better, we can do better.”
“Since the murder of George Floyd, a summer of uprisings, and the continued police, state, and vigilante violence against Black, Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous people, I have observed white people acting from an increased sense of urgency to restore a sense of ourselves as good. This urgency is more about avoiding our own shame rather than shifting violent systems.”
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“The Capital Collaborative is a great opportunity to get real about how racism shows up in our lives and our work, and to stop avoiding the difficult conversations and feelings that often surface for white people when we talk about race. This is also a great way to build a network of other funders who want to be more explicitly antiracist.”
“Here it is - the opening of the 2021 Camelback Fellowship Application. With our search for the next generation of the #CamelbackFam in full swing, we wanted to fill you in on some updates. In the name of continuous evolution, we’re making a few changes (you know we like to keep it fresh!)”
“Creating systemic equity is the counterbalance to systemic racism, but it requires a retooling of the whole system, investment in people and communities, and new diverse leadership. Equity requires humbleness and prioritized spending beyond many well-meaning organizations working within the realm of anti-racism. Merely turning the pie so that people of color can now enjoy the portions white Americans have been accustomed to fails to recognize that the entire pie is poisonous.”
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“White people, whether intentional or not, have created and upheld the policies and systems that perpetuate racism. I don’t think those systems and policies can change until many more white people understand the specific ways they contribute to this. Acknowledging race, learning to talk about it, and understand the role we each play in reinforcing or actively breaking down systems of racism is really hard and emotional work. It’s been valuable to have a group of people grappling with these same issues to learn from and reaffirm that while this is difficult it is worth it.”
“When Camelback first started, our goal was to build a community of people committed to diversifying entrepreneurship. We know, though, that our work is about more than putting new faces to old problems. It is about how we can grow a community willing to use their assets to pass on a future that can work for everyone.”
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“I get to do really important work supporting Camelback Venture’s Capital Collaborative. For reference, Capital Collaborative is a program that works with mostly white grantmakers and social impact investors who are ready to critically examine and deepen their organization’s commitment to racial and gender equity — but may not know how. I’m proud of this and other work I do in service of building a more just and equitable world — but as a white father, partnered with a white wife, raising three white children I believe it is equally, and on some days more, impactful to be raising our children to be anti-racist.”
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“In 2021, we are looking forward to brighter days, growth, and innovation. We launched a new Capital Collaborative cohort; we are reconfiguring the Camelback Fellowship, and we are investing in our network of past Fellows by building a team to support them.”
What's your Equity Journey to an Antiracist Policy Agenda? Scott Jenkins is the Strategy Director of Lumina Foundation and proud Camelback Ventures Capital Collaborative supporter. Listen as he shares his personal equity narrative - a powerful story about learning and revolution.
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The makeup of my predominantly white world only started to change when I became conscious of it — and when I started to be more intentional about the relationships I was building both personally and professionally. My networks are more diverse now than ever, yet still predominantly white — and I acknowledge this will always be a work in progress. Why? Because for white Americans, our uninterrogated and unconscious ways of being are white. “Business as usual” defaults to white.
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