Capital Collaborative

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau talks with self-described ‘unemployed rabble rouser’, Vu Le of NonprofitAF.com & Community Centric Fundraising, to discuss the practicalities of ceding power, his crappy-funding hashtag, and why it’s sometimes worth it for him to burn bridges with funders.

In our first episode, Capital Collaborative Senior Advisors Kristi Kimball and Jessamyn Shams-Lau are joined by Armando Castellano – Board Chair of the Donors of Color Network and Trustee of the Castellano Family Foundation – for a discussion about the “Blueprint for Change” and the the call-to-action that the Castellano Family Foundation issued to the philanthropic community to step up its support for Latinx organizations and leaders.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Funder In Residence, Jessamyn Shams-Lau, catches up with Efraín to discuss the patriarchy, how it has shaped philanthropy, and what a different way of doing and being might look like.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau talks with Dr. Laura Gerald – President of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust – a North Carolina funder that took the initiative to hire an independent researcher to study the foundation’s history, including the history of how their White founders benefited from various forms of exploitation of Black people and communities. They discuss what that process was like for Dr. Gerald to lead, and her advice for other foundation Executive Directors and CEOs who might want to embark on such a process.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau sits down with John Kania & Katherine Milligan of the Collective Change Lab to discuss the topic of trauma, how it shows up in philanthropy, how to integrate collective healing practices into the work of systems change, and how to get the conversation started.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau is joined by Dahlia Joseph of Village Capital and Bianca St. Louis of Black Innovation Alliance to discuss their joint project “Resource,” why funding entrepreneur support organizations is just as important as funding entrepreneurs directly, mistakes funders make, and what funders can do to move philanthropy toward a place of demonstrated racial equity and justice.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Funder In Residence, Jessamyn Shams-Lau talks with Nina Blackwell – former Executive Director of Firelight Foundation – to share what it’s like to deliberately cede your own white-held space as a foundation Executive Director, where her decision to do so came from, and her advice for other white foundation Executive Directors.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Funder In Residence, Jessamyn Shams-Lau, talks with Lisa Flick Wilson and Staci Walker from the Radical Optimist Collective to discuss their experiences working with philanthropy teams on racial justice learning, how that is different and similar to working with teams in other industries, and how their approach as a collective differs from typical org white supremacy cultural norms.

In this episode, we’ll dive deep into Stephanie’s experience disrupting the private wealth industry through a reparative approach and exploring strategies for moving wealthy folks towards racial justice learning and wealth redistribution.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau and Co.act Detroit’s Executive Director Allandra Bulger discuss whether it’s possible to bring funders and nonprofits together for honest, vulnerable, unfiltered conversations, and what Black and Brown nonprofit leaders really want and need when it comes to capacity building.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Raikes Foundation Executive Director Dennis Quirin talks about when it IS and when it ISN’T your money in philanthropy, the missing collective identity of philanthropy, and whether philanthropy is in the game to actually win–or not.’

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Social Venture Partners CEO Sudha Nandagopal discusses what ‘democratizing power’ actually means, latent pockets of power in philanthropy, and her unusual and bold LinkedIn profile.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau talks with Chicago Beyond’s Shruti Jayaraman, to discuss trauma-informed funding, how philanthropy can actually be grounded in justice, and the paradox of envisioning equity within an inequitable system.

In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Senior Advisor Jessamyn Shams-Lau talks with none other than Camelback Ventures’ very own Founder/CEO Aaron Walker to discuss the challenges unique to organizations doing anti-racism work and why we still need accelerators and entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) that serve leaders of color while pushing towards a more just funding landscape.