The power of families

Written by: Kristina ("Yna") C. Moore

Date: October 03, 2018

Luz Vega-Marquis, chief executive of Marguerite Casey Foundation, talks about how philanthropy can support low-income families to build powerful networks and craft policy solutions that reduce poverty in the U.S.

Head of Luz Vega-Marquis, Marguerite Casey FoundationMarguerite Casey Foundation has been building the power of poor and low-income families since 2001. In “The Power of Families,” the foundation’s president and CEO, Luz Vega-Marquis shares some key lessons from the successes of its grantee partners on frontline efforts that cut across policy issues, race, gender, economics and other “dividing lines.”

She identifies 5 things that grantmakers can do now to meaningfully engage families as “units of change” in their own work to move equity and justice forward in communities and issues they care about.

The Power of Families” is part of the new Power in Philanthropy series on The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) blog in collaboration with NCRP. Contributors from NCRP and nonprofit and philanthropic leaders explore popular concepts in philanthropy – such as risk, capacity building, and public leadership – through the lens of power and equitable outcomes.

Power in Philanthropy is based on NCRP’s “Power Moves: Your essential philanthropy assessment guide for equity and justice.”

Related article:

Power, Privilege, and Effectiveness: Are Funders Connecting the Dots?

by Kathleen Enright, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Kathleen Enright, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Don’t miss forthcoming posts by Alison Corwin of Surdna Foundation, Barbara Hostetter and Jim Canales of Barr Foundation, Ruth Cummings and Sharon Alpert of Nathan Cummings Foundation and others.

Visit Power in Philanthropy on SSIR 

Or stay tuned on NCRP’s blog for links
to the latest articles in the series.

Yna C. Moore is senior director of communications of NCRP. Follow @ynamoore and @ncrp on Twitter. Join the conversation on  #PowerMovesEquity.