Module 7 PERSONAL BIAS, POWER AND PHILANTHROPY

Throughout this toolkit, we’ve explored concepts of social justice, privilege, and social justice philanthropy. To practice social justice philanthropy, we must explore how we as individuals experience bias and privilege in life.

Philanthropy can have a broad reach. It impacts systems of organizations and the people employed or served by those organizations. For this reason, unchecked bias can have heightened consequences in the context of philanthropy. This module will encourage you to think about how your personal biases might impact the role you play as philanthropists.

You will identify how personal bias, power and privilege show up the work of philanthropy.

• Read New York Times article “The Measuring Sticks of Racial Bias.”
• Watch video “How to tell someone they sound racist.” 
• Read about Project Implicit at Harvard University Implicit and take individual tests to measure implicit bias.
• Read “Unconscious Bias: It Starts With You and Me.”
• Read Craig McGarvey’s “The Power Imbalance and the Program Work of Philanthropy” GIA Reader, Vol 17, No 3 (Winter 2006).