Heather Higgins Alderman, President & CEO, Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation
Santrice Martin, Chief Operating Officer, Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation
“We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.” – Michelle Obama
Since 2019, the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) has embarked upon a journey of perspective transformation—challenging ourselves to know, think, and believe differently so we will decide, engage, and act more equitably. Through consistent commitment and action, our Board of Directors, leadership, and staff have moved equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work beyond “box checking” activities, institutionalizing long-term, individual, organizational, community, and cultural changes.
To know ILCHF is to understand our commitment to “do something” by partnering with grantee organizations to cultivate, support, and promote initiatives that improve the health and wellness of children in Illinois. ILCHF’s vision is that “Every Child in Illinois Grows up Healthy.” For us, fulfilling this vision means health equity and social justice are essential elements of our grantmaking efforts to fund strategies that expand access to the quality health care services and resources that every child deserves.
For more than a decade, ILCHF’s Guiding Principles have included an explicit commitment to honoring diversity and inclusion. The current phase of our EDI journey is relatively new, having begun in earnest in 2019. Thus, we are grateful to have been invited by Grantmakers In Health to share our experiences and learnings for the purpose of inspiring others to initiate, renew, or continue their own EDI journeys. We acknowledge that so many organizations have been doing impactful and meaningful EDI work for decades, and we have learned from you. For those of you who are new or newer to this work, we are hopeful that our experience might ease your journey and provide resources that were not readily available to us and inspire you to “do something” that further enhances your approach to EDI.
A Snapshot of ILCHF’s Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion EDI Journey
Driven by our understanding of the impact of racism and other social determinants of health on the health and well-being of children, ILCHF began this phase of its EDI journey in August 2019. We partnered with two other small staffed, health-focused foundations to participate in training which generated interest and excitement for additional joint EDI activities in early 2020. Our EDI plans were delayed by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and our subsequent intense focus on meeting COVID-19 related needs. Shortly after the onset of the pandemic, on May 26, 2020, the senseless murder of George Floyd refocused the Foundation’s commitment to “do something” and accelerated our EDI work. The disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color laid bare and exacerbated the adverse childhood experiences of children across Illinois and the nation.
In June of 2020, the ILCHF Board of Directors took essential steps toward reigniting our EDI journey. The ILCHF Board of Directors:
- Affirmed ILCHF’s commitment to EDI and agreed to implement policies and practices consistent with equity, diversity, and inclusion.
- Approved an unallocated $2 million in COVID-19 Response Funds to be invested in communities disproportionately impacted by both structural racism and COVID-19.
- Approved the formation of a work group of Board members to collaborate with staff and other stakeholders to create and implement ILCHF’s EDI Action Plan. This work group became the Health Equity and Social Justice Committee, a permanent committee of the Board of Directors.
In 2021, ILCHF completed an organizational assessment focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion and used that information to develop an EDI Action Plan inclusive of six strategic areas of focus: accountability; grantmaking; governance; talent and organizational structure; training and education; and vendor and consultant relationships. As part of our implementation efforts, we conducted multiple EDI trainings for our Board of Directors and staff members; conducted a review of our grantmaking processes and portfolio using an equity lens analysis; developed a public facing statement emphasizing our commitment to EDI; and completed a comprehensive RFP process leading to the retention of a new investment advisor that better aligned with both the Foundation’s fiduciary responsibilities and EDI values.
Successes, Challenges, and Persistence
Like most, we are a Foundation interested in understanding what constitutes successful outcomes associated with the implementation of an EDI Action Plan. Essentially, how do we know our commitment to “do something” is producing results necessary to move us closer toward the achievement of our vision? Over the past two years, we have focused primarily on EDI Action Plan goals related to governance, grantmaking, and vendor and consultant relationships. Successes achieved and related challenges encountered are highlighted below.
Governance
The EDI Action Plan Governance Goal requires the continued development of a diverse Board “which reflects, values, and respects the communities we serve and supports the growth and sustainability of an equitable organization.” How do we know if our Boards are diverse? How do we measure diversity?
To accurately determine the diversity of the Board, the Governance & Nominating Committee developed and implemented the ILCHF Board Member Demographics and Social Identities Survey. The development of this survey was the catalyst for rich, educational, and impactful conversations among our Board members regarding EDI. The most challenging conversations were related to class—how do we define it, how do we ask the question, how do we account for changes in class over the life of a Board member? We wanted to deeply understand who our Board members are and the lived experiences they bring to ILCHF. We wanted to understand what gaps might exist on the Board.
Successes and Challenges: 100 percent of our 17 Board members completed the survey. Given the choice to respond either anonymously or with their names, 13 out of 17 respondents shared their names. We learned that 35 percent of our Board identifies as Black or African American; 29 percent identifies as Latina, Latine, Latino, or Latinx; and 29 percent identifies as White. We can document significant racial diversity on our Board.
We also learned that our Board is 71 percent Christian, 76 percent have advanced degrees, and 65 percent identify as upper middle class. So here is the challenge—how do we increase diversity across social identities like education, religion, and class? How does a foundation make sure all the voices that need to be heard are heard? We continue to work on these questions and would welcome ideas from other foundations grappling with these issues.
Grantmaking
Beginning in early 2022, and in furtherance of our EDI Action Plan’s grantmaking goal, we modified our grantmaking practices to embed accountability, transparency, and EDI principles, resulting in new questions being added to our grant application to increase our knowledge of EDI practices, demographics, and social identities associated with grantee organizations. Shortly thereafter, we issued our 20th Anniversary Grants initiative and leveraged EDI demographic data collected to better understand the communities the applicants were seeking to serve, and how the potential grantees were representative of those communities. One grantmaking practice implemented was to host ILCHF’s engagements in both English and Spanish, fostering an inclusive culture where respective grantees expressed being seen, heard, and valued. We aimed to make grants to organizations who were led by individuals that were representative of the communities they serve.
Successes and Challenges: Our Board of Directors approved 21 grants in support of projects that furthered the Foundation’s purposes—11 of those grantees had not previously been funded by our Foundation and 18 of them were led by a person of color and/or women. We are excited to support grantees led with a diversity of perspectives.
Although we were pleased with the RFP process described above, our commitment
to center our EDI work in our grantmaking has continued to evolve. For example, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action, the 11th circuit ruling on Fearless Fund, and the shifting landscape, we continue to seek ways to keep doing this important work while remaining legally compliant.
Vendor & Consultant Relationships
Our EDI Action Plan’s Vendor and Consultant Diversity goal seeks to maximize the impact of administrative dollars spent by aligning vendor, procurement, contractors and investments with EDI principles. In 2023, our Finance & Investment Committee committed to identifying an investment firm that aligned with the Foundation’s goals of fulfilling its fiduciary obligations related to managing the endowment and its commitment to centering EDI in its investment strategies.
Successes and Challenges: After a year-long comprehensive competitive RFP process, our Board of Directors approved Marquette Associates to serve in an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer capacity managing ILCHF’s nearly $150 million investment portfolio and Fifth Third Bank National Association to serve as Custodian. These organizations were selected for the quality of their work, their commitment to improve diversity within the finance and investments sector, and to identify potential paths forward to ensure continued progress in the fight for equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Among numerous challenges, one was identifying a consultant fully versed in this work with a deep understanding of the marketplace. A second challenge was the significant time required of our team and Finance Committee members engaging in the RFP process, including significant pre-RFP education. Finally, identifying a slate of investment firms that met all of our requirements was challenging.
Shared Resources to Get to Work
One of our goals is to provide concrete resources that others in philanthropy will find useful on their EDI journeys. To that end, we are providing two documents. The first is the RFP we issued to retain our EDI consultant. While templates are more prevalent today than in 2020, we are providing ours in case it provides an easy jumping off place for others beginning their journey. We issued the RFP in November of 2020, received over 600 views on LinkedIn, and received 32 applications from across the country.
Second, we are sharing a link to our Board Demographics and Social Identities Survey. Please feel free to use this survey and let us know if you have questions.
As you get to work, be mindful that there will be roadblocks along the journey. For example, implementing our EDI Action Plan has taken twice as long as we initially expected. Perspective transformation of any kind is difficult but when focused on issues of equity, social identities, power, and injustice—the work is even harder. It requires courage to embrace personal and professional discomfort. Building the trust necessary to have hard conversations takes time. Figuring out how to implement our EDI goals in a meaningful way took time. It was all worthwhile, but understanding that this is a journey of years, not weeks or months is key.
What Do We Hope to Inspire Others to Do?
In the words of Michelle Obama “We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.” As we mentioned earlier, for those who are new or newer to this work, we are hopeful that you are inspired to “do something” that advances equity, diversity, and inclusion practices amongst your foundation’s programs, policies, and procedures. We hope that your efforts to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion results in your foundation becoming a better community partner, and an inspiration to others. Ultimately, we hope your version of “do something” inspires others to do the same.
Summary
When asked to reflect on ILCHF’s EDI commitment over the past couple of years, Regina Crider, ILCHF’s Health Equity & Social Justice Committee Chair conveyed that “The Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion work isn’t something we crafted just because it’s the ‘in thing’ to do—it’s what we use to truly guide our work. By centering these values in every single initiative, the Foundation ensures that all children, regardless of their background, have opportunities to thrive.”
When progressing along a foundation’s EDI journey, it is easy to forget that the work is about people—hearts and minds. While we continue to have significant work to do and progress to be measured to operationalize an even clearer equity lens, the cultural evolution within our organization and in our relationships with grantee partners speaks volumes to the value and impact of our authentic commitment to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion and move us forward on our journey toward ensuring “Every Child in Illinois Grows Up Healthy.”