A Decade of Transformation - Reflections on my 10-year anniversary at Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

This reflection was created as part of my report to the Board of Directors at our recent quarterly board meeting. It seemed to me that it might be worth sharing more widely. So much has happened at the Foundation over the past ten years, it was a helpful exercise to try and capture those changes. I am sure I missed some!

October 1, 2023, officially marked my ten-year anniversary at the Foundation. Inevitably with these milestones it is helpful to reflect on what has been accomplished, what has changed, and what remains to be done. Because this is an important and extensive story to tell, I hope you will indulge me as I share how the Foundation has transformed over these past ten years.

Board/Governance

I have worked with three (soon to be four) chairs in this time, starting, of course, with Lanny Martin, who led the search process that brought me to the Foundation.

When I began it was a small board of five with no term limits and a Board that had not had a trustee of color in its entire history. We first created the Community Trustee category as a way to bring in more diverse (in all ways) trustees. The board size increased to 7 and then 9, and the community trustee category was eliminated once term limits were implemented. The board now has five BIPOC trustees out of nine, as well as a trustee representing the interests of people with disabilities. We also have never had a Vice-Chair role, making succession challenging, and established a Nominating and Governance Committee in 2017, which has made the process of recruiting new Board members much more strategic and thoughtful. This Board has been wonderful from the moment I came to the Foundation ten years ago, but now has a much broader array of perspectives and lived experiences, which has made the transformative nature of our work much better informed and executed.

It has been such a gift to work with everyone who has served on the Board since 2013.

Strategic Planning/Communications/Racial Equity

When I joined the foundation in 2013 strategic planning was informal, and primarily done in-house. We commissioned an extensive external assessment of the foundation by Changing our World, which informed a board retreat and strategic framework in 2016, as well as significant changes in the Livingston Fellowship program. It also led to the completion of a comprehensive rebranding of the foundation working with Launch – new logo, design guidelines, website, e-newsletter, etc. We also retained a communications contractor to execute social media, newsletters and press relations, a first for the foundation. Until these changes the Foundation had not used an email list management program and did not produce an e-newsletter. And now we have created the position of Director of Communications and brought on Anthony to elevate our communications and storytelling to a new level.

In November 2017 we held a series of informal roundtable conversations with grantees, facilitated by staff, to gain a deeper understanding of their issues and needs. This was followed by the realization that we really needed to hear from the many smaller arts groups, led by and serving BIPOC and other historically marginalized communities, that we DID NOT already support. We created a process working with consultant Erin Yoshimura (also a Livingston Fellow) to facilitate conversations with these groups, working with SCFD and others to source a list of invitees. These were extremely informative and valuable conversations, and helped inform our work, leading directly to the creation of what became the Inclusive Communities grant program in 2019.

The past couple of years have brought working with the Gemini Group and Dante and Christina James on Racial Equity, followed by the work with La Piana Consulting to develop a new strategic framework to guide us through the next few years.

Over the entire ten years, there has been an overlay of addressing equity in all our work and systems. Initially much of this work happened organically, with it being a topic area in board retreat education and discussion and influencing our program operations – grantmaking and the Fellowship program. It was also reflected in efforts to diversify the Board. In 2020, issues were raised by three of our Fellows about the Foundation’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, which led to the realization that 1) we had not effectively communicated about all the work that had already happened or was underway. 2) there remained real issues in some operations and systems and in our history that reflected a legacy of Whiteness that needed to be acknowledged and addressed. 3) there was an imperative not just to do the work, but to accelerate the pace of change. This led to much internal work at both the Board and staff level, and ultimately the issuance of an RFP for deep equity work (a process that had actually begun in 2019) and the retention of the Gemini Group to conduct their year-long process that informed the strategic planning process.

The commitment to equity has also been reflected in work on team culture, work that has been ongoing for the past couple of years, with a team retreat in 2022 with outside facilitation and a retreat coming up in 2023. Staff have also participated in racial equity training through COFIE (ColoradoFunders for Inclusion and Equity), Philanthropy Colorado, Peoples Institute forSurvival and Beyond, Grantmakers in the Arts and others. This work is ongoing, rewarding, sometimes difficult, and critically important. It will never end.

Grantmaking

Over the past ten years we have granted a total of $34.6 million. While we have continued our quarterly grantmaking, we have added an array of targeted programs designed to advance our mission. The percentage of our grants going to BIPOC, and other historically marginalized communities (disability and LGBTQ) has gone from 2% to about 38%. (And if we factored in our Fellowship dollars, the shift in percentages would be even larger.) The number of annual grants has gone from around 50 to over 135. We have launched Arts in Society, which has more than doubled our annual $200k investment with support leveraged from other funders.

We responded to COVID with immediate direct support to our grant partners as well as relief through the COVID relief fund in partnership with The Denver Foundation that took our $1 million commitment and leveraged it with an additional $1+ million in support from a wide array of donors. This partnership was recognized with the 2021 National Philanthropy Day in Colorado award for Outstanding Foundation as well as the 2022 Innovative Partnership Award from SCFD (Scientific and Cultural Facilities District).

We introduced multi-year support, small responsive staff level grants, the Inclusive Communities grant program to help support smaller BIPOC and other historically marginalized led/serving groups, and staff-level approval of grants of $20k and under to streamline board meetings and make more effective use of Trustee time. We also created a technical assistance grant category to provide targeted TA support -a significant need that had been identified. And just this month, launched the new Equity in Arts Learning collaborative grant program with Think360 Arts for Learning, modeled on the successful Arts in Society grant program.

Related to grantmaking, we negotiated with the University of Denver to convert the 1965 May Bonfils Stanton Endowment at the Korbel School to a new endowed cultural diplomacy program.

Leadership

Our Livingston Fellowship program has seen the following dramatic changes, while preserving its core structure around being flexible and responsive to meet leaders where they are with what they most need: 1) the panel process was changed to rotate panelists, to ensure a diverse panel, and to no longer allow panelists to also be nominators. 2) the nominations process went from a secretive group of nominators made up mostly of foundation CEOs to initially a much more inclusive process with many more nominators, and ultimately self-nomination, as well as the option to video nominate. 3) In 2020 we added Chrissy’s position to bring a full-time senior staff person on board to oversee the Fellowship program as well as explore other opportunities to advance leadership. 4) prior to 2014 the percentage of BIPOC Fellows averaged 20%. From 2014 through 2020 (2021 was suspended due to COVID) the BIPOC percentage was 50%, and since 2021 it has been 93% (14 out of 15 in two classes). 5) An array of other procedural and structural changes were made in the program to make the program more inclusive and responsive – this included introducing more flexibility in how Fellows can utilize their funds, providing the option of having a portion of their funds be received as a direct taxable gift, streamlining reporting, and welcoming Fellows from very small organizations, including those that may be fiscally sponsored. We also launched new leadership focused grant programs, such as providing an operating grant to all Fellow organizations, adding a new grant program to support collaborative arts-based projects between fellows, and a program that supports a select group of other programs that are helping to advance a pipeline of diverse nonprofit leaders. We also became a member of the national Leadership Funders Group and hosted the LFG conference in Denver in 2023.

We initially evolved our Awards program to add an Individual Artist award and then aligned all three awards around our arts grantmaking focus, and finally in 2020 (with a final virtual awards event due to COVID), we sunset this program after 35 years. We are developing plans to introduce a new awards program honoring individual artists who are using their art to make a positive difference in our community. This will launch in rotation with the Livingston Fellowship program every other year.

Investing

Sometime around 2016 we began a long process of exploring impact investing. Various guest speakers were brought in to speak to the Investment Committee or the full board as we engaged in thoughtful learning and deliberation. This led to the decision to commit to make impact investing a core part of our investment portfolio, which in turn led to starting an RFP process to identify the best investment firm to work with, ultimately choosing Morgan Stanley/Blue-Rider Group. As a result, we are now aligning our investments to our mission and our values, a huge change for the foundation. We created a new area of our web site to talk about our impact investing journey/process and have informally advised other small and mid-sized foundations on their own journeys. Roughly 70% of our investments are now impact aligned, and since 20% of our prior investments are locked in and not changeable, in effect we are at 70% out of a maximum achievable goal of 80%. And many investments, like the Equity Alliance and Upstart Co-Lab are even more directly value and/or mission aligned. This has significantly amplified our impact by activating the “other 95%” – our corpus - as an instrument of change.

Management/Administrative

Staffing - Shifted Gina from contract role to permanent employee role in 2013. Created and ran hiring processes for Chrissy and Anthony as well as Emma, the new administrative assistant (and Sarah, the past administrative assistant).

Administration – Staff oversaw digitizing/culling of the vast majority of our paper files to reduce storage needs and be better able to digitally access documents. Monique and Gina began an assessment process to review alternative grants management software options, which we hope to implement in 2024. We shifted from data being stored on a local server to cloud-based data management.

Space - Engaged in several years of work around identifying new space for the foundation, to be more accessible, less subject to elevator breakdowns and more reflective of our values and mission. This included an effort to organize a group of funders in the creation of a shared philanthropy space. While this effort did not succeed, SCFD and BSF ended up co-locating in the same building. This effort meant working to put our two floors on the market in the D&F Clocktower (one has since sold), negotiating a lease, working to design the new space, oversee construction, work with both an interior design firm as well as an art consulting service, manage the budget, select and install art, select and install furniture, install technology and AV systems, etc.

History – in 2017 we commissioned historian Tom Noel to research and write the history of Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and its founders. This document was printed, distributed widely in the community and posted on our website. A prologue on Race and Privilege as well as a statement on findings related to History Colorado’s release of Ku Klux Klan roles were added to the website piece in 2021.

Field Leadership

·      Provided sponsorship and grantmaking to support IdeaLab, a collaboration between Springboard for the Arts, Issue Media Group, and Confluence Denver to support convenings and tools to build innovative arts and culture in Denver - 2015-2017

·      Hosted Americans for the Arts conference – 2018 (Gary Co-chair host committee)

·      Hosted Grantmakers in the Arts Conference – 2019 (Gary co-chair host committee)

·      Hosted American Alliance of Museums conference – 2023 (Gary co-chair host committee)

·      Hosted Council on Foundations Leading Locally conference – 2023 (Gary host committee)

·      Hosted Museum Trustee Association – 2023 (spoke to group and Chrissy organized and moderated a panel)

·      Gary served on the host committee for the Cities Summit of the Americas - 2023 and BSF hosted an Arts in Action luncheon for arts leaders with the National Endowment for the Arts

·      Gary served as Chair of Philanthropy Colorado, 2020-2022 (on board 2016-2023)

·      Gary served on Grantmakers in the Arts Board, 2015-2021

·      Gary served on Clyfford Still Museum Board, 2014-2018

·      Gary served many years as a juror for the National Philanthropy Day in Colorado awards

·      Ann serves on and chairs Colorado NonprofitDevelopment Center (CNDC) Board (6 years, past 3 as Chair)

·      Ann serves on Colorado Nonprofit Association Finance Committee (3 Years)

·      Ann serves on planning committee for Philanthropy Colorado Finance group

·     Commissioned the national nonprofit shared space association to conduct a feasibility study on the space needs and opportunities for shared space among Denver arts community.

·     Major local and national news stories about the Foundation in Chronicle of Philanthropy, Inside Philanthropy, Denverite, DenverPost and others

·     Supported a feasibility study around the creation of a regional creative alliance.

·     As an outcome of the above, spearheaded the creation of the Arts & Culture Funders Group, now administered by Philanthropy Colorado.

·     Funded a comprehensive external assessment of the resident companies of the Denver Performing Arts Complex by WolfBrown, looking for opportunities for deeper collaboration – this segued into strategic planning work with each company, having an especially powerful positive impact on Opera Colorado and Colorado Ballet – 2014

·         Gary served on the Blue-Ribbon Panel for the Imagine 2020 cultural plan for Denver Arts & Venues.

·         Gary participated as part of the executive committee for the Next Stage process to re-imagine the Denver Performing Arts Complex.

·         Instrumental in bringing BloombergPhilanthropies’ AIM (Arts Innovation Management) program to Denver, providing millions of dollars in support for a wide array of arts organizations, as well as deep capacity building. Gina remains the liaison to this relationship, recently helping to engage local arts & culture organizations with the Bloomberg Connects project.

·         Brought in Wallace Foundation to offer a presentation of new research on audience development in the arts.

·         Engaged Grantmakers in the Arts to provide workshops on capitalization for the cultural community and funders.

·         Brought in ArtPlace America to do a series of presentations for the cultural sector (and funders) on creative placemaking. This included working with Colorado Creative Industries to organize a statewide tour by the ArtPlace team to understand rural arts in Colorado.

·         Retained Leslie Koch, CEO of Governors Island in NYC, to assess opportunities for arts participation in the National Western Complex plans.

·         Introduced LaPlaca Cohen to Arts & Venues, resulting in two presentations by LPC to the Denver arts community on Culture Track, their national research on arts audience trends and attitudes.

·         Gary served on the planning committee for Philanthropy Southwest conferences.

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Gary and/or other team members have presented at many conferences/convenings (local and national), including: Grantmakers in the Arts, Philanthropy Southwest, Americans for the Arts, Council on Foundations, American Alliance of Museums, Confluence Philanthropy, Upstart Co-Lab, Alliance of Artists Communities, National Performance Network, Colorado Creative Industries, Confluence Philanthropy.

·         Gary served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts as well as ArtPlace America.

·         Commissioned Donna Walker-Kuhne to conduct focus groups and interviews and assess the state of diversity efforts amongDenver’s cultural organizations, leading to the creation of the Arts and Diversity task force, which helped “birth” the Diversity in the Arts internshipprogram we continue to support.

·         Gary served on the SCFD reauthorization Task Force

·         CAST – Brought in the leadership of the Bay Area-based Community Arts Stabilization Trust twice to discuss opportunities to address arts space challenges in Denver, once to speak to just the Board and once to a convened group of real estate, arts and philanthropy leaders.

·         Colorado Media Project – Gary serves on the local advisory body for this effort led by the Gates Family Foundation, and we also supported specific research on the state of cultural journalism in Colorado and what the opportunities were for improvement going forward.