THURSDAY, MAY 25, 2023
8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
The California Endowment | 1000 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles, CA, 90012
It is my great pleasure to extend to you an invitation to join us for our first Black Women Non-Profit Leaders Forum. This event will be open to nonprofit executives across California featuring notable experts and speakers. As we embark on our 20th Anniversary, this forum is so uniquely special and crucial to nurturing and developing leaders in Los Angeles.
The idea for this forum grew out of multiple conversations with impactful Black women executives who were desperately seeking a safe space to convene, network, grow professionally, and heal from the trauma of misogynoir. As a Black women executive myself, I know far too well what this trauma can do to both our mental and physical health as well as our economic stability and advancement. According to both the 2016 and 2019 Race to Lead Survey of nonprofit employees conducted by the Building Movement Project, Black women are the most likely—out
of other groups of women of color and men of color—to say race and/or gender had a negative impact on their career advancement with more with 59% citing this
is 2019 and 48% in 2016. Black women cited lower pay, being overlooked for jobs and promotions, lack of mentorship, dealing with assumptions that they are
underqualified, and being stereotyped as “angry Black women.” While the experience may be similar for Black women at for-profit companies, there is one crucial, noteworthy difference that can increase the trauma: Nonprofit leaders and board members — the overwhelming majority of whom are White — often perceive themselves as society’s do-gooders. Nonprofits are created to do good and support marginalized communities. This mission-driven work most often leads to the nonprofit sector getting away with marginalizing and trauma-inducing practices without challenge. We hope you join us the importance of this forum and why it MUST happen right now, at this particular time in Los Angeles.
Regards,
Dawn L. Brown, President | CEO