Waco Foundation is pleased to announce it has been chosen as one of six community foundations from across the country to participate in a 10-month learning opportunity focused exclusively on equity. The Foundation applied for this fellowship as part of our commitment to advancing race equity in the community.

The 2019 - 2020 Community Foundation Equity Network will equip teams to work together to advance equity across organizational functions and throughout their communities.

The Waco cohort, which attended the first peer group meeting in May, consists of the following representatives: Executive Director Ashley Allison, Senior Director of Community Investments & Operations Nicole Wynter, Board Chair Kris Kaiser Olson, Cooper Foundation Executive Director Felicia Goodman and local consultant Ashley Weaver. The team presented about Waco Foundation and its work, highlighting some of the reasons why the Foundation has prioritized addressing racial equity in our community.

The experience is offered by CF Leads, a nationally-recognized organization known as a thought leader and capacity builder in the community foundation world. The program will convene three meetings of the community foundation teams and will provide access to two nationally-recognized consulting firms - PolicyLink and the Public Equity Group.

In addition to Waco Foundation, the 2019-2020 Community Foundation Equity Network cohort is comprised of the following community foundation teams:

  • Community Foundation of Greater Flint
  • Greater Cincinnati Foundation
  • Jackson Community Foundation
  • Rochester Area Community Foundation
  • Seattle Foundation

The Community Foundation Equity Network was built on the knowledge that peers learn best from each other, and it launched in 2017 to help shape the practice and thinking of the broader community foundation field. CF Leads developed the program in response to community and national foundation interest in advancing equity and a desire among community foundations to better understand and make progress in this area.