NESAWG interviewed Karla Nicholson, Executive Director of Haymarket People’s Fund, a New England-based grant making foundation that went through a deep anti-racism transformation involving a multi-year process that started in the late 1990s, took shape in the early 2000s, and is still ongoing.
NESAWG: Hello, Karla! Thank you for joining us. It is our great pleasure and honor to be learning from you today, and from Haymarket People’s Fund transformation experience from a white-led organization to a BIPOC-led organization. Let’s start with your personal introduction.
Karla: My name is Karla Nicholson. My pronouns are the “she” series. I am honored to be the Executive Director of Haymarket People’s Fund.
NESAWG: Tell us a little bit about Haymarket, and its role in the philanthropic field.
Karla: Haymarket People's Fund is an anti-racist, multi-cultural foundation committed to strengthening the movement for social justice in New England. Through grantmaking, fundraising and capacity building, the fund supports grassroots organizations that are addressing the root causes of injustice. Haymarket also organizes to increase sustainable community philanthropy throughout the region and supports social change movements through training and capacity building.
NESAWG: When did you join Haymarket?
Karla: A couple decades ago, I joined a group of community activists who were seeking to bring the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond’s (PISAB) systemic analysis and shared language to the Boston community. I learned of Haymarket’s journey to become an anti-racism foundation. I wanted to learn more, since this was the only organization I knew of that was taking this on.
Then in 2006, they embarked on a courageous stage in this journey to undergo an organizational transformation process. I was asked to join Haymarket’s Coordinating Council, and participate with them.
Over the next few years, my roles evolved. I did some part-time work coordinating giving circles, and planning the celebratory event for Patricia Maher, their Executive Director, who was stepping down. I later became the Associate Director to Tommie Hollis-Younger, who became Haymarket’s first Executive Director of color. Then a decade and a half ago I became the Executive Director.
NESAWG: What caused Haymarket's transformation process and anti-racism journey starting in the late 1990s/ early 2000s at a time when very few were openly addressing systemic change, much less in philanthropy? How easy -or difficult - was it for you to join an organization in the middle of a challenging status- quo transformation? What did you personally experience at the time?
"racism was done, and it can be undone"
Karla: Philanthropy is one of many systems of oppression. Haymarket was wildly successful in providing support that impacts every social justice movement, yet we needed to look internally at how we operated. This is the essence of organizational change, the difficult internal organizational change work. Telling others, those who are in the trenches doing the very intensive organizing, what and how they should do what they do is ineffective unless we join the struggle. There is nothing easy about changing the status quo. If nothing occurred to challenge it, the extreme systemic racism would continue to perpetuate itself. It is entrenched in every aspect of our lives. My experience is that change is possible. As Ron Chisom, the Co-Founder of PISAB (People’s Institute for Survival & Beyond) states “racism was done, and it can be undone”. This is one of the perspectives that grounded me in this pursuit. Haymarket People’s Fund believes in the dynamic ability of grassroots organizations. We have provided the first grant for many groups and continue to provide operational support to groups striving to create change through community organizing. Our role is to fund these experts in doing their work.
NESAWG: I had the honor of meeting Ron Chisom in person a few times, and you always get to share such valuable learning moments with him. “Racism was done, and it can be undone”. This is certainly something to highlight. I also remember Ron constantly insisting on the fact that you cannot undo racism without a base. You have to do community organizing, and build the base that will lead the systemic change effort and dismantle systems of oppression. This is the reason why PISAB’s training is called “Undoing Racism ® / Community Organizing.” So many people and organizations attempt to undo racism in a vacuum as an intellectual exercise without building the base, without doing the community organizing work, and without supporting the leadership of frontline communities of color. What challenges and barriers did you encounter at Haymarket when working on systems change?
"there is a cycle of involvement in every organization, so newcomers must learn the history to continue this ongoing journey."
Karla: Even those who desire systems change, they are a part of society that operates in a very mainstream, capitalistic manner. Many steps were taken, and progress occurred. It is so essential to keep these in place, and build on them as time moves forward. Also, there is a cycle of involvement in every organization, so newcomers must learn the history to continue this ongoing journey.
NESAWG: How did you approach and how did you prepare for the transformation and systemic change process internally (as an organization) and externally (as a region)?
Karla: It is very valuable to read the story of this journey in our book “The Courage to Change”. Those who were part of this long before me, set the stage for the necessity of this process. Then years of a step forward, followed by many steps backwards, created a realization that the organization had to do something, or it could implode. In time, it was decided to distribute a Request for Proposals to consultants that might be able to help. Based on the response from the RFP, PISAB partnered with ChangeWork to perform a 5-year Organizational Change process. The steps of this process expand from the PISAB Undoing Racism principles.
NESAWG: You mentioned “years of a step forward, followed by many steps backwards”. What are some of the success stories? And then multiple additional questions come to mind - To ensure the multiplication of those success stories: What actions did you take to diminish the backwards steps? What key structural and systemic changes did you make? How did you operationalize those changes in policies, processes and other ways? What agreements did you make? What tools did you use? What decision-making process did Haymarket adopt to support the forward steps and push for transformation?
Karla: Haymarket believes in the value of all voices, so we use the consensus decision-making process. Consensus decision-making is a group decision-making process in which group members develop and agree to support a decision in the best interest of the whole.
Many successes came about from Haymarket’s Organizational Change process.
- Rewriting Haymarket’s funding guidelines and criteria to reflect and incorporate the anti-racism principles to be able to evaluate grant applications within an anti-racism lens.
- Replacing individual state funding boards to a regional funding panel to create consistency within all decisions.
- Requiring all funding panel members to participate in an “Undoing Racism” workshop. held by the People’s Institute, which provides members with a shared language and understanding of Haymarket’s anti-racism analysis
- Prioritizing People of Color leadership within the Funding Panel, Board Members, and staff.
In addition to the prior list of changes, it is important to emphasize that everything that occurs within Haymarket’s operations is also seen through an anti-racism lens. So all the policies and practices were changed, and continue to be updated.
NESAWG: Thank you for sharing all of these forward steps and successes, Karla. These are things to celebrate, and to keep in mind. It is also so important to develop and adopt a framework early on with principles that will guide and shape all of the organization’s new policies, processes and practices. I greatly encourage people to check out the anti-racism principles that Haymarket developed for operating as an organization: Haymarket's Principles. As important as all this foundational work is, changing the organizational culture is no easy feat. Karla, how did Haymarket go about changing the organizational culture?
Karla: Through very regular organizational change meetings and retreats with regional participation from within Haymarket’s Coordinating Council (which from this process became the Board of Directors), committees, funding boards, and staff. Each step of the process offered the unique opportunity to consider, challenge, and reflect how Haymarket did its work. Over time it was possible to connect and build very genuine relationships, develop trust, and even form a collective with a shared focus.
NESAWG: What internal capacity building and regional training did you offer?
Karla: During Haymarket’s Organizational Change process it was important for everyone both internally and externally to participate in the PISAB Undoing Racism workshop as a basis. This offers a systemic analysis and shared language to begin this work. Within the organization, those who participated had varying viewpoints. Not everyone remained in the process. This occurs in many organizations. Even within the field of philanthropy and other fields, Haymarket has and continues to share what we’ve learned, not in a prescriptive way, but to encourage others to embark on this journey.
NESAWG: What was your transformational arch and trajectory? How long did your transformation process take?
Karla: The process for transformation is ongoing. Haymarket clearly states that we are a work in progress. Our organizational transformation process was a 5-year process, yet we only completed 4 years of it. This had an impact on those who were consulting us in this stage of our journey, since what unfolded affected them and their organizations in a parallel manner. We continue to strive toward organizational transformation.
NESAWG: Did you have allies and supporters? How did the philanthropic field respond?
Karla: The “field of philanthropy and other fields” is an aspect of Haymarket’s organizing work. We will continue to spread the word about our experience in encouraging others to engage in it. It is challenging, yet, it will provide accountability to the lofty, ambitious organizational mission we uphold and move us closer to achieving it. To this end, we share our journey with organizations locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. The story of our journey offers great insight of this ongoing process.
NESAWG: How did you fund your transformation?
Karla: Haymarket raises funds from individuals to supply our operational and programmatic budget. The more supporters that we were able to get to attend the PISAB Undoing Racism workshop, and better understand our intentions, the more it is possible to obtain resources for this work. At Haymarket we see everyone as a donor or supporter. This is another ongoing effort as we continue our journey.
NESAWG: How did you track and monitor your transformation process, and how did you end up writing a book about it? Tell us about the book The Courage to Change, and where can people buy it?
It is possible to obtain the initial journey of Haymarket’s anti-racism process by contacting a member of the staff or visit our website to request copies. Payment of $25 (book and shipping charges) can be made through our donation page. Specify that it is for The Courage to Change. Or you can obtain copies from our independent bookseller at Levellers Press.
We are working on the next volume of this ongoing journey to share what is occurring within an anti-racism foundation where there is genuine people of color leadership.
NESAWG: Are there any last thoughts, tips, recommendations, pitfalls to avoid, networks to tap into, or suggestions for organizations going through a similar process?
Karla: Please take a look at the “learnings” in The Courage to Change, since they remain applicable to this day. Here are a couple of them:
- Invest in organizational change for the long term.
- Spend the money necessary for facilitation expertise and support as well as an independent viewpoint.
- Anti-racism training is only the beginning.
- When the organization begins its transformation, things feel like they are falling apart. At this point, some organizations stop the work, saying it is too conflict-ridden and disruptive. Weather the storm!
NESAWG: Do you have any pictures/ images that you might like to add to this interview?
Karla: I would encourage your readers to visit Haymarket’s newly updated website at www.haymarket.org where there are wonderful grantee photos and organizational images.
NESAWG: Thank you so very much for your time, and for sharing the transformation journey of Haymarket People’s Fund so openly and generously with our NESAWG community.
Karla: I appreciate this opportunity to share Haymarket’s work!
If you like this interview, you might also like our blog on Philanthropy Changes by Bella Noka, Narragansett Elder.