Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy (FDP) is a nonprofit organization seeking to reform the philanthropic sector to orient nonprofits towards far-left racial goals. FDP originated as a project of the Center for Evaluation Innovation (CEI) and was spun off into an independent group with three co-founders, two of whom originate from the CEI.

Center for Evaluation Innovation has been critical of big philanthropic donors which it claims are unwilling to promote left-wing racial goals.

Founding

Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy’s mission is based on Robin D.G. Kelley’s 2002 book, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, a history of Black activism in the United States. FDP’s three founders, all of whom work in philanthropy, claim inspiration from Kelley’s descriptions of Black activists like Malcom X and Aime Cesaire, particularly how these individuals crafted their own visions on how to achieve social change. The founders established FDP, initially as a project of the Center for Evaluation Innovation, to channel this method of activism into philanthropy so that philanthropy workers can have more control over their work rather than operate entirely under the direction of superiors and donors. ¹

FDP calls the method inspired by Kelly’s work “freedom dreaming.” FDP co-founder Chera Reid describes freedom dreaming as “the work of imagining possibility beyond what we have today, imagining into our collective liberation, imagining into what a just and multiracial democracy or society could be. And then identifying where there are places where we can experiment.” ²

Activities

From June 2021 to August 2022, the three Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy co-founders met with 25 racial-minority CEOs and executive directors at nonprofits to discuss freedom dreaming and how their organizations might “ease the path to an inclusive, multiracial democracy, and what it might take to truly ‘acknowledge and redress’ historic and contemporary harms.” ³

Subsequently, FDP issued a press release claiming that there were tensions at many of these organizations. Many of the nonprofit leaders asserted that major philanthropy donors were unwilling or unable to push philanthropic organizations towards far-left racial justice goals. One anonymous philanthropic leader stated: “I don’t see philanthropy as being compatible with a high-functioning, multiracial democracy […] Because it just gives unnecessary power and voice to those who already have power and voice.” ⁴

Leadership

Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy co-founder Chera Reid is the co-executive director of the Center for Evaluation Innovation (CEI), a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits in achieving far-left racial justice goals, both externally and within the organizations. She previously worked as director of strategic learning, research, and evaluation, and earlier as a program officer, at the Kresge Foundation for over seven years. At Kresge, Reid “co-led foundation-wide efforts to raise consciousness about race and the impact of structural racism as the foundation made a comprehensive commitment to advancing equity.” From 2012 to 2013, Reid worked at MDRC, a social policy think tank based in Washington D.C., as an associate director of program development. ^{5 6}

Co-founder Efrain Gutierrez is a senior fellow at CEI. Since January 2021, Gutierrez also has run his own independent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm called From Fear to Freedom. From 2018 to 2021, Gutierrez “oversaw equity-centered evaluation practices” at the Obama Foundation as the first impact and evaluation manager. Prior, he worked at FSG for almost eight years and at the U.S. Department of State as a fraud prevention investigator for two years. ^{7 8}

Co-founder Trinel Torian is a Sociology Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, Berkeley studying the socioeconomic causes of racial educational inequality. Torian previously worked at MDRC from 2012 to 2015 overlapping with Reid as a program development research assistant. ^{9 10}

Funding

Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy has received funding from the California Wellness Foundation, the California Health Care Foundation, the California Endowment, the Teagle Foundation, the Levi Strauss Foundation, and the Center for Evaluation Innovation. ^{11 12}

1. Rojc, Philip. “Freedom Dreaming: A New Collaborative Invites Philanthropy to Reimagine Itself.” Inside Philanthropy. May 25, 2023. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023/5/25/freedom-dreaming-a-new-collaborative-invites-philanthropy-to-reimagine-itself
2. Rojc, Philip. “Freedom Dreaming: A New Collaborative Invites Philanthropy to Reimagine Itself.” Inside Philanthropy. May 25, 2023. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023/5/25/freedom-dreaming-a-new-collaborative-invites-philanthropy-to-reimagine-itself.
3. Rojc, Philip. “Freedom Dreaming: A New Collaborative Invites Philanthropy to Reimagine Itself.” Inside Philanthropy. May 25, 2023. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023/5/25/freedom-dreaming-a-new-collaborative-invites-philanthropy-to-reimagine-itself.
4. Rojc, Philip. “Freedom Dreaming: A New Collaborative Invites Philanthropy to Reimagine Itself.” Inside Philanthropy. May 25, 2023. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023/5/25/freedom-dreaming-a-new-collaborative-invites-philanthropy-to-reimagine-itself.
5. “Chera Reid.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chera-reid-phd-88b1b210/.
6. “Dr. Chera Reid.” Freedom Dreams and Philanthropy. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://freedomdreamsphilanthropy.org/index.php/dr-chera-reid/.
7. “Efrain Gutierrez.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/efrain-gutierrez/.
8. “Efrain Gutierrez.” Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://freedomdreamsphilanthropy.org/index.php/efrain-gutierrez/.
9. ^[1] “Trinel Torian.” Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://freedomdreamsphilanthropy.org/index.php/trinel-torian/.
10. “Trinel Torian.” LinkedIn. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/trinel-torian-a9466a34/.
11. “About.” Freedom Dreams in Philanthropy. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://freedomdreamsphilanthropy.org/index.php/about/.
12. Rojc, Philip. “Freedom Dreaming: A New Collaborative Invites Philanthropy to Reimagine Itself.” Inside Philanthropy. May 25, 2023. Accessed June 10, 2023. https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2023/5/25/freedom-dreaming-a-new-collaborative-invites-philanthropy-to-reimagine-itself.