Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity

Founding and History

The Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equality was founded in 2003 as a project of the left-of-center Tides Foundation. PRE is designed to educate other philanthropic organizations by advocating that they adopt PRE’s own conception of “racial equity” in their work. The project was founded by Lori Villarosa, who is its current executive director. ^{1 2}

PRE works to spread its conception of racial justice by hosting workshops, organizing coaching events, and providing research to help mold and shape current and future leaders’ perspectives on racial issues. ²

Financial Information

Because PRE is not an independent nonprofit organization, it does not have financial filings with the IRS. PRE has, however, admitted that it received a multi-year support grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation, as well as project support from other philanthropic foundations. ¹

Guide to Racial Justice Philanthropy

PRE is focused on educating other philanthropic institutions on what it perceives to be the best practices for advancing a left-of-center, “intersectional” understanding of social and racial issues. PRE’s publicly available guides includes tips on how to formulate and evaluate grant proposals and the success of investments. ³

The guides also include advice on what kind of internal resistance to expect from foundation staff and board members in implementing a left-of-center racial agenda and how such resistance can be overcome. Among other things, PRE recommends that foundations spend more time investing in racial justice education for their employees, and that foundations be explicit about their focus on racial justice to unveil “coded forms of structural racism.” PRE advises that funding should be directed towards organizations that “build power” in communities of color, while also advising against any funding of predominantly white organizations unless they meet certain racial justice quotas. ^{3 4}

Leadership

Lori Villarosa founded PRE in 2003 and is the current executive director of the project. She previously worked at the C.S. Mott Foundation, which currently funds PRE with a multi-year grant, where she managed the Foundation’s work related to “institutional and societal racism.” ²

Rinku Sen works as a writer and social justice strategist at PRE. She previously worked as the executive director of the left-of-center social justice organization Race Forward, where she was also the publisher of the organization’s racial news publication Colorlines. While at Race Forward, Sen led the campaign to have publications drop the use of the “illegal immigrant.” She has authored books on so-called intersectional social justice organizing and is co-president of the controversial, left-wing Women’s March. ²

Controversial left-wing activist Linda Sarsour sits on the board of PRE. Sarsour was formerly associated with Women’s March until she stepped down amid controversy surrounding her association with controversial figure Louis Farrakhan and allegations of anti-Semitism, though she and Women’s March denied that the associations caused her departure. ⁵

Notable Partner Organizations

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that was one of the earliest national foundations to begin promoting the idea of intersectionality. The Foundation provides multi-year grant funding to PRE. ^{2 1}

PRE has also received program support from a number of other left-of-center foundations. These include the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and the Akonadi Foundation. ^{1 1 1 1}