10/12 #FundDisAdvocacy Chat: Disability Advocacy & Philanthropy

The Disability Visibility Project will be co-hosting a Twitter chat with disabled activist, development professional of 25+ years, and A Crip in Philanthropy blogger Ingrid Tischer on Friday, October 12, 2018, 4 pm Pacific: #FundDisAdvocacy. We are delighted to have the following individuals as our guest co-hosts:

Noorain F. Khan, Program Officer, Office of the President, Ford Foundation

Ryan Easterly, Executive Director, WITH Foundation

Irma Herrera, Board Member, van Löben Sels/RembeRock Foundation

The goal of #FundDisAdvocacy is for us to learn how we can work together to effectively address unconscious bias when an advocacy funder says, “We don’t do disability.”  In conversation with advocates, funders, the disability and philanthropy communities, and civil and human rights allies we hope to challenge funders to support disability advocacy along with their current priorities on inequality, social justice, civil rights, and poverty.

Despite greater awareness of disability and powerful disabled voices, already-scarce funding for disability civil and human rights advocacy decreased by 23% from 2011-2015 and disabled people were the only group to see a decrease. By contrast, advocacy funding for women and girls saw a 43% increase. This indicates that funders understand the effects of sexism but still lack an understanding of the connection between ableism and structural discrimination, harassment, and violence.

How do we reframe the unspoken narrative from tragedy to our urgent and actionable areas of advocacy? How do we shift foundations away from the (often unconscious) charity model to one of social justice where disabled people are leaders and partners? How do we reposition disabled people as assets who contribute necessary community and political knowledge to advocacy foundations? What deep knowledge can civil and human rights allies share with disability advocates?

The conversation will also be about how to change a foundation’s organizational culture and practices to create workplaces where disabled people can effect change from within, from becoming program associates and officers, up to the board level where funding decisions are made.

Everyone is welcome to participate in this chat–you don’t have to be a donor or funder. Please note that the focus is on funding disability advocacy.

For more, read this piece by Ingrid Tischer: An Open Letter to Advocacy Funders: #FundDisAdvocacy Because Disability + Ableism = Structural Discrimination

Full disclosure: Alice Wong is a paid consultant for this chat and a Board member of the WITH Foundation.

How to Participate

Follow @IngridTischer and @DisVisibility for the latest information about the chat.

At the time of the chat, type the hashtag in the search window in Twitter. Click on the ‘Latest’ tab for the hashtag #FundDisAdvocacy. This will show you the questions and everyone’s responses in real time.

If you might be overwhelmed by the amount of tweets and only want to see the chat’s questions so you can respond to them, check @DisVisibility’s account.

Another way to participate in the chat is to use this app that allows you to pause the chat if the Tweets are coming at you too fast: http://www.tchat.io/

Here is a link for people who are new to Twitter on starting an account and how to use it:

https://help.twitter.com/en/new-user-faq

Here’s an article about how to participate in a Twitter chat: https://www.adweek.com/digital/how-to-join-a-twitter-hashtag-chat/

Check out this captioned ASL explanation of how to participate in a chat by @behearddc

https://www.facebook.com/HEARDDC/videos/1181213075257528/

Introductory Tweets and Questions for 10/12 chat

Welcome to the #FundDisAdvocacy chat on funding disability advocacy in #philanthropy. This chat is co-hosted by @IngridTischer and @DisVisibility with guest hosts @irmadherrera, @WITHfoundation @noorain. Full disclosure: @DisVisibility is a paid consultant for this chat.

Remember to use the following 2 hashtags when you tweet #FundDisAdvocacy #philanthropy. If you respond to a question such as Q1, your tweet should follow this format: “A1 [your message] #FundDisAdvocacy #philanthropy”

Q1 Let’s get started! Please introduce yourself and share a little about your interest or background in #philanthropy and what you hope to learn from the #FundDisAdvocacy chat. Feel free to include any links about your work or advocacy.

Q2 Why is it important to #FundDisAdvocacy? How does disability advocacy differ from what #philanthropy typically funds related to disability?

Q3 What is your response to advocacy funders that say ‘disability is simply not within their scope,’ or when their metrics effectively exclude the disabled population? What changes and recommendations would you make to them? #FundDisAdvocacy #philanthropy

Q4 How do we shift foundation decision-makers away from the (often unconscious) charity model where they take care of disabled people to the model of social justice where disabled advocates are leaders and partners? #FundDisAdvocacy #philanthropy

Q5 What actions could civil and human rights allies take to help include disability advocacy — led by disabled advocates — in funding portfolios? Who in #philanthropy are the leaders in this currently? #FundDisAdvocacy

Q6 On leadership, recruitment & retention: How do we create workplaces in #philanthropy where disabled advocates can effect change from within, becoming program associates and officers where funding decisions are made? #FundDisAdvocacy

Q7 How do we address the structural access barriers and implicit biases in #philanthropy — physical, attitudinal, and financial — that are often intrinsic to philanthropic spaces that often exclude disabled people from becoming advisors, board members or collaborators? #FundDisAdvocacy

Q8 What are some first steps any funder can take to start thinking about disability advocacy in relation to their mission and funding priorities, and how to engage meaningfully engage with the disability community as partners in #philanthropy? #FundDisAdvocacy

This concludes our #FundDisAdvocacy chat on disability advocacy in #philanthropy! Thank you to @IngridTischer and our guest hosts @irmadherrera, @WITHfoundation for joining us today.

A recap of the #FundDisAdvocacy chat will be Tweeted and published on @DisVisibility’s website shortly. Please continue the convo and thank you again for participating! #philanthropy