Jan 30 - Mar 6, 2025
THursdays 5 - 6:30 pm (PT)

Decolonizing Philanthropic Practice

Live Online Course with Hilary Giovale
and Guest Speakers Alexis Bunten, Mizan Alkebulan-Abakah, and Sizwe Andrews-Abakah

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Decolonizing Philanthropic Practice will explore our relationships with money, the belief systems we have inherited, and our philanthropic practices.

During our first two sessions, we will co-create a supportive community container.  Using storytelling, ritual, listening, and self-reflection, we will build our resilience as we begin unpacking the colonial origins of wealth.  With compassion for ourselves and our ancestors, we will develop insight about the harms of the past and how they may be affecting our current financial and philanthropic decision-making.

Our third and fourth sessions will be devoted to guest speakers Alexis Bunten (Unangan/Yup’ik), Mizan Alkebulan-Abakah, and Sizwe Andrews-Abakah.  We will listen deeply to their experiences as educators, consultants, facilitators, and grantees who regularly interact with philanthropists.  Through their stories and expertise, we will seek to understand what Indigenous and African American communities are asking of philanthropy.  What are the invitations and best practices for us to lean into, as human beings and as donors?

Our final two sessions will be devoted to integrating and applying what we have learned together.  We will complete this course better equipped to move forward with reparative philanthropic practices that are rooted in reciprocity, right relationship, mutual liberation, and joy.

The instructor is returning the income she receives from this course to the guest speakers in reciprocity.  Class participants are invited to contribute to the guest speakers’ work with Native Alaska Resilience Circles and Spearitwurx as well.

This course will run from January 30 - March 6, 2025, with classes taking place on Thursdays from 5 - 6:30 pm PT (PT). Classes will be held via Zoom, and recordings of each class will be available for registrants not able to attend a class here and there.

Course
Length

6 WEEKS

Start
Date

JAN 30, 2025

Weekly
Sessions

90 MINUTES

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN & EXPERIENCE

  • Participants will have a shared space to show up as “whole human beings,” not just “the money.”
  • We will learn to identify and appreciate the Interpersonal Philanthropists in our lives – those who teach, guide, give, and heal without even one dollar being exchanged.
  • Our interactions in this class will not include fundraising.  Instead, we will reflect on our family stories and how they have shaped our relationships with money.
  • Participants will experience a greater sense of community support, and the relief of being transparent with each other about the challenges we face.
  • Philanthropists who want to do better (but may not yet be in relationship with communities of Color) will hear from Black and Indigenous speakers who are loving, kind, and clear.
  • If there is wealth in our lives that has been derived from ancestral acts of colonization, enslavement, genocide, and/or ecocide, we will normalize loving and forgiving those ancestors and ourselves, in tandem with redistributing the wealth and moving toward mutual healing and liberation. 

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Hilary Giovale is a mother, writer, and community organizer who lives at the foot of a sacred mountain in Flagstaff, Arizona.  She is a ninth-generation American settler, descended from Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe.  As a reparative philanthropist, her work is guided by intuition, love, and relationships.  She divests from whiteness and bridges divides with truth, healing, apology, and forgiveness.  Hilary seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice, and equitable futures.  She is the author of Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair (Green Writers Press).

Guest Speakers

Alexis Bunten (Aleut/Yup’ik) co-directs the Bioneers Indigeneity Program.  She has served as a manager, consultant, and applied researcher for Indigenous, social, and environmental programming. After receiving a BA in Art History at Dartmouth College, Alexis worked at the Sealaska Heritage Institute, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center in programming. Subsequently, Alexis earned a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at UCLA, and has served as the Project Ethnographer for the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage (IPinCH) project, and as a Senior Researcher at the FrameWorks Institute.

Alexis is an accomplished researcher, writer, media-maker, and curriculum developer. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues. Alexis has contributed to several Indigenous-themed productions, including co-producing and writing the script for a documentary nominated for the Native American Film Awards. She has developed educational material for both formal and informal learning environments including university level-courses as well as lifelong learner curriculum.

Mizan Alkebulan-Abakah is the Co-Creator of Spearitwurx, an organization that inspires Intergenerational Wellness and Racial Healing through cultural arts, community events, strategic consulting and transformative educational experiences. Mizan is also a certified Healing Centered Engagement Trainer with Flourish Agenda and has a master’s degree in public health.

Mizan is a published author and has been a featured lecturer, keynote speaker, and workshop presenter at Universities and Conferences throughout the nation.

She is an experiential artist and lead curator of the Experience Sankofa Project Living Museum. As Certified Therapeutic Yoga instructor, Mizan incorporates creative expression and dynamic mindfulness into her work for social transformation.

Sizwe Andrews-Abakah is an Educator, Radical Healer and Mentor and has worked throughout the Bay Area. He has supported African American Wellness through the National Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Oakland Freedom School, Flourish Agenda's Camp Akili, Oakland Unified School District's Manhood Development Program, and Determination Black Men's Group at United Roots to name a few.

As Co-Founder and Director of Cultural Engagement at Spearitwurx, he approaches the work with passion and insight. Sizwe believes that connectedness is our currency and building authentic intimacy is key in our relationships. The practice of being vulnerable with each other can helps us get to a place of transformation and liberation.

Sizwe, also known as Spear of the Nation, is an MC and producer. He utilizes his skills as performer to build awareness, connection and open doors to self-mastery.

Recommended Resources to Accompany the Course

These resources are optional, but will help participants explore the topics we discuss in greater depth. Additional resources will be recommended based on group discussions.

Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance

by Edgar Villanueva

Classified: How to Stop Hiding Your Privilege and Use It for Social Change

by Karen Pittelman & Resource Generation

Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair

by Hilary Giovale

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The function of freedom is to free someone else.

Toni Morrison

Decolonizing Philanthropic Practice

$520
Register Now