Can we talk about...? A podcast on leading for racial equity in philanthropy · Philanthropy Northwest

Lilliane Ballesteros and Lindsay Boswell on getting creative (while staying in compliance!) to show up for community

·56 min·3 clips

Lindsay Boswell says philanthropy invents many of its own rules about moving money.

The episode opens from the ground up. Mares, Lillian, and Lindsay talk about the real work of supporting community groups, including the unglamorous but necessary task of moving money so people do not have to charge outreach expenses to personal credit cards. That example sets the tone. Instead of treating process as the point, the conversation keeps asking what would actually help a group do the work it already knows it needs to do. The hosts stay with the awkward parts. They talk through the tension between wanting accountability and building grant processes that are so layered with forms, logins, financial uploads, board lists, and narrative demands that they can quietly exclude the very communities they claim to serve. The group does not rush past that contradiction. It sits with the possibility that low application rates may reflect trust and relationship problems, not a lack of need. A practical thread runs through the whole conversation. Lillian and Lindsay describe relationship building as staff work that has to be resourced explicitly, not as an extra favor squeezed in after the day job is done. That point matters. The discussion keeps returning to the idea that community presence is labor, and labor needs time, attention, and permission. There is also a strong insistence on usefulness. If a community asks for a snow cone machine, pom-poms, or help getting reimbursed, the point is not to admire the request from a distance but to respond in a way that matches the need. The conversation treats those small logistical choices as values in action. It asks whether organizations are acting out of convenience for themselves or centering what community needs and how to move the money to them. Season three framing gives the episode a wider horizon. The show ties these questions to Philanthropy Northwest's Toward Transformation guide and to a long-term cohort of community philanthropy organizations working toward racial equity over more than a decade. Even with that larger backdrop, the tone stays close to practice. The episode leaves listeners with a grounded view of equity as daily behavior: listening, resourcing relationships, moving money, and noticing when process has become the problem.

As heard by us

A grounded look at equity work where moving money matters more than slogans.

The piece stays close to the practical side of racial equity in philanthropy, where the point is moving money and attention, not polishing values statements.

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Why you'd press play

You want a practical take on moving money that still centers community relationships.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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