Grantmaking in Social Justice: Looking Beyond the Symptoms

It is fitting perhaps that Brad Armstrong, founder of the Bamboo Fund of The Community Foundation, jokingly calls his social justice grantmaking “faith-based funding.” Although he harkens from Midland, Texas – a wealthy and conservative oil community that is home to President George W. Bush – Armstrong is not referring to anything related to organized religion.

Rather, he is talking about the faith (read: patience) required to fund in social justice, when years can pass before his grants can do their work: changing the fundamental and often structural causes of societal problems.

“Social justice grantmaking seeks to alter the relations of power and influence that often give rise to inequity and injustice, which, in turn, call out for charity,” Brad said.

As an example, Armstrong talked about getting involved in some Denver high schools several years ago. At that time, he explained, kids of color were getting a raw deal, being deliberately tracked into vocational fields, with no opportunity to attend universities, and being stifled by a heavy police presence in the schools.

A traditional and more mainstream approach would have been to support after-school programs, tutoring, or other opportunities for these kids, all of which are important, he said. But his own interest in social justice led him to want to look beyond the symptoms, to the root causes. That led him to find and support groups that were working to address structural and policy issues within the schools.

“This kind of remedy doesn’t just walk up to you. You have to go find it,” Armstrong said.

Finding his own way of thinking is something Armstrong has been doing for a long time. As was the norm in his hometown, he was sent to an elite boarding school and then went to Stanford for college. “The outcome, I believe, was supposed to be that I would become a mainstream, connected mover and shaker,” he said.

Instead, he explained, “I skipped a groove.”

As he started to acquire a young adult’s knowledge about the privilege and wealth that were part of his life as a fourth-generation oil family, his first reaction was shame that he couldn’t fit in with the radical and opinionated group he wanted to be part of in college.

It didn’t take him too long, however, to realize that there didn’t have to be a contradiction.

“Wealth and privilege are a fact of my life and the lives of my family. Now what can we make of all this?” he said.

The choice for him became between choosing a quiet life and not doing anything, or joining up with the activists who were using their wealth to effect social change.

“America has a niche for everyone, don’t you think?” Armstrong said.

Armstrong chose to establish the Bamboo Fund as a donor-advised fund of The Community Foundation because he lives in Boulder, thought his work would meld nicely with the mission of the foundation, and hoped that he would be able to leverage his experience with other local donors. For more information, please check out www.bamboofund.org.