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.
