Meet-A-FLiP: Marcus Littles

As FLiP continues to explore the issue of diversity in grantmaking, we had the opportunity to meet Marcus Littles. Marcus has over ten years experience working in communities of color as an educator, advocate and grantmaker. We recently talked with Marcus about his career to glean lessons learned for professionals interested in affecting change in communities of color. Through his experience as a program officer for the Ford Foundation and recent work with the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation at Rutgers University, Marcus provides suggestions for how grantmakers can impact communities of color in a way that strengthens not only the organizations they fund but also the local leadership.

Future Leaders in Philanthropy (FLiP): Tell us a little about yourself, where you went to school, what you majored in, and the interests that led you to a job in philanthropy.

Marcus Littles (ML): I'm from Mobile, Alabama and went to Auburn University and graduated with a degree in Public Relations.  Following graduation, I worked as an Assistant Director of Admissions for a small community college in rural Alabama before attending graduate school at the University of Delaware where I graduated with a Master's Degree in Public Administration, concentrating in Nonprofit Leadership and Community Development.  Following graduate school I went to teach 7th grade in South Africa for six months prior to taking a Presidential Management Internship with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in DC.

FLiP: What led you to a career in philanthropy?

ML: I had very limited knowledge of the power or significance of the medium of philanthropy as a social change vehicle, but had over my brief career began to ask questions around how change happens, and what are the institutional factors that contribute to changing communities?  Initially I thought community change was dependant on good programs or cool ideas.  However, working in philanthropy helped me understand that community change is more about strong institutions and effective leaders.  Philanthropy is such a powerful venue because it plays the role of enabling community-driven progress, as opposed to trying to create change. Philanthropy helps empower community leaders to implement their own vision for community progress and growth.  While at HUD, I was offered and accepted a position at the Ford Foundation as a Program Associate.  Although I did not know a lot about philanthropy at the time, I did know that Ford Foundation was an institution that was committed to, and well-resourced to affect change in communities. 

FLiP: What were your responsibilities as a Program Associate with the Ford Foundation? How did your education help prepare you for this role?

ML: As a Program Associate for the Community and Resource Development Unit of the Ford Foundation, I was responsible for providing programmatic and analytical support and strategic development for three community development grantmaking portfolios, totaling $12 million dollars annually.  The three portfolios focused on: Community Philanthropy: Race and Equity in the American South, Youth Affecting Community Transformation, and Community Technology Centers. 

Both my undergraduate and graduate education prepared me for my work at the Ford Foundation. In school I was given a venue to learn to ask the right questions necessary to solve organizational and community problems.  So, it's not just about identifying the problems a community faces, but also what are the assets it possesses.  I have been fortunate to have been nurtured in educational and professional settings that have encouraged and developed my ability to ask questions, both about community deficits and community assets.  These learning environments have been invaluable in my professional and personal development, by challenging me to look beyond short-term prescriptive programs, but rather to continue to learn and grow with community partners in identifying the salient questions.

FLiP: What are two or three critical lessons you learned as a grantmaker through your work with the Community and Resource Development unit?

ML: First, the role of a good grantmaker is to empower and enable community change agents to strengthen their communities, NOT to control and conceive of ideas to solve community problems.
I think funders have to acknowledge and validate that the experts in communities are the people who live and work there.

I remember one instance where there was a group site visit to a very economically distressed community and the objective for the funders’ site visit was to get a collective understanding of the most pertinent issues that the communities in the city faced, and then develop a collaborative fund to address some of these issues.  The site visit was composed of meetings with high level government officials, heads of the community action agencies, etc.  As the site visit went on, I snuck away from one of the meetings and went across the street to a barbershop in one of the city’s poor neighborhoods.  I sat in the barbershop for almost an hour talking to young African American boys and men about the issues that were the most troubling for them in the city, and they talked about public safety and violence, etc.  Their experience and insights were completely different than those of the mayor, and his senior staff.  I think it's vital that funders are careful and discerning about WHO represents the interests of the people impacted most by the problems a community faces. 

Second, the organizations most responsive to the articulated needs of the community are most often ones whose staff and governance structure are most representative of the constituency that they seek to serve.  These organizations understand that diversity is not a "strategy" or merely good "public relations practice," but is a value that will make organizations more effective and responsive to their constituents.

You will find that some foundations will request a diversity chart as part of each grant application, which discloses the race, gender, and age diversity of each organization’s staff and board. This can be a helpful indicator of whether the organization mirrors the community it serves, reflecting the organization’s value and commitment to diversity.

Third, philanthropy professionals (grantmakers or fundraisers) have to get out of the office.  It's important to regularly SEE the work, and not just read reports or write grants.  We have to connect to the work with our eyes and ears.

FLiP: You recently transitioned to working for Rutgers University to help with recovery efforts in the Mississippi/Louisiana region after Hurricane Katrina; what were you hired to do and what have been the results of your work?

ML: I was initially contracted by Rutgers University to scan the Gulf Coast region immediately following the hurricanes, with an eye towards identifying organizations and community leaders to which the Ford Foundation could distribute its initial investments in the region.  Recommendations from my colleagues and I led to $20 million dollars in investments to the Gulf Coast for recovery by the Ford Foundation within the first year following the hurricanes.  After initial consultation with Rutgers University, Ford invested helped to establish the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation (IRCT).  IRCT is a university-based effort that assists community residents and leaders in the public and private sectors to frame workable policies that will bolster the political, economic, and social participation of marginalized communities within larger metropolitan economies and societies.  As a learning initiative, the IRCT helps communities and community-based organizations understand and articulate their understanding of the links between the fortunes of poor places they are seeking to rebuild, the regional community, and intermediaries that might help them develop new and innovative public policies.

Currently my role with IRCT is as a Project Director, where my responsibilities include providing program development support and technical assistance to four Ford Foundation Gulf Coast grantees, as well as programmatically leading the Gulf Coast Young Leaders Network, which seeks to provide venues for leaders in the Gulf region under the age of 40 to engage one another, and strategize around how to collectively be agents of positive change in Gulf Coast communities.

FLiP: In your experience, how have issues of diversity impacted your experience as a professional and grantmaker?

ML: I have had the benefit of working with and for a range of people and institutions, many of which value and understand the importance of diversity, and some of which did not.  Institutional philanthropy has not historically been a field in which the decision-making and governance structures have been ethnically diverse.   The vital role that philanthropy stands to play in building more communities where access to opportunity is more equitable to all is too important to be stifled by homogenous boards of directors, and staff persons that do not adequately represent the demographics and experiences of the communities they seek to improve.  My value for diversity as a professional is rooted in my desire to do my job well.  So, diversity isn’t a politically correct best practice, but rather my experience has taught me that governance structures that are representative of the constituencies they serve are most effective in connecting with and empowering that constituency.  I have found that most often community organizations that have staff people who live in, and/or are from the community within which they work, often have the capacity to identify issues most reflective of the local communities’ voice.  I have seen numerous examples in my professional and civic life of how a diversity of voices has led to a more inclusive and effective community problem solving process.

FLiP: What advice/suggestions would you share with other young professionals who are currently working for or who are interested in philanthropy designed to work with communities of color?

ML: The best suggestion I can offer for philanthropy professionals is not to underestimate your power and responsibility to affect change.  Philanthropy's power is in its capacity to transfer power to communities to engage in their own problem solving, innovation, mobilizing people and ideas, and realizing vision for their communities.  Philanthropy designed to work with communities of color must transfer power, and not wield it under falsely altruistic pretense.  Grantmakers have the ability to change the leadership landscape for institutions that set policies and allocate resources in historically disenfranchised communities.  Philanthropy can invest in new leaders, it can encourage institutions to empower and equip more people of color in institutional leadership positions.

The work of eliminating disparities, creating more equitable access to opportunities, and building strong communities is really big and hard work, however it is our work.  So, grantmaking that will be impactful in communities of color both provides resource for programs and services in these communities, but it also consists of combating the systems and policies that are and have been barriers to equitable access to positive educational, economic, and social outcomes for people of color.

For example, it is important that resources allocated to support academic enrichment after school programs in low income African American and Latino communities where students are performing at a substandard level, be accompanied by resources allocated to support and empower community-based groups to hold the school system accountable for the disparities that may exist between the school facilities, staff, technology, etc. at the schools in the low performing communities of color, and the higher performing schools.  Funders must not compartmentalize issues of diversity and race.  Whether investing in capacity building, leadership or organizational development or issues of education, public policy, or economic development, it is vital that grantmakers are honest and hold institutions accountable around issues of race and diversity.

Comments

[Tom Watson]

Excellent post - great interview - loved the story of the barbershop. As a journalist, I always try and do that kind of thing - get away from the party line, look around, just sit and listen. Great advice.