The Council on Foundations has announced the Social Equity Collaborative Fund (SECF) as the recipient of the Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking.

Established in 1984 in honor of the late Robert Winston Scrivner, the Scrivner Award honors an innovative grantmaker who, with a combination of vision, principle, and personal commitment, has made a critical difference in a creative way. Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties accepted the award for the equity-focused pooled grantmaking fund, which works to cede power to historically marginalized, “hard to find or hard to fund” racial justice groups in Imperial and San Diego counties.

SECF receives funding from foundations but operates with an entirely independent steering committee composed of subject matter and community experts with direct lived experience. Catalyst connects funders to SECF and assumes the fundraising burden, freeing the steering committee to focus on fostering trusted relationships with grassroots organizers and ensuring that “knows traditional philanthropy and fundraising” is not a qualification. 

“One of the shifts that the SECF commits to is to share power with networks that are closest to the harms inflicted on their communities through structural and historic racism,” said Social Equity Collaborative Fund chair Steve Eldred. “Recognize that funders and grantees can be part of the same ecosystems working for transformational social change and trust that grassroots community partners have a greater understanding of the changes that are needed, and how to get there.”

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