Diana Wilson
President & CEO, Faith Partnerships Incorporated
How is the field different today than during your career?
Younger voices were permitted to develop a funding agenda in the 1970s that explored new approaches; encouraged and facilitated collaboration; utilized intermediaries as a creative means of providing funding-enabled groups to gain capacity in areas of governance and program development. Today’s world-avoids uncomfortable is more incestuous than before, and is even less comfortable with religious grantmaking. The impact of Enron and some federal regulations caused donors and some staff members of the philanthropic community to limit their giving for fear of fines and investigations. Risk and creativity - once honored - are now less evident.
When you think of your career, what are you most proud of?
- I am proud of a diverse network of women of faith that came together to explore Faith, Feminism, and Philanthropy.
- Funding municipal incorporation efforts as a means of accessing water and sewer and other resources for southern rural communities that were not otherwise likely to be annexed due to racism.
- Funding a worker-owned sewing factory in Northeastern NC in response to the abrupt departure and relocation of management and company to a South America site.
- Creative use of government funds to leverage foundation funding for faith-based initiatives as well as TANF and VISTA funds used to support programs that ranged from over 90 jobs training programs to assist rural communities with VISTA staff.
What is your wildest dream for Black women in philanthropy?
- Our Sisters must be willing to hold the ladder that younger Sisters might rise!
- Freedom to take risks to encourage creative solutions to systems ills. Value the DARE!
- Value the Differences
- Value the Activist/Activism
- Value the Resources and Research
- Value the Equality that requires us to maximize the power of united voices! We can no longer remain silent about the things that matter!
- Our Sisters must be willing to hold the ladder that younger Sisters might rise!
Bio
Diana Jones Wilson is President and CEO of Faith Partnerships Incorporated, a non-profit organization whose mission and goals are rooted in the idea that the poorest families can be helped through the collaborative efforts of faith-based organizations. A former Robert F. Kennedy Fellow, Diana worked with the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation and the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense and Education Fund to investigate school desegregation in the early 1970s and to document issues of juvenile justice and students’ rights. Since then she has worked with coalitions of religious groups seeking to address issues of equity and economic justice.
Diana served as a foundation officer for The Youth Project and was an early member of ABFE. She completed a ten-year appointment to the North Carolina Child Care Commission where she also served as Chairman. She was President of the International Women’s Club of Liberia, an affiliate of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. She also served on the Board of Directors for Call to Renewal, the National Center for Black Philanthropy, Southerners for Economic Justice, the Southeastern Regional Board of the American Friends Service Committee, the North Carolina ACLU and Highlander Center.