The New York Times, June 30, 2020: With Books and New Focus, Mellon Foundation to Foster Social Equity
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the largest humanities philanthropy in the United States, announced Tuesday that it is adjusting its mission to give greater emphasis in its grant-giving to programs that promote social justice.
The strategic refocus was approved by the foundation’s board earlier this month at the same meeting at which it authorized spending for an initiative born of the new ethos — a $5.3 million program to distribute large, curated collections of books to prisons across the country.
Though the discussion at the foundation to invest more deeply in issues of social justice predates the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed, Elizabeth Alexander, the president of the foundation, said that the moment of national introspection born of his death made the shift feel particularly timely.
“I had always been thinking about what stories haven’t been told, what knowledge hasn’t been seen as precious, what voices have been denied to us?” she said in an interview.
