“Working with Justice Funders has enabled us to deepen our leadership development offerings and move further in our commitment to elevating equity and justice in philanthropy.” - Kathy Sessions, Executive Director, Health and Environmental Funders Network

Coaching & Consulting

Our clients build their capacity to take bigger risks and make larger investments in Just Transition movements that are building economic power in BIPOC and working-class communities and nourish local, regenerative solidarity economies.

We accompany foundations on their journeys of individual and organizational transformation, supporting them in taking meaningful actions, however small, that embody the new ways of being that they may have never thought were possible.

Our Philosophy

Justice Funders believes that a Just Transition for Philanthropy requires each foundation – and the individual leaders within it – to expand their imaginations beyond their current practices, beyond what other foundations have ever done, and beyond what the field of institutional philanthropy has ever imagined. But to turn our wildest dreams for philanthropic transformation into reality, practice is essential. Our Consulting team supports the staff and trustees of philanthropic institutions who are inspired by our vision of a Just Transition for Philanthropy to begin taking meaningful actions, however small, that embody and experience those new ways of being that we may have never thought were possible. Inspired by emergent strategy, we believe that fractal behaviors in philanthropy have the power to shape patterns of behavior at a field-wide level.

We work with a range of organizations including private foundations, public foundations, intermediaries and philanthropic support organizations on a wide range of engagements including:

  • Staff & board political education and training on the core Justice Funders thought leadership (History of Philanthropy, Resonance and Just Transition Values, Just Transition Investment Framework) as well as critical issues facing philanthropy such as reparations and land rematriation
  • Board development and learning around themes related to power and libratory governance values and practices
  • Developing an inquiry based strategic framework and implementation plan to guide a foundation in the next three to five years of its evolution
  • Training sessions on team and culture building, effective communication skills and conflict engagement tools
  • Stewarding cross departmental operations and programs in spend down phase
  • Empowering individual and team changemakers with coaching, advisement and technical assistance
  • Refresh of organizational mission, vision and values though generative storytelling
Our Approach

Justice Funders provides guidance and accompaniment to philanthropic leaders and institutions on their journeys of individual and organizational transformation. We create and hold containers for shared learning, identify openings for possibility, and support the co-creation and experimentation of new practices that operationalize the vision and values of Just Transition. We recognize that organizational change efforts require skills & capacity building, leadership development, and shifts in organizational culture, as well as navigating the dynamics of race, power and privilege within philanthropic institutions.

Our consulting engagements are highly relational and highly customized to each client’s strengths, challenges and experiences. We are excited to work with foundations who are ready to go far beyond basic Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) trainings, to fundamentally reimagine how philanthropic institutions operate by redistributing wealth and power to BIPOC and working class communities who are building the just and equitable future we all want to live in.

While we prioritize working with institutions that have actively engaged with Justice Funders through our membership and other program offerings, we are open to working with institutions that are new to our networks and drawn to our vision of a Just Transition for Philanthropy.

Our team brings a unique set of practices, approaches, and lenses to our consulting engagements, which we believe sets us apart from other consultants.

  • Coaching methodology
  • Systems lens
  • Adult learning theory
  • Appreciative inquiry
  • Transformational approaches
  • Somatic practices
  • Embedded learning – Praxis/Experimentation
  • Anti-oppression lens
  • Conflict literacy

We prefer to engage in long-term relationships with clients to help them achieve substantive change. Thus our consulting practice is currently full with renewing and/or ongoing clients. We will be able to consider new clients for engagements beginning in July 2025 and beyond.

"Rachel helped me clarify by own goals. These conversations helped me understand how to approach each challenge in a way that was best for both the organization and for the organization's grantees and beneficiaries. Her questions helped me understand and see the impacts of everyone's choices." -David Gordon, Co-Director of Programs, International Rivers, former Executive Director of The Goldman Environmental Foundation

Past & current clients

Access Strategies Fund
Arcus Foundation
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
Borealis Philanthropy
Boston Impact Initiative
The California Endowment
California Foodshed Funders
The California Wellness Foundation
CARESTAR Foundation
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Chorus Foundation
Compton Foundation
Connecticut Council for Philanthropy
CS Fund
Cultural Survival
East Bay Community Foundation
East Bay Foundation on Aging
Environmental Grantmakers Association
Food and Farm Communications Fund
Four Freedoms Fund
Fund for Housing Opportunity
Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation

Global Greengrants Fund
Grantmakers for Education
Grove Foundation
Health and Environment Funders Network
Humanity United
I Be Black Girl – BLAC Fund
International Funders for Indigenous Peoples
Latino Community Foundation
Meyer Memorial Trust
Neighborhood Funders Group
Northern California Grantmakers
Patagonia
Peter Kiewet Foundation and the Sherwood Foundation
Pride Foundation
ReWork the Bay
Richmond Funders Forum
The San Francisco Foundation
Stupski Foundation
Swift Foundation
Weissberg Foundation
Wildseeds Fund
Women’s Foundation of Oregon