October Webinar: Funding Systems Change
Systems change requires bold ideas, but it also requires funders willing to invest in those ideas for the long haul. What becomes possible when philanthropy takes responsible risks and provides sustained support for community-centered work addressing systemic injustice?
Join Research in Action and the Bush Foundation for a conversation exploring what it takes to fund and sustain innovative systems-change work. Click here to register!
Using RIA’s Justice in Institutions for Black Women, Girls and Femmes Special Initiative and its partnership with the Bush Foundation as a real-world example, the conversation will highlight how sustained investment has made it possible to build statewide research and evaluation infrastructure, strengthen relationships and collective power among Black women and femme leaders and community partners, and co-create new approaches to institutional change.
RIA and the Bush Foundation will also discuss what funders and organizations need from one another to advance bold, evolving visions for change, particularly at a time when funding for race-, gender-, and class-conscious work is increasingly uncertain.
Free and open to all! Click here to register.
Adora Land
Adora is a grantmaking director for the Bush Foundation. She provides strategic and day-to-day leadership for the Bush Fellowship program. As part of the grantmaking team, Adora also helps find and select the highest potential ideas from communities throughout the region that can lead to high-impact investments for Bush. She is active in community conversations to understand the impact of Bush’s support and serves as a member of Bush’s management team.
Adora joined Bush in 2023. She is a relationship cultivator and a servant leader and served as the managing director of Leadership Development at the African American Leadership Forum. Her experience in the nonprofit sector spans more than a decade as a systems changer, facilitator of resources and connector. Adora is committed to liberation and justice and works to develop collective strategies to increase community wealth through education, economics and leadership development.
She is an avid explorer of the unique culinary experiences of any city. She is a proud native of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dr. Amanda Bolton
Dr. Amanda Bolton is a Senior Research Associate and Research Operations Manager at Research in Action, bringing more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit and government research, evaluation, and community-centered work. A criminologist and applied researcher, she has led and supported projects across criminal justice, education, behavioral health, and racial equity, including correctional reentry initiatives in Kansas and Michigan, the development of a community college Faculty Innovation Hub in Los Angeles, evaluations of substance use programs, and equity audits with California school districts. Dr. Bolton brings a strong foundation in research methodology alongside an ability to build authentic, empathetic relationships with diverse communities. Her work focuses on translating rigorous research and community expertise into meaningful, actionable strategies that strengthen organizations, advance equity, and improve outcomes for the communities they serve.
Ben Levy
Ben Levy is the Lead Research Support Specialist at Research in Action. Bringing anti-appraisal bias and participant-centered program evaluation and coordination experience from their time at Fannie Mae, Ben works to develop meaningful relationships in order to advance racial justice. At RIA, they coordinate and collaboratively lead the Justice in Institutions’ Community Action Council, and collaboratively design qualitative research tools and engagement opportunities to learn and listen to the nuances of communities’ lived expertise.