Upping the Ante for Racial Equity
Marian Godfrey Gardner traces her interest in racial equity to living in Atlanta, Georgia, as a child during the Jim Crow era. Her parents spent “a great deal of time and effort” to teach her and her siblings that Black people deserved the same respect as they themselves did.
Another early lesson in racial awareness came in Ankara, Turkey, where Gardner’s father worked with the United Nations and the Turkish government to start the Middle East Technical University. In her three years there, Gardner heard her classmates at the Army school say ugly things about the Turks. “That experience in Ankara demonstrated how fearful Americans could be about those who are different,” says Gardner, “and how unfair and cruel we can be in expressing that fear.”
While fairness and respect became deeply held values, Gardner admits she did not come to appreciate the structural sources of racism and racial bias, including her own, until recently. Now she is trying to make up for lost time and lost opportunities, “to compensate for my earlier carelessness and my enduring privilege.”
When Gardner, a seasonal resident of the island of Vinalhaven, came into some money last year, her first thought was to up the ante on her giving, with racial equity a focus. She asked her investment advisor about donating the full required distribution of her IRA to her donor-advised fund at the Maine Community Foundation.
There was a hitch: In determining how this donation could be tax-deductible, Gardner learned that she would need to make the gift directly to MaineCF rather than to her fund.
She turned to Director of Philanthropy and Donor Services Hannah Whalen and Senior Program Officer Gloria Aponte C. at MaineCF to figure out where the funds might be directed for greatest impact. They suggested the gift, supplemented by a smaller donation from Gardner’s donor-advised fund, would cover an entire year’s budget – about $100,000 – for the Investing in Leaders of Color program. Gardner already knew and admired the program, which supports nonprofit leaders of color and their organizations by providing one-on-one coaching, a stipend for professional development and operating costs, and networking opportunities. She signed on; her gift will cover the 2022 cohort.
Gardner first came to MaineCF in 2019 to set up a donor-advised fund. She knows a lot about community foundations, having worked as an arts grantmaker for many years, including her 23-year tenure as director of culture at the Pew Charitable Trusts (she retired in 2012). “Community foundations fill a particular, and extremely important niche within the ecosystem of public and private support of our [philanthropic] sector,” she notes, adding, “They have in-depth knowledge of the strengths and needs of their communities.”
Gardner set up Ada’s Journey Fund specifically to increase her support for arts and cultural organizations on Vinalhaven and in Maine (she has served on the boards of Maine College of Art & Design and the Haystack Mountain School of Craft). More and more she is on the lookout for opportunities to support the intersection between the arts and social and racial justice.
Working with MaineCF, Gardner says, has been great, calling the foundation responsive, helpful, and patient in her transactions. “I especially enjoy the enthusiasm I share with Hannah and Gloria about the Investing in Leaders of Color program, its progress, and my ability to advance its future work.”
Noting that her personal community is quite small — “family and a small number of close friends with whom I am capable of sharing love, companionship, and material support” — Gardner and her giving reflect a passion for the greater good and her mission to advance the arts and racial equity in Maine.
