Empowering People with Disabilities Through New Grant Making Strategies
Catherine Townsend, Program Officer, Wellspring Advisors
Many grantmakers simply aren’t aware of how many people have disabilities—about 20 percent of the United States population and 10 percent of the world’s population is comprised of people with disabilities. In working toward the full inclusion of historically under-funded groups, it is critical that funders specifically address the needs of people with disabilities. Further, we need to approach disability grantmaking in ways that uphold the dignity and human rights of people with disabilities.
Many people hear the word “disability” and immediately think of health and medical issues, rather than thinking of people. But people with disabilities are people first. They happen to have a disability as well, which is part of human diversity. But people with disabilities are not the problem. In other words, we don’t need to fix people with disabilities. The problem is the social and physical barriers that people with disabilities face—from how someone gets into a building to how they are treated in the workplace.
Fundamental rights like the right to go to school, the right to marry, the right to have children and the right to have a job—things that most of us take for granted—these rights are simply not among the opportunities or expectations enjoyed by many people with disabilities around the world. Approaching disability from a human rights perspective means stating, unequivocally, that people with disabilities are just like everybody else and are entitled to the same rights as everyone else. A human rights approach to disability grantmaking also means safeguarding these rights through reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been a catalyst for change in pushing us to understand disability as a frontline human rights issue. The Convention—which 143 nations, not including the United States by the way, have signed—promotes “the full realization of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all persons with disabilities without discrimination of any kind on the basis of disability."
Involving the people impacted by an issue is important to achieve inclusive and diverse grantmaking in any field in philanthropy. As it pertains to disability grantmaking in particular, it is critical that we actively seek to support organizations run by and for people with disabilities. This may not be a concept with which donors are very familiar in terms of the disabled community. Historically, groups that are run by people with disabilities have not had access to the same level of resources. Therefore it is sometimes easier for grantmakers to support the groups that might seem to be stronger and have deeper experience, and not see that organizations run by people with disabilities need to be strengthened and need to be supported in order to push their work forward.
Too often others have spoken for people with disabilities, and it is critical for people with disabilities to be in position to speak for themselves and to advocate for their own rights and needs as equal participants in society. As the slogan goes, “Nothing about us without us.”
In terms of disability grantmaking, this requires moving away from using a traditional health or charity model, which implicitly assumes the position that we want to help people with disabilities. Instead, grantmakers should proceed from the understanding that people with disabilities are in the best position to know what they need and how they can be empowered to help themselves. This is the difference between short-term and long-term empowerment.
To learn more about taking a rights-based approach to disability grantmaking, please visit the website of the International Human Rights Funders Group (IHRFG) and read about its Disability Rights Working Group http://www.ihrfg.org/members/disability.php. You can also sign up for its listserv by emailing DisabilityRights-subscribe@topica.com.
Catherine Hyde Townsend is a Program Officer at Wellspring Advisors where she manages a portfolio focused on the human rights of persons with disabilities. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Disability Funders Network and the Steering Committee of the Disability Rights Fund. Prior to joining Wellspring, Ms. Townsend worked at the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Between 1995 and 1999, she worked in the internal consulting and investment banking divisions of JP Morgan.