Meet Camelback's 2021 Capital Collaborators: Jami O'Toole
What drew you to participate in Camelback Ventures’ 2021 Capital Collaborative?
Fear of wasting an opportunity and acknowledging that I had a lot to learn. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation took a step back to deeply examine the impact of our K12 education work and our go forward strategy. It became clear in reflecting on our current work that we had been minimizing the role systemic racism played in hindering student achievement. Our focus shifted from helping to improve student achievement for low-income students to empowering schools and communities to provide better education opportunities for Black and Latinx students. As I tried to conceptualize what this meant in terms of how and where we would invest, I started reading and researching. I realized I had much to learn about shifting from a helping to empowering mentality and truly understanding how systemic racism surfaces in communities and schools. The Capital Collaborative seemed like a great opportunity to embark on my own journey with anti-racism and to learn practical strategies to lead change within our foundation.
What has the highlight of the 2021 program been for you so far?
The Summit experience was an amazing and eye opening experience. The fact base about our country’s history, specific policies that created systems of oppression, and the evolution of philanthropy were a critical foundational component that I had been missing. It made tangible things I had only been exposed to in concept. Seeing the education space from the perspective of a Camelback Fellow was also invaluable. It reinforced the importance and value of really listening and partnering with the stakeholders most proximate to communities.
Why do you believe it is important for white people in particular to do anti-racism work?
White people, whether intentional or not, have created and upheld the policies and systems that perpetuate racism. I don’t think those systems and policies can change until many more white people understand the specific ways they contribute to this. Acknowledging race, learning to talk about it, and understand the role we each play in reinforcing or actively breaking down systems of racism is really hard and emotional work. It’s been valuable to have a group of people grappling with these same issues to learn from and reaffirm that while this is difficult it is worth it.
What is one action you plan to take in the near future to drive racial equity in your role?
I am coordinating with our internal team to define and implement an ongoing process to collect racial demographic data for our grantee portfolio and disaggregate our reach and outcomes data from grants by race. This will allow us to better understand if our grants are focused on the communities we are trying to empower. We have also started an internal audit of our grantmaking process to identify areas that may be barriers to creating a more diverse portfolio of grantees.
What is something you’ve learned that you were excited to share with colleagues, friends, and/or family?
There is so much information that I’ve learned that I want to share with my team. We are kicking off a monthly learning series where we’ll collectively read/watch/engage with content and discuss our reactions, learning and application to our work. While I’m not sure our learning series will do it justice, I’m planning to pull in many of the topics from the Capital Collaborative summit. Specifically, we’ll explore the origins and intent of philanthropy, the federal policies that have created and continued systemic racism, the specific ways systemic racism surfaces in schools, changing the system instead of adapting the students to better navigate the system, and transferring power to proximate leaders.
Camelback Ventures’ Capital Collaborative works with white funders and social impact investors who want to deepen their individual and organizational commitment to racial and gender equity — but may not know how. Our unique approach brings together a community of white accomplices to engage in an introspective and concrete curriculum, to diversify their networks and make their grantmaking processes more equitable. You can learn more and sign up for Camelback Ventures’ next Capital Collaborative, click here.