Commentary by Philip Henderson, President

Twice in the past month, I have had the pleasure of hearing Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, speak.  The first occasion was at Surdna's Strong Local Economies grantee convening at the end of October in Baltimore, and the second was just last week at the annual Board Leadership Forum hosted by BoardSource in San Francisco.  Angela has been crisscrossing the continent over the past couple months promoting the new edition of her book, Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America's Future, co-authored by Manuel Pastor and Stewart Kwoh.  The audiences and context for the two speeches I witnessed were different, but Angela's finely tuned message was the same for both: we must lead with equity.  We, as nonprofits and foundations, cannot do our work in economic development, in health care, in environmental preservation, in education successfully, without first considering the equity problem.  Angela's message is crystal clear and compelling.  In order to solve the social problems we care about, we must put equity first and face it head on.  Only by solving the equity challenge are we going to make deep and sustainable change in the areas we care about.