Message From Our CEO
When I look back on 2020, my heart and mind fill with powerful memories. Kenneth Rainin Foundation grantees and partners responded to unforeseen challenges and hardships in ways both heroic and compassionate. Across our Arts, Education and Health programs, the year was marked with their resilience and dedication.
Our grantees’ actions highlighted deeply held values and how they center community. Similarly, the Foundation’s newly refined values were essential to guiding our work. Interdependence, creativity and equity are at the heart of what we hope to achieve—for and with the communities we serve. And to serve well, we listen carefully—something my father Kenneth Rainin held paramount. Listening was vital for our staff to understand how to best support grantees as they pivoted to meet urgent needs.
2020 was a year of unimaginable change and loss—both shared and deeply personal. The Foundation mourned the passing of Brian Igoe, our long-time Chief Investment Officer. We are appreciative of his leadership, creativity, compassion and wise risk-taking. We will honor the legacy of a kind and caring man taken from us too soon by continuing to explicitly align our investment policies with our values. I am grateful to our investment team and Ross DeMont in steadying the transition for our organization.
Jennifer Rainin, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
The year also presented opportunities for us to learn and grow, individually and as colleagues. The pandemic’s exposure of long-standing inequities and the uprisings for racial justice intensified our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. As I led the Foundation’s staff in this ongoing work, I pursued my own path of learning. I joined cohorts of other philanthropic leaders who are integrating equity in their organizations, where I found support and expanded my perspectives. The Foundation’s internal journey is strengthening and improving our organization. We are committed to this work and I will continue to share our progress with you.
As I look forward, I am humbled and inspired by our grantees’ compassion and resilience. We will continue to listen as we confront painful truths about race and power and the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts. The actions we take will be grounded in the experiences and needs of our grantees and partners. Together, we can reimagine systems that support a more equitable and just future for the communities we serve.
Thank you to all our grantees and collaborators. It is an honor to be in partnership with you.
Jennifer Rainin, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
“Together, we can reimagine systems that support a more equitable and just future for the communities we serve.”
—Jennifer Rainin, PhD, Chief Executive Officer
Thank you grantees and partners for your dedication and resilience.