By Justin Laing | April 5, 2025 | Antiracism
On January 20th, 2025, Donald Trump’s first day of his second term as U.S. President, he signed Executive Order 14169, “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid.” This policy ordered the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the almost $44B agency responsible for 60% of the U.S.’s provision of… Read More >
By Justin Laing | February 12, 2025 | Non reformist reforms, Racial Capitalism
A recent article on the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (PG) headlined that the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) was facing a $7M deficit along with a 12% increase in its costs and a drop in overall revenue of 8% when compared to the pre-pandemic 2018-19 season. Still, the… Read More >
By Justin Laing | December 9, 2022 | Antiracism, Program Summary, Racial Capitalism, Research
Really excited to see Gathering Ground (GG) publishing this “compendium of learning and action” about Elevating Equity (EE)! I was privileged to serve as their partner on EE from July 2021 to July 2022 and a big shout out to the GG team of Elizabeth Murphy, Kacy O’Brien, Jeanette Mitchell,… Read More >
By Justin Laing | November 8, 2022 | Antiracism, Critical Philanthropy, Evaluation, Program Summary
In August of 2020, Hillombo, LLC was invited to lead a Utilization-Focused Evaluation (UFE) of a funding strategy for youth arts programs and to do so using the Equitable Evaluation Initiative Framework (EEIF) created by the Equitable Evaluation Initiative. At the provocation of a participant to use “revolutionary pedagogy” and… Read More >
By Justin Laing | September 21, 2021 | Antiracism, Diversity Inclusion Equity, Research
Not too long ago, I led an evaluation of an arts diversity initiative in which a funder was evaluating the impact of a multi-year initiative intended to help arts organizations increase their level of diversity, equity, and inclusion. All but one of the organizations was predominantly White American led. I… Read More >