Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative’s (MLICCI) Executive Director Carol Burnett was recently featured in a national philanthropic report series with the Grantmakers for Southern Progress called As the South Grows. The series stems from research conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).
The first report in the series, As the South Grows: On Fertile Soil, was released today.
The report chronicles how the philanthropic sector continues to overlook the potential of organizations within the South to combat issues involving civil rights, inclusion and economic justice.
The report also detailed how MLICCI was born out of Burnett’s experience as a provider of child care and job training for low-income women. It noted that Burnett recognized that many of the challenges her organization faced were policy challenges – policies need to be change so the women they worked with and for could experience the economic security they deserved.
“You have evidence that shows that investments in [child care] are good from everywhere you look at it, whether you’re looking at it from the perspective of the child or the parent or the employer or the economy,” said Burnett in the first report of the series. “And yet there is still complete resistance to investing money in this program.”
NCRP’s research also found that “Southern communities are rich with natural leaders and existing organizations – whether incorporated as a 510(c)3 or not – but often funders don’t recognize them. Sometimes, foundations and donors disregard Southern leaders because these individuals seem to lack the educational credentials or formal capacity that grantmakers expect from experienced nonprofit executives. Sometimes, foundations and donors defer to existing power structures by working only with established political, business or social sector leaders.”
To read the entire report, visit As the South Grows: On Fertile Soil.