Last week, our team met for our annual Spring retreat to deepen connection—with each other, with history, and with the systems that continue to shape our present.
On Monday, we visited Earth & Climate grantee partner Ekvn-Yefolecv (ee-gun yee-full-lee-juh), where we were invited to be in relationship with the land and learn from their ecological stewardship practices. We enjoyed a meal grown from the land — experiencing what reconnection to heritage can look like in action.
On Tuesday, we toured
@themothersofgynecology Monument alongside sculptor and artist Michelle Browder, honoring the lives and legacies of the Black women whose bodies were exploited in the name of medical advancement—and whose stories are too often erased.
And on Wednesday, our team visited
@eji_org Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice—on the very day the UN formally recognized the Atlantic slave trade as "the gravest crime against humanity." In this space, we reflected on the enduring legacy of racial terror and the systems of white supremacy that continue to shape our institutions today.
These three days weren't incidental to our work — they were our work.
At DWP, we believe that transforming wealth into collective wellbeing requires moving through healing, not around it. Our Reparative Philanthropy Framework is guided by the Seven Steps to Healing — Grieve, Apologize, Listen, Relate, Represent, Invest, and Repair — not as a checklist to complete in order, but as a living, nonlinear practice we return to, again and again.
We stood at the Memorial for Peace and Justice and grieved. We still sat with land keepers and listened. We still looked at the faces of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey and asked what it means to truly represent lives that were taken without consent.
Repair is not a destination. It's a return — to the communities, the land, and the ancestors whose wisdom makes healing for all of us possible.
Our suffering is shared - and so will be our thriving.
#decolonizingwealth
