December 18, 2023

Interview with Fry Foundation Board Chair Amina Dickerson

Amina Dickerson is well known and well regarded in Chicago’s civic community, and she has a successful track record leading several Chicago cultural and philanthropic organizations. Amina continues to build on that record as Board Chair at the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation. She stepped into this new role on July 1, 2023. We thought this was a good time to sit down with Amina to get her views on philanthropic leadership and her role as Chair of the Fry Foundation.

You have broad experience in philanthropy and leadership. You have sat in foundation board rooms as a program director, a board member, and as board chair. What are some of the more interesting developments or trends you have observed and how are these related to the Fry Foundation?

Amina: Last night, we hosted the Fry Foundation’s 11th Annual Diverse Trustees Reception. One of the speakers, Kevin Walker from the Northwest Area Foundation brought up an interesting point that is relevant to the issue of trends and specifically when do trends become ingrained in practice. For example, three years ago we were at the beginning of an international pandemic and in a time of national racial unrest. After the murder of George Floyd there was a real flurry of racial equity work across the private sector, the public sector, and the philanthropic sector. But honestly – how many institutions really stuck with the hard work of racial equity? When new issues emerged, many organizations retrenched and went back to old practices. This begs the question - how can we stick with the work and lean in to ensure that Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Justice work isn’t just another trend? This is where philanthropy can lead the way. Philanthropy has the time and patience to shift a trend into an ingrained practice.

At the Fry Foundation, we recognize that this kind of work requires listening and learning and patience. We recognize that progress doesn’t happen in grant cycles. What part can we play in elevating diversity, equity and inclusion across the Foundation board and staff and all our partners – grantee partners, foundation partners, vendors, and financial managers? Over time, we have seen our grantees dramatically improve the diversity of their own board and staff leadership. Of course, there is still work to do but we are seeing progress. Another example – We, the Fry Foundation, asked our financial advisors to find diverse managers to help oversee our investment portfolio. It required perseverance. We had to push ourselves and our managers. But after some time, we proved to ourselves and our managers that it was worth the effort. Today, more than 60% of our portfolio has diverse managers, something we were told at the outset was not possible.

Philanthropy has the space to do this kind of thinking. We have the grace and the luxury to ask these questions, to challenge ourselves and our partners. And it has literally paid off.

You are now acting as chair for foundation board members responsible for setting funding priorities and policies, interrogating (in a good way) grant recommendations, and approving grants. What are your thoughts about taking on this role?

Amina: Leadership transitions need to be thoughtfully managed. Board leaders have a duty of care. I work in service to my fellow board members, to the foundation mission, and to the program staff who are in the field and leading the way. This is a role where curiosity helps. I listen hard, ask lots of questions, and engage in conversation with my fellow board members and our staff. In a place like the Fry Foundation, we can orient ourselves to our strong traditions and our achievements while being open to new perspectives on how to do the work. I’m hoping to help our board and staff to agree on a shared learning agenda that can help us explore new opportunities built on our own expertise and experience. We have a small board and the luxury to build a kind of intimacy conducive to real dialogue. Everyone gets a chance to contribute and be heard.

We are also moving to a consent agenda for approving grants and pro forma reports. We love to ask questions about individual grants, but the Foundation has excellent program staff and executive leadership, and we trust their expertise. This will create more space for conversation and allow Board members to bring their know-how to funding policy and strategy and to setting longer-term strategic goals.

The foundation also sets aside resources to support convenings around issues pertinent to the areas we fund. This can provide opportunities for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers to have thoughtful discussions on how to resolve systemic challenges and move issues forward. I hope we will be able to do more of that, including bringing diverse trustees together more frequently to explore how best to advance positive change in the board room and for our grantees.

And I should add that one of the Fry Foundation’s strong long-standing traditions is for board members to join staff on site visits. Not all the time, but when appropriate. My predecessor Chip Fry was very disciplined about regularly joining program staff on site visits. And he brought his own perspective from these meetings back to the board room. I hope to continue with this tradition.