The Powerbitches Interview: Sharlene Kemler

Powerbitches May salon guest, Sharlene Kemler

Our May Salon guest Sharlene Kemler is on a mission to make philanthropy more effective and inclusive.

Through her consultancy SK Philanthropy, Sharlene works with pro-athletes, entertainers, and high net worth individuals to direct their money where it will make the most impact. Now she is working on her most ambitious project yet: Modern Philanthropy Collective, a minority-led social impact fund that is changing the face of philanthropy and creating a new philanthropic system in which generational wealth and sustainable impact can be obtained within minority communities.

We sat down with Sharlene to talk about power, purpose, and how she believes philanthropy needs to change.

PB: What drives your work?

SK: What it really comes down to is my passion for social sustainability. I want the people running non-profits to be able to do the work they’re passionate about, which is program development, instead of spending their time jumping through hoops to get funding.  SK Philanthropy and Modern Philanthropy Collective are disrupting the way philanthropy is being done by prioritizing inclusion in every aspect of our model. We believe that in order to achieve sustainable impact we need to close the racial equity gap impacting communities of color nationwide.  

PB: How does that sense of purpose play out in each of your projects?

“SK Philanthropy and Modern Philanthropy Collective prioritize inclusion in every aspect of our model.”

SK: With SK Philanthropy, I work with entertainers and athletes to match them with a nonprofit that fits their interests, image, and desired impact. Often when people with high profiles and lots of financial resources want to do good, they think the logical next step is to start their own nonprofit, but partnering with an existing nonprofit is often a far more impactful and efficient use of their money. We highlight the impact they could have giving $150K over five years, as opposed to spending $150K just to launch a nonprofit, before you even get anything done.

Modern Philanthropy Collective is designed to close the equity gap for minorities. There are over 1.5 million nonprofits in the US, and less than 11 percent are led by a person of color. Most grant managers at foundations and heads of giving in private industry are older white men, who give to the same organizations over and over again. There is a real mismatch between the communities receiving the services and the people funding them. Modern Philanthropy Collective addresses that mismatch by bringing together donors to fund projects and organizations led by people of color. We also have a really innovative financing model that’s part traditional philanthropy and part social impact fund.

PB: How did you get into doing this kind of work?

SK: I started my career in cause marketing, working first with Ben & Jerry’s on their global warming tour, and later with Lifebeat on HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness. In both of those roles, I saw first hand the impact celebrities can have when it comes to mobilizing people and passing legislation. If I talk to young people about condoms or how I lost my virginity, it’s like being lectured by your mom. If Snoop Dogg does it, people pay attention. The reach celebrities have is a gift that not everybody gets. So why not use it for good?

Part of my job at Lifebeat was to connect performers with local community groups who could set up stalls at concerts when they were on tour and educate their audiences about the rise of HIV/AIDS amongst youth in America. Some of the managers would come back to me the following year and say, “We love what you did, but we’re working on a different cause now - are there any organizations you can connect us with?” So I’d use my contacts to connect them with new organizations. I’d been wanting to branch out on my own for a while, and my husband pointed out that this work I was doing for free was the beginnings of a business. And that’s how SK Philanthropy was born.

PB: One of the reasons we started Powerbitches is to give entrepreneurs a community to talk about the challenges involved in doing big, ambitious work, often without much of a support structure around you. What have challenges have you faced running SK Philanthropy?

SK: I don’t always take everyone who wants to work with me. And that’s kind of hard, because a lot of celebrities are surrounded by yes people, and it throws them off when I tell them no. At the end of the day, I’m always going to be extra protective of the nonprofits I work with. If something goes wrong, the celebrity will always have their money, but the nonprofit will face backlash that could impact their funding for years to come. So some people who come to me, I have to tell them no. If you’re really passionate, you can donate anonymously, but I’m not going to let you use this nonprofit to help your PR.

“If I talk to young people about condoms, it’s like being lectured by your mom. If Snoop Dogg does it, people pay attention.”

PB: All of your work is grounded in the idea that we need to rethink the way philanthropy operates. How does philanthropy need to change?

SK: The model we have right now is a very old-school model. 501c3s and 501c4s are really restricted in what they’re able to do, in ways that make it really hard to create sustainable impact. For instance, if you’re a 501c3 you’re not allowed to lobby. But one of the main ways groups get policies passed in Congress is because they’re able to hire a really kickass lobbyist. Do you mean to get me a 501c3 on gun violence can’t have someone working for them on the Hill? Most donations from large private institutes have restrictions. Donors need to stop micromanaging their donations and believe in the organization and its efforts. Creating restrictions on funds forces nonprofits to move away from their original mission. The philanthropic sector needs to address the racial equity gap plaguing communities by diversifying their funding model.

PB: How do you hope Modern Philanthropy Collective will change that?

SK: That we’re minority-led matters. It’s important for the communities being served to see people who reflect them both in the organizations doing service provision and advocacy, and in the people doing funding. You understand the issues a bit better, whether it’s maternal death rates for women of color or inequality in education for children of color, because you’ve lived with them yourself. I’m done with the white savior complex. Research has shown that having a fund that mirrors the population it serves is critical for sustainable development. That’s what I’m trying to do with the Collective.

In addition to being minority-led, one of the most important things we’re doing is creating a model that will free both Modern Philanthropy Collective and the organizations we work with from constantly having to chase funding. Instead of just giving a gift and walking away, all of our capital will be split evenly between two initiatives: a more straightforward, traditional grant, and our mission-related investment portfolio. By putting part of our money into VC companies and hedge funds that are minority led and run, in the medium term we’ll be able to use our profits to fund our grant work instead of relying on foundations and corporate funders. It’s a powerful model, and I’m excited to put it into action!

Sharlene Kemler will be in conversation with Powerbitches founder Rachel Hills at our next Salon event, on May 30. Click here for more information and to secure your tickets.

The Powerbitches Interview: Robin Marty

Journalist Robin Marty with her new book, Handbook For A Post-Roe America.

Our April salon speaker is journalist and author Robin Marty. We first fell in love with Robin’s work through her deep dive investigative pieces on the repro rights landscape for publications like Cosmopolitan, Rewire, and Rolling Stone, which make complex policy debates concrete and human. Her new book, Handbook for a Post-Roe America is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is likely to unfold when it comes to abortion rights in the United States over the next few years, and who wants to be able to prepare for it - personally or politically.

We sat down with Robin to talk about what the map is likely to look like, how we got where we are now, and how she funds her investigative reporting.

“The right needs abortion in order to motivate voters and achieve an electoral majority.” - Robin Marty

Powerbitches: How did you get started writing about reproductive rights?

Robin Marty: I had been a progressive activist for a while, but I started writing personally in 2009 after I had a miscarriage. We were expecting our second child and I assumed everything was fine until the 12-week checkup, where we found out there wasn’t a heartbeat and the baby had stopped growing at 8 weeks. My OB didn’t know how to do a D&C, so I had to try to find another doctor who would help me take care of it. It happened right at the moment they were having the debate about whether abortion should be allowed in the insurance exchange, and I wrote about my experience for RH Reality Check (now Rewire). One of the things that struck me was how many people responded to the article saying that it was okay for me to have an abortion because the baby had stopped developing. But it’s all the same procedure, all the same hospital paperwork. That was the moment when I really understood that it’s all the same, and it’s just that we’re creating these fine lines between what is acceptable and unacceptable.

PB: In your first book Crow After Roe, you look at how, although abortion is technically currently legal in the United States, the pro-life movement has whittled away at rights and access on a state and local level. How has that played out? And how has the addition of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court change that?

RM: At the time we were writing the book, there were all these model legislations being floated by red state legislatures. This was the first time a fetal heartbeat bill had been introduced, the first time a 20-week ban had been introduced. All of these bills were designed to go to the Supreme Court. They were written to appeal to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was then the swing vote on the court, trying to persuade him to come up with a new line at which abortion should be banned. Now with Kavanaugh on the court, the swing vote is Chief Justice John Roberts, who has publicly said that he believes Roe was wrongly decided. Right now, we have 20 different cases that are right at the approach of the Supreme Court. My guess is that the court will overturn Roe, but not until after the 2020 election. The right needs abortion in order to motivate voters and achieve an electoral majority. It’s the same reason I don’t think we’re ever going to see a total federal abortion ban in the United States. There are too many people who will vote Republican because they want to make abortion illegal, but who don’t agree with them on anything else.

Stock photo of a pro-life street preacher taken during Robin’s reporting in Louisville, Kentucky. Image credit: Robin Marty.

PB: For a lot of people, the idea of a “Post-Roe America” evokes images of a Handmaid’s Tale-style dystopia. Is that realistic? What should we expect?

RM: We’re basically going to a situation where abortion is legal on the northern part of the East Coast, on the West Coast, in Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois, and Minnesota, and illegal through most of the rest of the country. Wisconsin and Michigan should be able to keep things in place, but it depends on who is in power. In some ways, the pro-choice movement is really well prepared for this situation: there are activists and organizations who are already transporting patients interstate to receive treatment, the system is just going to have to be embellished. The other side of it is that unlike before Roe v Wade, doing abortions ourselves at home is much safer than it was prior to the 1970s. We have a system where people can obtain medical abortion safely, but we don’t yet have a legal system that accepts it. There’s no medical reason a clinician needs to be present when a person ingests mifepristone, but legally restricting the use of telemedicine is an effective way to restrict access. One way activists are fighting back is through a bill called the Pregnant Person’s Dignity Act, which argues that every person should be free from scrutiny if they’ve had a miscarriage or other difficult situation in their pregnancy. Because once abortion is illegal, every miscarriage is a suspected abortion.

PB: We first encountered your work as a reporter for outlets like Cosmopolitan, Rewire, and Rolling Stone, writing incredibly detailed investigative pieces that put a human face on the reproductive rights landscape. Of all the stories you’ve covered and the people you’ve met along the way, what are the ones that have most stayed with you?

RM: One of the most interesting stories to me was traveling to Idaho and meeting Brandi Swindell, who was working to position her organization Stanton Healthcare as “the new Planned Parenthood,” only without abortion. She was the first “pro-life feminist” I had encountered, and it was the first time I really understood how someone could view themselves as a feminist but not believe in access to birth control. It was puzzling to me, but also really fascinating. We were so close on so many issues, but because we disagree on abortion, we can’t work together on any of them.

“Look at where your closest clinic is. How far away is it? Would you need to travel? Do you need to start saving for your own abortion fund?” - Robin Marty

PB: How do you fund that kind of deep reporting work - especially when it involves travel?

RM: [laughs] I’m broke most of the time. I self-fund a lot of my work and just hope for the best. I’ve found granting organizations can be good at providing the money needed for things like travel, but there’s often an extra layer of editorial that goes on top of that. There are things they want to see that the story doesn’t always bear out. I try hard to make sure everything I do stands up to scrutiny. I have abortion opponents who are more than willing to throw me up against the wall, and on the other hand, abortion rights reporters who are worried that [through Robin’s reporting and her podcast Ask An Anti] I’m too close to the enemy.

What’s the number #1 thing you recommend pro-choice people do to prepare for life after Roe?

If you have any money, give money to an abortion fund. They are doing all the work to move people from place to place so they can access the care they need. Also, look at where your closest clinic is. How far away is it? Would you need to travel? Do you need to start saving for your own abortion fund? Would you need to take time off work? Make a plan now, because it’s going to take money, it’s going to take resources, and it’s going to take time. When you’re pregnant and you don’t want to be, you have to do things fast. And the more information you have, the fast you can move.

Robin Marty will be in conversation with Powerbitches founder Rachel Hills at our next Salon event, on April 25. Click here for more information and to secure your tickets.