Putting Equity at the Centre of Grant-making | CSI Insights Ep. 1

With the many considerations and challenges in grants management, it’s easy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices to take the backseat, and for structural biases to go unnoticed. Corporate Social Impact (CSI) professionals are often tasked with the responsibility of putting equity at the center of grant-making, either in formulating a grant-making approach that directly tackles systemic imbalances, or in embedding EDI principles into existing grant-making practices.

In this episode, we talk to Meenu Bhambhani, Vice President, Head of Corporate Citizenship and Inclusion and Diversity, APAC, at State Street about how practitioners can do this in a cultural landscape as complex and diverse as Asia’s.

Key Moments:

• 01:45 - An Introduction to State Street and Meenu’s role at State Street Foundation
• 02:54 - State Street’s Grant-making, from Massachusetts to Asia Pacific
• 10:54 - How to get started in equity in grant-making without complete knowledge
• 14:02 - The two levels of equity in grant-making
• 15:50 - Meenu’s advice for corporate practitioners looking to get started with equity in grant-making

The Corporate Social Impact Insights series of the Money Meets Mission podcast is part of the AVPN Academy Corporate Social Impact Centre,  which was established in partnership with Johnson & Johnson, Miller Trust and Visa. The center also includes self-paced modules, a library of content, and Learning Circles, which are a monthly series of small group discussions for corporate practitioners. To learn more, visit https://academy.avpn.asia/module-centre/corporate-social-impact-centre/