Book Discussion: "Decolonizing Wealth" by Edgar Villanueva

Join POWER supporters and philanthropy leaders from across the region for evening with Edgar Villanueva, Vice President of Programs and Advocacy at the Schott Foundation for Public Education, author of Decolonizing Wealth, on Tuesday, December 11th, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM at Congregation Rodeph Shalom  in Center City Philadelphia, for a discussion about rethinking the way we fund non-profits, reimagining the relationship between donor and recipient, and recreating balance and healing in our world. Doors open at 5:00 PM.

Decolonizing Wealth interweaves personal storytelling with field research and dozens of funder interviews to provide a prescriptive analysis of the challenges facing philanthropy and social finance. In the book, author Edgar Villanueva outlines "7 Steps to Healing" that funders can use to better serve the needs of Native/Indigenous people, people of color, and other marginalized communities to close the racial wealth gap.

About the Author:

Edgar Villanueva joined the Schott Foundation as Vice President of Programs and Advocacy on June 1, 2015. In this role, Edgar guides the Foundation’s resource delivery strategy, including the provision of grantmaking, communications, network building, and policy advocacy supports.

Edgar has significant philanthropy experience, beginning his grantmaking career in 2005 as a Senior Program Officer at the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, a $600 million health equity-focused foundation in Winston-Salem, NC. Most recently, Edgar served as a Program Officer for the National and Midwest Portfolios at the Marguerite Casey Foundation in Seattle, WA. There he managed a multi-million dollar grants portfolio focused on building capacity for progressive change through multi-issue movement building.

Edgar also brings executive director experience to his new role, having served in that capacity for Quality Enhancement for Nonprofit Organizations (QENO), a partnership between the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), philanthropic and civic organizations focused on providing capacity building to regional nonprofits and foundations. In 2011, he was named the founding Executive Director of the North Carolina American Indian Health Board, a statewide nonprofit working to advance health equity for American Indians through research, education, and advocacy.

For many years, Edgar has been a social justice advocate for youth and communities of color, and he has held leadership roles on various boards and advisory committees such as The Executives’ Alliance to Expand Opportunities for Boys and Men of Color and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Forward Promise National Advisory Committee.

Edgar earned a bachelor of arts from Jackson College of Ministries, a bachelor of science in public health from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of health administration from the UNC Gillings Global School of Public Health. He is a native of North Carolina and an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe.