PFS Staff Spotlight: Angela Eshun

10 Questions for Angela Eshun, Director of Grants Management at Pacific Foundation Services

1. You’re the Director of Grants Management at Pacific Foundation Services. What inspired you to get into philanthropy? 

I’m originally from the UK, and after I graduated from college I was inspired to pursue a career involving social change based on previous work I had done in university. So straightaway, I entered the nonprofit sector and got my experience in fundraising and development. Soon after, I moved to work at Save the Children, where I was doing grants management but from the grantee perspective. I would go to events held by different funders and noticed that there was such a distinct lack of diversity in the rooms of the people who essentially held the power and the money. I thought it was problematic. The people who were making decisions about where money was being invested in the community didn’t have that lived experience, that connection, to the people who were on the ground doing the work. I thought, ‘How can I move into philanthropy to try and change these institutions from within?’ 

I got an opportunity to move from the nonprofit to the philanthropic sector through working at a local government authority in East London. My job there involved working in grants and community investment, predominantly from a public health perspective, and working with many different community groups. It really felt right in terms of trying to be part of a general movement to make sure that money is being channeled into the communities who need it the most and to the people who are most trusted, know what they’re doing, and who know their own communities. It also fit within my skill set. I was in this role for 18 months before I moved out to the Bay Area and started at PFS as a Grants Manager in September 2020.

2. Is there a topic or trend in philanthropy that is top of mind for you?

Definitely trust-based philanthropy. I see it as something that’s moving away from being a trend and more towards becoming a movement within philanthropy—a long-term approach to how we engage with our grantee partners and acknowledge the power dynamic that exists between foundations and other philanthropic entities that are distributing money. There’s a dynamic that needs to be addressed in order to make grantees feel that we trust, respect, and honor their commitments to the work they do and look at how we can be better partners.

At PFS, it’s been great to be a part of our trust-based philanthropy working group for the past couple of years. We’ve been looking at the fact that PFS has general alignment with the commitment towards trust-based philanthropy; examining how we really operationalize and implement that in connection with the many different foundations that we work with across different teams. We’re trying to define what trust-based philanthropy looks like to us as PFS, and then looking at where we have the room to influence our clients and the staff we work with to try and move them along the spectrum, acknowledging that each of our foundations are in a different space and have a different understanding of it. While there are incremental changes we can make, we also look more systems-wide at foundation strategies and structures of how they’re set up to distribute funds in general. For example, how can we involve community voices more? Can we look at multi-year unrestricted funding? What are the best practices in the sector? And what can we do in our position to influence that movement as much as possible?

3. How does equity show up in your work at PFS?

Equity is a key part of the way I work. As a Black woman working in philanthropy, equity is always a guiding light for me. It’s at the forefront of everything I do and it answers a lot of the “ why” in terms of not only how we’re distributing funds, but who has the most access to these funds, and who has accessibility and privilege to move through the process.

Equity plays a key part of my role on the grants management team. While we are managing grantmaking processes and helping grantees, there are lots of different points in these processes where we could have blind spots in terms of certain groups who are more disadvantaged by varying assumptions. We’re making assumptions of risk, assumptions of who has more time to put towards applying for an application, disability accessibility issues, and other things that we’re overlooking. 

A large part of my role is having an equity lens to challenge if we’re just doing things because we’ve always done them, or are we reflecting on how everyone is engaging with the process and questioning why we have always done it that certain way? If we are disproportionately giving more money to some groups rather than others, why is that the case? Are we really doing what we can to help minority-led groups? How are we changing our processes and systems to better support this? Are we providing ways to collect feedback from grantees about their experiences so we can advocate for change?

I’ve also been part of the DEI team at PFS since 2022 with Avani Patel and Tiffany Wood. We’ve done a lot of internal work in terms of looking at our staff culture and how DEI works in practice. We’ve asked some quite difficult questions since the pandemic, and our team has really diversified and grown. For example, how are we making sure that the DEI issues that naturally arise from working in philanthropy are being addressed? So rather than just telling our clients and grantees that DEI is important, we’re also holding ourselves accountable and asking if we’re doing everything that we can in this area.

4. In the Bay Area, the region is changing rapidly in both positive and challenging ways. As you consider the changes, what is your greatest hope for the Bay Area?

Good question. I haven’t been here for too long, and while I see so many good and positive things about the Bay Area there are also many glaring issues, especially being involved in this work, that are really hard to overlook in terms of disparity in wealth, access, and opportunity. Acknowledging that so many people, who are such an essential part of the community, aren’t getting access to the same things that other people are…That inherent injustice is quite hard. That’s why a lot of us are in this work, because we’re trying to address that. 

My hope is that there is meaningful progress and long-term change made in dealing with these systemic issues, including disparities in income and access to housing, in a way that all different communities can enjoy the many positive things about living here. A lot of the wealth has come into the area over a relatively short period of time, over the pace of 40 plus years through expansion of the tech industry. It’s really hard to celebrate that and see the Bay Area as this epicenter of great economic prosperity while people are being pushed out of their communities that they’ve grown up in. That’s my hope, that through the work that we’re all doing we can see incremental change and progress. It’s something that will take some time, but I think you have to have optimism that change will happen because otherwise it’s really hard to imagine what the Bay Area will look like even in 10 years.

5. How has your work changed your outlook?

I think I’ve always had a strong, inherent sense of justice and injustice. Through my work, I’ve been given more practical means to be a part of the solution. It’s given me a toolkit and I feel I’m more equipped to be part of a wider group of people who are trying to do something to address these issues. Certainly working in philanthropy there have been a lot of assumptions made about how privilege and power work. It has also made me challenge my own role in upholding these structural institutions, like white supremacy, and how they uphold the way that society functions. Seeing that we all have a role to play, being self-critical and holding yourself accountable to how you can also unconsciously be part of what you’re trying to undo is also important. 

I think that proximity to power is something that, even regardless of identity, you have in philanthropy. Working in this space has really caused me to question everything and hold myself to the same standards that I would hold people who are running foundations. I ask myself  ‘What am I doing to perpetuate this issue that I’m seeing as a problem?’ and ‘How can I be more aware of myself and check myself?’. I am constantly questioning my assumptions about the way that things should be working and how we engage with grantees in our work. I think it is useful to not get too far away from the core issues of ‘Why am I working in this field?’ ‘Why am I still here?’ and making sure that the answers to these questions remain in alignment with my own personal values.

6. Our world has benefitted from the leadership of so many change-makers, past and present. Who do you especially admire?

One person I always think about is Angela Davis. She’s a very inspirational person for so many reasons… As a Black woman, someone who speaks so passionately and bravely about intersectionality—especially at a time when people really hadn’t thought about the ways in which having multiple identities shapes your experiences and life.

She’s very inspirational in terms of the advocacy and activism she’s done around racial justice, gender justice, prison reform, and for the LGBTQ+ community. Her writing is also a grounding force to come back to whenever I feel like we’re still talking about the same things that have been going on for hundreds of years. She’s a really good reminder of how pushing for change does work; it just takes some time—it requires patience, diligence, and the persistence to keep going. I always come back to her whenever I’m feeling a bit disillusioned with anything.

7. Which PFS organizational value would you say shows up in your day to day work the most? (generosity, respect, integrity, inclusion, commitment, humility).

Inclusion has always been the value at PFS that has spoken to me the most. In my work in grants management, on the DEI team and also in my role as a supervisor, inclusion is something I’m constantly thinking about.

We’re so lucky at PFS to have such diversity in people’s backgrounds, identities, and life experiences. Everyone brings something different to the table. A big part of the reason we decide to hire someone is because of their unique experience and perspective they can add to our culture and organization. I always want to make sure that everyone’s different perspectives are respected and included, that people have a seat at the table, that their input is valued equally to anyone else’s, and not letting things like structural issues, seniority or position impact that. I’m always really mindful to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to be fully included into the work of the foundations they’re working with and to show up as their true authentic selves at work. Without inclusion that isn’t possible.

8. What’s something unexpected that you like to do outside of work?

One thing that I love is music—live music especially. It’s probably the thing that I spend the most money on, apart from traveling. I’ve probably seen over 150 different artists live, and I’m just always looking out for the next festival or concert that I can go to with my husband. My music taste is super varied; I like Metallica, Kendrick Lamar, or whoever. I’m always looking at what we can do and who we can see. The great thing about living in the U.S. now is that it’s an excuse to go and travel to different parts of the country and see live music.

9. As you look to the future, what issue in our society feels especially urgent?

Quite a lot! The climate emergency we have been living with for many years obviously is top of mind because we’ve had so many different natural disasters recently. That’s something that I constantly think about, especially with our clients. It just doesn’t seem like we’re doing enough. It’s one of those issues that, regardless of who you are, impacts us all. Yet, there’s still so much misinformation about how serious it is and even acknowledging the impact of it. 

Abortion rights, female rights. There’s so much around the fallout of Roe v. Wade that really seemed like the tipping point of what it means to be a woman in this country. It’s really scary. We’re lucky to be protected in our California bubble, but just seeing how women’s rights have eroded over the past year is quite terrifying. That always feels very urgent. 

Similarly related is voting rights. There are a lot of bad actors who are trying to dictate how people show up and be present. Voting rights are so important because it’s how so many things get addressed on a structural level as well as protesting and activism. I think that there are just so many things that seem very urgent and that should be addressed as quickly as possible.

10. And lastly, what are you reading or listening to?

I’m a big podcast person. One of my favorite podcasts is called Maintenance Phase, and it dispels problematic views on health, weight, and looks at how mainstream wellness views aren’t typically founded on substantive scientific or medical research. It’s a very refreshing podcast. It’s very funny, but it also makes you challenge your own perceptions.

I am also currently reading Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire by Caroline Elkins, which looks at the violence that’s perpetuated in the British Empire over the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s a topic of history that really isn’t taught consistently in UK schools, which is quite concerning considering the legacy of colonialism and the British Empire. It’s a really interesting book that is very well-documented, sobering, and attempts to fill the void with a lot of questions. It’s great critical thinking in that a lot of people find it hard to address difficult areas of the past.