Executive Director, Black Freedom Fund
Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles and now living in Oakland, CA, Marc Philpart has been a leader in the racial justice movement for more than a decade. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Black Freedom Fund, a five-year, $100 million initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism.
Marc previously served as the Managing Director at PolicyLink where he advances racial justice initiatives that build power and facilitate policy and systems change, and also oversees the strategic direction and policy agenda of the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. Under his leadership, the Alliance has grown to a national network of over 200 organizations across Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida.
Marc is a creative results-driven leader that prioritizes grassroots leadership and has established a variety of successful initiatives and advanced dozens of policy campaigns. Marc maintains policy expertise and experience across a multi-disciplinary set of issues including public health and violence prevention, moving from mass incarceration to divestment and decarceration, education and the criminalization of youth, economic equity and poverty eradication, and voting and civic engagement.
In California, where the Alliance got its start 10 years ago, the network has successfully advanced more than 100 state policies and established powerful partnerships with the California Senate and Assembly Select Committees on the Status of Boys and Men of Color and the California Funders for Boys and Men of Color. Through Marc’s leadership, the Alliance has broadened its focus to include fighting for gender justice and ending intimate partner violence by addressing misogyny and patriarchy, as well as racial equity.
In addition to his work with the Alliance, Marc has led the development of a transformative racial justice initiative, tentatively titled California for All, that seeks to foster deep structural change throughout systems and institutions to ensure racial equity. Developed through the wisdom of more than 75 movement leaders, the California for All unity statement represents a shared vision and aspiration for California’s future.
Marc serves on the Board of Directors for the California Immigrant Policy Center, Partners for Dignity and Rights, and is on advisory committees for the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute and The Colorado Health Foundation’s Locally Focused Work.