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Beliefs

Three children sit on a desk.

Top photo: Three children are sitting on top of a desk all holding books, looking at the camera, and smiling. Left photo: A person surrounded by other people is standing outside, their arms are crossed, and they are smiling at the person speaking out of view.

Person standing outside.

We Believe in Equity for All

The Weitz Family Foundation staff and board developed our tools and priorities to match our mission. Learning how to make and support systemic change takes time and patience. Our team’s commitment to this community and ideals bring us to this work.

Mission:

The Weitz Family Foundation prioritizes and supports systemic change that transforms our community into an equitable place to live.

Vision:

Social and systematic change creates an equitable and just way of life.


Values

Transparency:

We communicate with clarity and openness about our responsibility for investing in organizations that strengthen our society. We welcome collaborative discussions that help each other through our experiences.

Integrity:

Our purpose is to provide access to social and financial capital that is equitably distributed. We hold ourselves and our grantees accountable for ensuring these funds reach the right people within our community. We operate from an authentic desire for innovation, progress, and results.

Compassion:

We are open-minded, caring, and positive about the change that occurs when we work together. We engage in and learn from the community to arrive at awareness and understanding that transforms into a culture of action.

Dedication:

Our community thrives through our commitment to each other and future generations. We take risks that create sustainable solutions.

Innovation:

We seek out the new idea makers, the dreamers, the visionaries. We stand behind the fearless who take action in order to make the greatest impact that addresses and resolves complex issues.

Group of people.

A group of people are looking at the camera and standing on a staircase at Lake Point Center.

DEI Statement

We recognize that philanthropy has roots in colonialism and perpetuates inequitable power structures. Through this work, we are committed to dismantling systems of oppression through community initiatives and advocacy that center racial equity and justice. We hope we can create collaborative systems of care that make all of our community members feel valued and heard. We approach this work through an anti-racist lens and commit to doing the personal work needed to advance ourselves, our team, and ultimately our society.

We consistently find and implement various equity practices. For example, we prioritize using vendors that are owned by people of the global majority and increasing the percentage of our grants going to organizations led by people of color. We also are actively collaborating with an accessibility consultant to continually improve our website design and grant process. As we continue to learn about inequitable systems, we will adapt our practices to challenge them.


Landscape photo.

A lush landscape photo that shows the city of Omaha in the distance.

Land Acknowledgment

Our offices are situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Umoⁿhoⁿ (um-AH-hah) and the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (oh-CHEH-tee sha-KOH-ween) people, colonially known as Omaha, NE. We acknowledge the forced removal of Indigenous people from this land, and grieve their lives and the ongoing trauma that is endured by their descendants.

To learn more about acknowledging ancestral lands, visit Native-Land.ca. Native Land Digital created this resource to support recognition and further education about native territories.