Tag Archives: Casey Cook

Remembering Linda Richardson

Linda Richardson during the time she served as co-director of The People’s Fund. Photo: Harvey Finkle

We are sad to announce the passing of Linda Richardson, an amazing activist who helped shape Bread & Roses Community Fund for more than four decades. She passed suddenly on November 2.

“Linda was an inspiring leader, activist, and champion for justice,” says executive director Casey Cook. “Her passing is a huge loss for our whole community and she will be missed.”

In 1972, Linda was hired as a co-director of The People’s Fund (the predecessor organization to Bread & Roses) alongside Michael Seltzer. Seltzer recalls that Linda “brought a real commitment to grassroots communities and held relationships with them.” They worked together for several years as co-directors and both went on to serve on the board. “Her determination and passion for all of the Delaware Valley’s community organizing efforts were an inspiration to all who knew her,” Seltzer says. “Decades before the term ‘intersectionality’ took upon currency in today’s political discourse, she incorporated it into her own world view and practice.”

When Linda and Michael came on as co-directors, The People’s Fund was making $12,000 a year in grants to groups like the Black Panthers that were too radical to get funding from traditional philanthropy. They worked together to raise funds and distribute them to grassroots community organizing groups in the region. “She was truly the best colleague that I ever had the privilege to work with in my 50 year-long social justice career,” says Seltzer. “She may also have been the first woman of color in Philadelphia’s history to lead a grantmaking organization. Linda touched so many lives through her activism and leadership. We are all her legacy.”

Linda Richardson, at left, tabling for The People’s Fund in the mid 1970s. Photo: Harvey Finkle

Throughout the decades to come, Linda remained connected and committed to Bread & Roses as a political home. Denise Brown served as associate director of Bread & Roses from 1998 to 2005 and served on the board from 2007 to 2019. “I had the honor and privilege of working with three generations of Linda’s family,” Brown recounts. Bertha Waters, Linda’s mother, was involved as a volunteer, Linda was a donor and committee member, and Aissia Richardson, Linda’s daughter, served on the board and on the community funding board. “Their commitment was very much a living, breathing thing,” she says. “I personally always felt their support and mentorship.”

Christie Balka, who served as executive director of Bread & Roses from 1997 to 2006, remembers Linda as “an astute political observer and a font of information about the city.” Balka describes Linda’s continued contributions to Bread & Roses during her tenure as executive director: “She advised Bread and Roses staff, referred potential grantees to us, and of course continued to hold Bread and Roses accountable to the needs of the city’s Black community and other communities of color.”

Like Brown, Balka saw Linda as a mentor. “Linda was always available to me for any reason and taught me some enduring lessons about progressive philanthropy and working in coalition with other groups,” she says.

“She was a force,” says Brown. “Linda was strategic, fierce, committed, generous, and loving in the way that she loved her community, she loved Black people, she loved the work that she did. That came across.”

“Linda commanded respect because of her authenticity,” remembers Seltzer. “People followed her wisdom and trusted her.”

Most recently, in 2017, Linda served on the planning committee for Bread & Roses’ 40th anniversary Tribute to Change celebration.

Linda Richardson, center, celebrates the second decade of Bread & Roses at a Tribute to Change event in the early 1980s. Photo: Harvey Finkle

Outside of Bread & Roses, Linda was a prolific and tireless organizer. She founded the Black United Fund, Uptown Entertainment & Development Corporation, Uptown Cultural District, and led the fight to save and restore the Uptown Theater.

Elicia Gonzales, Bread & Roses board member and executive director of Women’s Medical Fund, shares a story about Linda’s legacy in today’s organizing. “The Women’s Medical Fund team had the privilege of meeting Linda last year and hearing about her fight for reproductive justice before it was a coined term,” she says. “In the 1970s, she and other Black women organized Triple Jeopardy (named that because they were poor, Black, women) and the fought for full healthcare access, including abortion. Her love of community, art, family, and justice will be her legacy for generations to come. May she rest in power.”

Linda’s family shared her obituary, which can be downloaded as a pdf here.

November 21: 74th Birthday Celebration and Memorial Service for Linda Richardson

Linda’s family has shared that they are holding a 74th birthday celebration and memorial service for Linda on Saturday, November 21 from 4pm to 6pm in front of the Uptown Theater at 2240 N. Broad Street. It will also be live-streamed on Facebook.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Uptown Entertainment & Development Corporation at 2227 N. Broad Street, 19132 or online at this link.

We invite you to share your remembrances of Linda’s life and legacy by writing a comment on this post.

Why we need community organizers in the time of COVID-19

Reinvestment Fund grants Bread & Roses $15,000 for advancing social, racial, and economic justice

Executive director Casey Cook receives community leadership award

Casey Cook stands with Urban Affairs Coalition President & CEO Sharmain Matlock-Turner.

Bread & Roses executive director Casey Cook was honored with a Community Leadership Award from the Friends of the Urban Affairs Coalition on November 22. The award was given to recognize Cook as a leader in philanthropy and to honor her demonstrated commitment to community before self, which is one of the core principles of the Friends of the Urban Affairs Coalition.

Seven people smiling and facing camera, person at center is holding an award — Casey Cook, center, poses with Bread & Roses staff members and current and former board members at the event

Executive director Casey Cook elected to the board of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia

On April 10, Bread & Roses Community Fund executive director Casey Cook was elected to serve on the board of directors of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia, a network of more than 140 diverse organizations that invest more than $500 million annually in the Philadelphia region.

The Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia board of directors is composed of leaders representing the region’s diverse funders. “Part of our mission at Bread & Roses is to advance social justice philanthropy and to encourage our colleagues in the philanthropic sector to support work at the community level and to make more grants to organizations engaged in advocacy, civic engagement, and community organizing,” says Casey Cook.

Bread & Roses Community Fund has been an active member of Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia for 20 years. “I’m honored to be elected to serve,” says Cook. “I look forward to supporting the leadership of executive director Sidney Hargro and to advancing the organization’s commitment to diverse, equitable, and inclusive philanthropy.”

Two people standing facing the camera smiling holding a framed certificate

Executive director Casey Cook (left) with Philanthropy Network’s board president Jennifer Pedroni, Vice President of Administration, HealthSpark Foundation. Bread & Roses received a certificate recognizing 20 years of membership in Philanthropy Network Greater Philadelphia.
Credit: Jim Harris Studios

Mourning the loss of Bread & Roses co-founder Molly Frantz

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Molly Frantz passed away on April 25 at age 75.

We are very sad to announce the passing of Molly Frantz, a co-founder of Bread & Roses who remained active and dedicated to the organization throughout her life. She was a wonderful person, extraordinarily independent and thoroughly committed to the issues of racial and economic justice at the heart of Bread & Roses.

Molly grew up in the western suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from Rosemont College in 1964. She received a Master’s in Social Work from Bryn Mawr College in 1970.

In the early 1970s, Molly joined with a small group of people in Philadelphia who wanted to create an alternative to the United Way that would fund a new generation of groups focusing on racial and economic justice, anti-war efforts, and other community organizing work. They founded The People’s Fund in 1971 and became Bread & Roses Community Fund in 1977.

Molly Frantz (right) with Lenore Cooney at the first office of the People’s Fund at 13th and Sansom.

Molly’s impact at Bread & Roses is profound. Over the decades, she consistently pushed for a focus on racial and economic justice and a preference for funding new, small, community-based groups. She helped create Bread & Roses’ culture of consensus, encouraging people to work with one another to figure out how the organization would be shaped.

Molly enthusiastically served on committees and on the board of directors, showed up for events, and sustained her commitment for more than 40 years. She was also very supportive of each of the executive directors and she acted as an informal mentor to emerging leaders within the organization.

“Molly had a no nonsense demeanor and a generous heart,” says Casey Cook, executive director. “She always spoke her truth. She believed that a better, more just world was within reach. None of us would be at Bread & Roses without her.”

Black and white photo of four people standing and smiling

At a Tribute to Change event during the 1980s. From left to right, Steve Gold, Harvey Finkle, Molly Frantz, and Richard Baron.

Richard Baron, another co-founder of Bread & Roses, remembers Molly as “the nicest person most of us ever got to meet.” He recalls her as an “intelligent, practical, pleasant partner to the people she worked with, and always interested in what other people had to say, but very clear about her own opinions and ambitions.”

Molly spent her career advocating for patients’ rights within the mental and behavioral health systems. In her private life, she enjoyed spending time with her devoted friends and family, going to the theater, and traveling all over the world.

Person sitting in a dark room looking down at paper

Molly Frantz in the early years of Bread & Roses

We invite you to share your remembrances of Molly in the comments section below — click on “Leave a reply.” We will be compiling these remembrances to share them with Molly’s family. Thank you for taking time to celebrate and honor Molly with us.

Bread & Roses profiled on CityWide Stories

Bread & Roses Community Fund: Striving for Racial Equity and Economic Justice
Excerpted from CityWide Stories article published on February 19, 2018

Bread & Roses staff in December 2017

Casey Cook, Executive Director, has been at Bread & Roses Community Fund for over ten years. She told me she feels privileged to be a part of that history and to work with an amazing team of staff, volunteers, and organizers who work every day to create real change in the Philadelphia region and beyond. “The work we do together is shifting the balance of power in our region, lifting up the voices of those who have been silenced, and creating equity for all of our communities. We do that through collective action, driven by a sense of mutual accountability. We are in the midst of creating a world that has yet to be imagined,” said Cook.

In 2016, Bread & Roses launched the Giving Project, an innovative model for building leadership and moving money for real change in the Philadelphia region.

Read more at citywidestories.com.

Giving Project member Julie Zeglen writes about young people, generosity, and activism

Millennials are mad as hell and they’re not afraid to do something about it
Excerpted from Philadelphia Inquirer article published on February 9, 2018

The Center City-based Bread & Roses Community Fund is one of about seven social justice-focused funding organizations in the county that runs Giving Projects, a fund-raising initiative that asks a cross-race, cross-class, intergenerational cohort of citizens to fund-raise from their peers (and donate themselves) to a collective pool, which the cohort then grants out to local activist groups working for racial and economic justice. This past winter’s cohort of 17 — which, full disclosure, included me — raised $154,801.

Executive director Casey Cook said that interest in the project surged after the 2016 election — and that overwhelmingly, it was young people who responded to the call over their older peers. This matched Giving Project trends around the country.

“In Philly, we’ve had to make an effort to create an intergenerational environment,” Cook said. “We are overwhelmed with applications from young people, and that’s actually why we’re increasing the number of Giving Projects we’re running every year, in order to accommodate that need. And from my colleagues around the country, I am hearing similar things — that applications from young people are the largest in number.”

Read more at Philly.com.