As our nation navigates through a post-Trayvon Martin, post-Ferguson, “Black Lives Matter” world of increasing attention to race and inequality, foundations must play a greater role in dealing with some of the toughest issues facing America.
Many grant makers are weighing what to do in this changing landscape. As co-chairs of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys & Men of Color, a group of 40 grant makers, we offer this starter kit of challenging yet enduring ideas that foundation leaders, boards, and staff members across the country should consider.
Shed investments in for-profit prisons. Since 1980, our nation’s prison population has increased by more than 400 percent, ushering in a culture of punishment that will take decades to undo and disproportionately hurts black and brown men and their families. Philanthropic organizations should take investments in for-profit prison companies out of their portfolios, and keep them out. There should be no profiteering from incarceration.
Ban the box. The Ford Foundation and others have begun to eliminate a step in the job-application process that hurts individuals who made a serious (or not so serious) mistake in their lives. All foundations can do the same thing by removing the “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” box from our application forms. Doing so does not preclude an employer from engaging in background checks of promising applicants. Many of us should also think about hiring ex-felons — many have proven to excel in grass-roots community engagement and other activities foundations want to promote.
Support efforts to end juvenile incarceration. The national Youth First Initiative and the Annie E. Casey Foundation are helping to raise an important question for America to consider: Why do we need prison facilities for juveniles? Philanthropies can help pose this question in their local communities and highlight examples of states and localities pursuing smarter and more humane strategies to support troubled young men and women. It has been encouraging to see both progressive and conservative organizations and philanthropists collaborating to promote criminal-justice reforms. More grant makers should get involved.
Advance early literacy. Three-quarters of African-American boys in the third and fourth grades are not reading at grade-level proficiency. Investing in early childhood literacy efforts and measuring whether they are working will help these young boys establish a foundation of learning that will benefit them in years to come. The data tell us that early academic failure is a powerful predictor of later academic failure, with dropout and incarceration risk to follow. The national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading boasts public-private partnerships in more than 100 communities across the nation and we should help them spread to more places.
Promote school attendance. While questions about curriculum reform and charter schools are at the center of debates on how to improve public education, research shows that school truancy, chronic absences, and suspensions — even in the early grades — are powerful predictors of academic failure and who will drop out. Philanthropy can support partnerships of school officials, parents, and community groups to create strategies to provide early warnings and offer ways to help close the achievement gap for black and brown males in school settings.
Support community efforts to build trust with the police department. Events in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere have fueled a crisis of confidence in communities of color about local law enforcement. Philanthropy can take advantage of its unique role to facilitate and promote healthy dialogue between local residents and police on matters of race, accountability, and transparency. We have a role to play in catalyzing a process of healing that is long overdue. This is not easy work that can be accomplished by a single grant, but local grant makers are already demonstrating their willingness to work to improve law-enforcement agencies’ relations with people in their communities.
Support the civic engagement of young men. There is a thoughtful, timely expression echoed by youth advocates involved in civic problem-solving: “Nothing about us without us.” Supporting community organizations that directly engage young men of color in leadership, advocacy, and organizing not only taps their experiential wisdom; it combats the dominant narrative of young men of color as menacing, disengaged, thuggish figures.
Support innovative approaches to promoting achievement. The Open Society Foundations led the incubation of the Black Male Achievement program dedicated to promoting innovative, proven approaches for boosting academic and career success among African-American males. Similarly, the Knight Foundation’s Black Male Engagement program, known as BMe, is building a network of men of color who are local leaders and heroes in their communities. Both of these emerging efforts merit careful consideration by philanthropy, as they help advance a badly needed narrative of positivity and civic leadership by young men of color.
Participate actively in My Brother’s Keeper. Since President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper Communities Challenge in 2014, more than 200 mayors and local elected officials have responded to his call to develop local strategies to improve outcomes for and the well-being of young men of color. If your community is already involved, explore ways to support local implementation efforts.
There are plenty of other important ideas for helping men and boys — and women and girls — of color, including programs to promote economic development, encourage post-secondary career success, provide mentoring. and offer training in what it takes to be a good father. All are worthy, and all lack the resources they need. We recognize that engaging in work to end the nation’s crisis of young men of color can appear daunting. That’s why it’s important for foundations to think hard about what fits their mission best. But in our view, the stakes for addressing inequality are far too high for philanthropy to sit out this fight.
Tonya Allen leads the Skillman Foundation and Robert Ross heads the California Endowment. They are co-chairs of the Executives’ Alliance for Boys & Men of Color.
