This week marks the one-month anniversary of the gruesome mass murder that occurred in the early hours of Sunday, June 12, at Pulse, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer nightclub in Orlando, Fla.
Ever since the shooting, I have been haunted by horror at the murder of so many individuals — some as young as 18, in the case of Akyra Monet Murray — who had come to dance and find community in a safe space but instead encountered carnage. The killer took the lives of 49 people and injured 53 others during the club’s “Latinx” night (which utilizes the increasingly widespread, gender-neutral term for people of Latin American descent).
Sitting at the helm of the Arcus Foundation, I immediately thought about what people in philanthropy could do to help. Much has been done, as has been neatly summarized by Funders for LGBTQ Issues. I’m also heartened that the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Arcus Foundation, the Executives’ Alliance for Men and Boys of Color, the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have come together to establish a fund of more than $1 million to support organizations working with LGBTQ people and others affected by this tragedy.
This positive response notwithstanding, the initial reaction that prompted me to do something also led me to reflect on what grant makers haven’t done.
Grant makers have devoted limited resources to people most affected by violence. Foundations doled out a staggering $52 billion in 2014. Programs directly supporting Latinx people receive, on average, 1.4 percent of annual grant funding, the Foundation Center found. And only $153 million of 2014 foundation funding — 0.28 percent — addressed LGBTQ concerns, according to Funders for LGBTQ Issues. Support is lower still for projects that deal with sexual orientation, gender identity, and race or ethnicity; those receive about 10 percent of this already limited pool of money.
If you want to know who philanthropy tends to prioritize, follow the money. It often doesn’t lead back to the marginalized people who experience the deepest and most urgent of needs.
Why is that? I would argue that philanthropy is reluctant to tackle so-called “controversial” topics like gun violence. There are notable exceptions, such as the California Wellness Foundation, the David Bohnett Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation, which have all made significant investments in preventing gun violence. But even this support pales in comparison with the overwhelming, nationwide epidemic of gun violence.
Consider the sobering fact that more than 33,000 Americans were killed by firearms last year alone. For perspective, the number of gun-related homicides is only slightly fewer than the total number of breast-cancer deaths.
When natural disasters occur, we see an outpouring of compassion and giving to those picking up the pieces of what is left behind. We have witnessed a similar response for the victims and their families in Orlando. But unlike a tsunami or an earthquake, the worst shooting in modern U.S. history could have been prevented.
The hate and vitriol that fuels violence against LGBTQ people continues to increase, despite tremendous victories like last year’s historic Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. According to a study published last month by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, murders of LGBTQ people increased by 20 percent from 2014 to 2015. And research shows that LGBTQ people of color experience increased risk, particularly transgender women of color.
It’s great for so many of us to rally behind Orlando and make a donation to the victims and their families, but we in philanthropy face a much larger responsibility. As grant makers, we must make a significant investment in social change that works to dismantle systemic violence targeting vulnerable people, including LGBTQ people.
That may sound lofty and abstract, so allow me to offer the following suggestions for tackling this issue.
Look at who we are excluding from our giving and put them at the center. From my perch at Arcus, which focuses in part on LGBTQ justice issues, I can easily discern that LGBTQ people, particularly those of color, are among those largely ignored by foundations and other grant makers. With regards to Orlando, philanthropy should focus on supporting LGBTQ Latinx people because many of the victims identified as both. Let’s start placing those most marginalized at the heart of our agendas — the inequities of society fall most severely on their shoulders.
Take more risks. Although a few foundations, notably the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, supported groups that promoted marriage equality, mainstream philanthropy largely sat out this fight — too “controversial.” Yet brilliant activists like Mary Bonauto and Evan Wolfson fought on, with very limited funding from foundations, and brought us victory in 2015. As a field, we need to stop shying away from difficult issues like gun violence and marriage equality and instead confront them. We need to start taking more risks, even if we make a few mistakes along the way. The stakes are too high to play it safe.
Focus on prevention. As a former history teacher, I believe we can learn a great deal from the mistakes of those who came before us. Hate- related violence is preventable, but we must make an upfront and sustained investment in awareness-building and education. We need to partner with communities on devising solutions that truly bring people together to prevent another tragedy like Orlando (or Charleston, Newtown, San Bernadino ...).
I would argue that many of us — activists and philanthropists alike — were naïve to think that the fight against anti-LGBTQ hatred had in any way been won with the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality. The Orlando massacre has only proven this point, and at an unbearable cost.
Philanthropy faces a long road ahead to effectively counter the pervasive hostility and violence that plague our society. We must do better: Lives depend on us getting it right.
Kevin Jennings is executive director of the Arcus Foundation.
