Fifty nonprofit groups led by Black women have a chance to receive at least $50,000 apiece from a new Goldman Sachs Foundation grant program.
The effort is part of the bank’s One Million Black Women project, which seeks to improve the lives of at least a million Black women by 2030.
The foundation has committed $100 million to charitable efforts such as grants to help Black women alongside the investment bank’s plans to commit $10 billion over a decade in loans designed to tackle the disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations.
Over the past year, the Goldman Sachs Foundation held 50 listening sessions across the United States and says it learned what Black women who lead nonprofits need to be successful. Armed with that knowledge, it decided to provide what it calls Black Women Impact Grants to 50 nonprofits over the next two years.
Each nonprofit group must address at least one of the seven areas: health care, education, housing, digital connectivity, financial health, access to capital, and job creation and work-force advancement.
Asahi Pompey, global head of corporate engagement and president of Goldman Sachs Foundation, spoke with the Chronicle of Philanthropy about the Black Women grants program and what to expect from it.
Why did Goldman Sachs start the listening sessions?
We knew that those closest to the problem are often closest to the solution, but they’re never really asked. And so we understood that there’s wisdom in the Black community as to what needs to be addressed and what needs to be done, and we want to tap that Black woman wisdom. So far, we’ve had 50 listening sessions. Almost 20,000 women have chimed in to those listening sessions. And we wanted to be able to tailor what we’re doing to their feedback. This is an initiative that’s by Black women and for Black women, and we knew we could not do that without listening and raising up the voices of Black women.
What are some of the things you learned?
Black women-led organizations need a number of things. They need access to trust-based funding with less restrictive requirements. They need multi-year commitments so that they can plan and build and implement the work, the good work that they’re doing. And they also need — and this is a particularly important one — visible sponsorship and validation from institutions and across sectors that can really help them to have impact.
Why did Goldman Sachs decide the funding would be unrestricted?
We heard loud and clear unrestricted funding and trust-based capital were going to be important. The other part of it is the numbers are pretty alarming in terms of Black women’s access to unrestricted funding, specifically compared with white-led nonprofits— a comparison of 76 percent for white-led nonprofits to only 24 percent of Black-led nonprofits.
A report on the Goldman Sachs website indicates that Black women have a significant earnings gap compared with white people. Can you talk about how this project will help close that gap?
There is a 90 percent wealth gap between a Black woman in this country and a white man with her net worth being roughly around $8,000 and a white man typically being around $92,000. Part of this initiative is a commercial effort with $10 billion in investment capital and $100 million in philanthropic capital. And we signal that projects and investments led by Black women are commercially compelling. We care about making a return. And we don’t think that profit and impact are mutually exclusive. And we wanted to make sure that we were investing in organizations and people. And ultimately that leads to closing the racial wealth gap. It leads to closing the earnings gap between a Black woman and a white man in this country.
How will you measure the success of the program?
Ultimately, I would say one is to positively impact the lives of at least a million Black women by the year 2030. For each of the investments that we’re making, each of the grants that we’re making, including the Black Women Impact Grants, we’re going to be tracking which communities they go to, which of the seven impact areas does it address, how many girls were impacted by the grant and investment, in what way? We’ve made a pledge to be transparent around the impact of the investments as well as the grants, and we absolutely intend to do that.
Speaking of those seven impact areas, which of them do you expect will have the biggest impact on closing the gap?
It’s hard to pick which of these we think will have the biggest impact. As you think, “Is it health care? Is it housing?” It takes me back to when we were building One Million Black Women. We kept being asked, “What’s the one area that you need to focus on to impact the lives of Black women?” And I said, “Look — mic drop — it’s not one thing.” It is a multitude of things that need to be done and a sustained focus and effort in order to achieve that.
Will this be a one-time commitment, or will Goldman Sachs do this investment again?
In terms of Black Women Impact Grants, we’re launching it this year and each of the grants will be multi-year grants over the course of this year and next year as well. We’ll be making other types of grants. But what differentiates this particular program is that it’s community-based organizations led by Black women.
I know Goldman Sachs has done a similar project, like 10,000 Women. What have you learned from that program or other similar programs done in the past?
We have our signature programs, 10,000 Women, and then after that 10,000 Small Businesses. And we took the lessons from those two programs and, frankly, the impact that we’ve had from those two programs, that was instrumental in building One Million Black Women. We’re investing along the arc of a Black woman’s life, whether it’s from birth, dealing with health care to education to job and career. We know that to make systemic change and to have lasting impact, it has to happen over the course of multiple years.
Is there anything else about this program you want to highlight?
Black women-led nonprofits have been on a cycle of starvation trying to raise money, get attention for the work that they’re doing. The Black Women Impact Grants, it’s just one way that we will give them an opportunity to be able to receive unrestricted, multi-year funding. My hope is that this will spark more funders to support Black women-led organizations and to partner with them.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Reporting for this article was underwritten by a Lilly Endowment grant to enhance public understanding of philanthropy. See more about the grant and our gift-acceptance policy.
