Following nationwide protests to condemn police brutality against Black people, a key grassroots organization this week has shifted its attention to philanthropy, with a goal of raising $50 million this year.
The Movement for Black Lives, an effort started after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, along with several progressive philanthropic donor networks, held a conference call Monday to urge grant makers and wealthy donors to provide millions of dollars to support advocacy efforts aimed at reallocating money from police departments to education, health care, and housing. Nearly 700 individual donors and leaders from private, family, and corporate foundations were on the call, many of whom had not previously supported social-justice causes.
Lorraine Ramirez, senior program manager of Funders for Justice, one of the donor networks that co-sponsored Monday’s call, said similar calls for support following Ferguson attracted about 100 grant makers and donors interested in throwing their support to causes advocated by the Movement for Black Lives, which is a national network of about 150 social-justice organizations.
The Movement for Black Lives has had an early fundraising success this year both from donors concerned about the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on people of color and in response to the death of George Floyd. Nationally it has collected $5 million so far, mostly from relatively small donations from individuals.
‘We’re Done Explaining’
The push to encourage foundations and donors comes after Movement for Black Lives leaders saw philanthropy’s quick response to the coronavirus. In the early days of the pandemic, foundations rushed to create rapid-response funds and changed, at least temporarily, many of their practices by giving grantees leeway in how their grant money was spent and dropping reporting requirements. In some cases, foundations dug deeper into their endowments, saying they would give more than the minimum 5 percent of their assets that is required by law.
Ramirez said she hopes philanthropy will see the same urgency in supporting organizations pushing for changes to improve the lives of black Americans.
“We’re done explaining,” she says. “We just need to move more dollars.”
In addition to the Movement for Black Lives and Funders for Justice, other sponsors of the call included ABFE, which was founded as the Association of Black Foundation Executives; Borealis Philanthropy, a collaborative of major foundations; Resource Generation, a network of young wealthy donors; and the Solidaire Network, which is a network of donors and foundations.
Influx of Small Donations
The $50 million goal for 2020 is a huge increase from the $2.7 million the Movement for Black Lives raised last year.
The group has attracted contributions from many donors in diverse ways. For instance, fans of the Korean pop band BTS gave a total of $1 million to several organizations including the Movement for Black Lives while other donors were prompted to give by MoveOn.org and Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign.
Charles Long, the group’s resource coordinator, says he hopes private foundations will follow those individuals and give bigger sums. He said he had already had early discussions that hold promise.
“I’ve had some, some drastically different conversations than I was even having three months ago,” he says.
Other nonprofits that focus on justice and race issues are also seeing newfound interest from foundations and individuals.
In the past few weeks, the Advancement Project National Office says four foundations have approached the criminal -ustice civil-rights organization about adding more money to their grants or to make first-time awards, says Andi Ryder, managing director of development. She declined to name the grant makers until the money is awarded.
Last week more than 1,000 donations from individuals poured in to help the group raise $850,000 in seven days, a striking sum compared with the $50,000 it expected to raise in that period, says Ryder.
Beyond Sloganeering
One of the biggest sources of philanthropic support from the Movement for Black Lives has come from the Solidaire Network, which has made grants totaling $7 million since 2016. Rajasvini Bhansali, Solidaire’s executive director, expects to funnel $5 million from donors to grantees this summer.
When the Movement for Black Lives developed a policy agenda after Ferguson, Bhansali says it was almost impossible to get grant makers involved beyond “sloganeering and statement writing.”
Bhansali hopes grant makers will do more now. To persuade them of the need, she urges foundations to view the deep historical roots of racism and consider whether they could make a big enough difference if they stuck to the minimum 5 percent annual payout.
Donors should “make a generational commitment to Black liberation that matches the generational commitments that have produced the scourge of white supremacy,” she says.
Deborah Sagner, president of the Sagner Family Foundation, has made gifts of varying amounts to the Movement for Black Lives for several years, though Solidaire’s Aligned Giving Strategy program, which directs donors to the movement and the organizations across the country that are part of its network. Sagner is the daughter of the late Alan Sagner, who had a successful career in real estate before serving in a number of public positions including commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
During the early days of the pandemic, she gave an additional $50,000 to the group and signed a letter in support of a congressional mandate to temporarily require foundations to give at least 10 percent of their assets a year, compared with the 5 percent they now must give. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Nearly-300-DonorsGrant/248808
Following Monday’s call, she said she was inspired to give more and committed to give another $50,000 this year.
“We’ve always known about state violence against Black people,"she says. “The last couple of weeks have just made me feel it viscerally. I think I only knew it intellectually before.”
Need for Political Activity
The spotlight last week’s demonstrations focused on racial injustice has prompted more foundations to consider taking action, says Lori Villarosa, executive director of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, a foundation-supported group that works to help grant makers become more effective in fighting systemic racism.
She is concerned that many grant makers will focus solely on internal efforts, such as addressing the diversity of their staff or board.
Instead, she says, the moment is ripe for “transformational” change, and the way to do that is for individual donors to put money into organizations that can engage in political activity, which is off-limits for foundations, and for foundations to invest in advocacy efforts to cut spending on police.
Foundation staff, she says, should go big as they earmark money to fight racism.
“My fear is that we’ll invest in reform that might be more palatable to their board and risk diluting some of the potential for real, lasting change,"she says.
Big Hurdles to Overcome
Foundations may have a bigger appetite for supporting advocacy than they have in the past. According to a Center for Effective Philanthropy survey released last month, about three-quarters of foundations have beefed up their policy efforts in the past several years.
Long, of the Movement for Black Lives, hopes foundations that have supported social services will begin to back a grassroots organizing effort. Raising $50 million for advocacy is necessary, he says, because the movement faces big hurdles in states and localities across the nation.
On Monday’s call, he urged donors to focus on policy changes that can prevent more instances like the killing of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
“I really don’t hope to be on a call like this in another five years when they kill another Black person having to make this case again.”
