Philanthropy research group looks to use demographic data to help aid racial equity

Candid, the major philanthropy research group, is leading a coalition of funders and grantees that want to standardize the collection of demographic information to help enable donations to minority-led groups.

Harnessing such data could help advance racial equity, said Candid’s CEO, Ann Mei Chang, who is launching a nonprofit initiative to amass more such information.

The initiative — dubbed Demographics via Candid, or DvC — hopes to create a straightforward survey that is as widely accessible as a philanthropy’s 990 form for the Internal Revenue Service. If it succeeds, nonprofits would no longer have to provide specialized diversity information for each of their donors. And it would be easier for the philanthropic sector to measure how much money is going to minority-led groups.

“Everybody talks about equity,” Chang said. “But if you don’t have any idea where you stand, you can’t track your progress.”

Corporations and foundations pledged billions for racial equity after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020. But statistics show that philanthropic money flows unequally to white-led and minority-led organizations.

A 2022 survey by the Nonprofit Finance Fund found that white-led nonprofits were more likely than minority-led groups to receive corporate donations. The donations to white-led nonprofits were also nearly twice as likely to be unrestricted gifts, allowing them to use the grants however they see fit rather than for specific programs.

Last month, several major philanthropists — including Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation and the Ford and MacArthur foundations— issued an open letter seeking more donations for the Black Feminist Fund to correct the underfunding of groups that serve Black women and girls. The fund estimates that only about 0.5 percent of philanthropic donations go to those groups, even though Black women and girls make up about 7 percent of the American population.

“Organizations that reflect their communities are far more likely to be successful,” Chang said. “They understand those communities in a way that outsiders can’t.”

Candid’s initiative has so far attracted 36 partners, from local donors like the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation to giants like the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

PEAK Grantmaking, a nonprofit that’s dedicated to equitable donation practices, was eager to join the initiative, said Satonya Fair, its CEO. PEAK is promoting the survey to its network of 6,000 members and 500 organizations.

“We’re excited to just be an amplifier for what makes sense and to change things that don’t,” Fair said. “Nonprofits already have a lot of work. Don’t make your process be the thing, instead of the core of their mission.”