Foundations face a reckoning

Philanthropic effort geared to Black women and girls may intensify after Chauvin verdict

The needs of Black women and girls have become a focus of philanthropic efforts as major donors seek to narrow a racial wealth gap and address chronic funding disparities for groups that serve minority women.

The recent guilty verdicts for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer whose murder of George Floyd sparked global protests against racial inequity, could lend momentum to initiatives from the Ford Foundation, Goldman Sachs and a group of activists and philanthropic leaders. Collectively, they’re seeking to increase funding to organizations for Black girls and feminists and to enhance economic opportunities for Black women.

Goldman Sachs plans to tailor its investments to education and workforce advancement, among other needs. Two other funds are still assessing how they will disseminate their grants.

Statistics show that organizations for Black women have been disproportionately neglected by foundations. In 2017, one of the latest years for which comprehensive data is available, less than 1% of the $67 billion that foundations contributed went to organizations that specifically target minority women and girls, according to a report from the Ms. Foundation for Women and the consulting group Strength in Numbers. Less than $15 million was specified as benefiting Black women and girls.

Those findings helped launch the Black Girl Freedom Fund, established in September by eight Black women in philanthropy and activism, including Tarana Burke, who is credited with starting the #MeToo movement. Its first campaign is 1Billion4BlackGirls, which calls for $1 billion in contributions earmarked for Black girls over the next decade.

Co-founder Monique Morris, who also leads the philanthropic organization Grantmakers for Girls of Color, says the fund will seek to support legal advocacy and fight against what it calls “structural violence enacted against Black girls.”

As part of this effort, the fund partnered with Shondaland, a TV production company, for a December episode of the show “Grey’s Anatomy” that portrayed two Black girls being kidnapped by a human trafficker, reflecting a social problem the fund wanted to address: A report from the U.S. Justice Department that analyzed suspected human trafficking from

2008 to 2010 found that the overwhelming majority of sex trafficking victims were women and 40% were Black.

A study released in December by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy showed that while donations to organizations involved with women and girls are increasing, they still represent less than 2% of charitable giving. Teresa Younger, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women and a co-founder of the Black Girl Freedom fund, suggests that the meager funding has reflected “a lack of interest in philanthropy in truly investing in those organizations.”

Black women and girls do, of course, benefit from many nonprofits and charities, even when such contributions are not earmarked specifically for them. But Younger suggested that donors shouldn’t assume that this is occurring. That’s why she thinks focusing entirely on that demographic is important. “One of the things that we know is: If you don’t name it, then it’s not happening,” she said.

STEVE RUARK/AP 2020 Tarana Burke, founder and leader of the #MeToo movement, is one of eight Black women in philanthropy and activism to start the Black Girl Freedom Fund. Its first campaign calls for $1 billion in contributions earmarked for Black girls over the next decade.