Black-led philanthropies are best-positioned to serve their neighbors, but need support

As communities across the country are having conversations about social and racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in late May, many are looking for ways to help.

Rather than donate to an online campaign or a national organization, some Indianapolis residents may be looking to give to organizations already working to meet the needs of the city's underserved communities.

Giving and identity often go hand-in-hand. A study published last year by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy noted that a donor’s race has no significant effect on the amount given to charity.

Communities of color are underrepresented in formal volunteering but are likely to be giving their time and engaging in philanthropy in more informal ways.

Black fraternities, sororities, churches and giving and philanthropy circles create spaces where a specific group of donors can tailor their giving to meet the needs of small organizations that may not otherwise benefit from traditional grant-making processes.  

Una Osili, a professor and associate dean at the School of Philanthropy, said the current national discourse is calling for the root causes of deep-seated inequities to be addressed, and Black-led philanthropies are well-positioned to do just that.

“One of the benefits of working with some of the Black-led organizations, whether they’re Black giving circles or other organizations on the ground,” Osili said, “is that they have been working on these issues for a longer time and understand and have roots in the community and can be a part of the solution to these problems.”

‘Who better?’

Managed by the Central Indiana Community Foundation, the African American Legacy Fund of Indianapolis exists to uplift and support Black Hoosiers while working to safeguard their social, mental and economic state.

Katasha S. Butler, a member of the fund’s steering committee, said small, grassroots organizations are often left out of the grant-making process or simply don’t have the ability to complete applications, making it difficult to sustain programming.

“Traditionally, these African American organizations don’t even have the infrastructure or even the bandwidth to even apply for the grants,” she said. “So, this is our way of knocking out some of those barriers and still giving them access to funds needed to carry out the work that we need them to carry out in the community.”

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if people are already doing the work, she said.

“Who better to serve the needs than the people who know what the needs are?” she said. “They’re already working in this community, by hook or by crook, and getting it done.”

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The Legacy Fund officially launched this February, but the board’s plans were disrupted by the novel coronavirus outbreak. They quickly shifted gears, creating a public awareness campaign about how residents can protect themselves and their families from COVID-19, as studies have shown Black neighborhoods have disproportionately been affected by the disease and its fallout.

They did radio station takeovers, hosted a town hall event and followed up with a mailing campaign in certain ZIP codes to ensure residents knew where they could turn for help, should they need it.

“That wasn’t a plan,” she said, “but that was a response to what was going on.”

Looking ahead, the board plans to launch a campaign to recruit more founding members. Using matching funds, the Every Dollar Has Dignity campaign will allow those interested to raise what they can and have the Legacy Fund make up the difference to reach the $2,000 minimum donation to become a founding member.

This gives those who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford the donation a chance to participate and creates space for members that represent diversity of age, thought and lived experience.

“That’s what we want, to make sure that we have all voices at the table,” she said. “We want to break down that barrier.”

Bonding and bridging through philanthropy

Giving circles have long been part of the philanthropic landscape, although they’ve gained popularity in recent years, said Jeannie Sager, director of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute. These kinds of organizations serve many purposes, Sager said, but they’re mostly centered around what she referred to as bonding and bridging capital.

Bridging capital spans communities. Something like the Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, she said, is a good example of bringing people together regardless of race or ethnicity and rallying them around a single cause, which in this case would be women’s issues. Bonding capital, on the other hand, allows donors to strengthen relationships within their own communities. But that work doesn’t always get recognized.

“This within community generosity is generally less likely to be recognized outside of that specific community,” she said. “One of the reasons why the rich engagement by people of color is not better known is because it’s just not easily seen or is made, quite frankly, invisible by the larger society.”

In recent years, researchers at the Lilly School of Philanthropy have been conducting a survey of high-net-worth donors, but recently have over-sampled diverse communities to gain a better understanding of how members of the Black, LGBTQ+, Latinx and Asian communities give.

That research has shown that Black donors often engage with issue areas like religion, education and criminal justice, Osili said, and they were doing so long before the current social and racial justice movement that erupted in the days after George Floyd died in police custody.

“It’s about bringing financial resources together, but it’s also about building community and raising awareness about an issue and ultimately having an impact,” Osili said. “And in Black giving circles, we see in the data, this idea of people coming together around an issue, around a cause and then pulling resources together but then serving as a resource for the organization.”

‘It’s not a handout’

Butler, a pharmacist, recognizes she’s had certain advantages in life. But that doesn’t mean it was always smooth sailing.  

“I do pretty well for a Black girl from rural Illinois,” she said. “But how much more could I have done if I didn’t have to deal with racial inequities, systemic racism, different issues growing up in life. Like, how much further could I have gone?”

But she knows there’s a vicious cycle that keeps some Black Hoosiers from reaching new heights. Poverty, limited resources, the criminal justice system, convictions that keep people from obtaining jobs or housing that could change their lives. Through targeted giving in communities disproportionately affected by these issues, leaders of the Legacy Fund are trying to change that.

“It’s not a handout — I’ve been held back for quite some time,” Butler said. “Let me try to get on level playing ground.”

For more information about the African American Legacy Fund, visit bit.ly/2AIyELa.

For information about the IU Black Philanthropy Circle, visit bit.ly/2ZcHpGH.

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at 317-444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.