Giving Compass' Take:

• Tulaine Montgomery lays bare the data surrounding glaring racial disparities in philanthropy, the realities of which should drastically change funding strategies on a broad scale.

• What are you doing to recognize your own complicity in creating racial disparities in philanthropy? What can you do to change it? How can you share this data with other philanthropists?

• Read more about the necessity to fund leaders of color to remove racial disparities in philanthropy.

The COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the outrage and outcry following the killing of George Floyd have laid bare entrenched racial disparities in our country as have few other moments in American history. Philanthropy, like many other sectors, is in the midst of upheaval as individuals and organizations seek meaningful and enduring ways to uproot inequitable systems with radical humanity. We have little time to waste.

We need to recognize not only the complexities and differences of experience that embody our entire culture, but also embrace the validity of the knowledge diverse perspectives bring. On that basis, radical humanity means radically seeing each other, and we have to admit that philanthropy writ large has been operating with one eye closed for too long.

In late February, just before the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systematic racism seized our collective consciousness, New Profit announced a new initiative called Inclusive Impact designed to address huge racial funding and other disparities in philanthropy. Coinciding with the launch of Inclusive Impact, we released a research report—Transforming the Social Sector: The Opportunity and the Need for Action—that placed core disparities in philanthropy in stark relief. These key findings should change the sector forever:

  • Black and Latinx individuals comprise 30 percent of the United States population, but only 10 percent of nonprofit organizations’ executive leadership and 6 percent of foundations’ executive leadership;
  • Black and Latinx leaders are not the recipients of sufficient investments—receiving an estimated 4 percent of total grants and contributions in the sector today—and tend to receive a mix of small-dollar, short-term and/or restricted funding;
  • To fund Black and Latinx leaders at levels commensurate with their representation in the sector, an estimated $22 billion would be needed.

Read the full article about racial disparities in philanthropy by Tulaine Montgomery at Worth.