Togetherness is a defining characteristic of collective giving groups like Charlotte’s New Generation of African American Philanthropists (NGAAP). I, along with my fellow members, share values around preserving culture, building community and sharpening philanthropy’s social impact for racial equity and equality. Our vision for Charlotte is “a healthy, safe and prosperous community for African Americans to live, work and flourish.”

As a giving circle, we study and learn together. We pool our dollars and leverage resources together. In recent weeks, we have grieved and raged together — while apart. As Black Americans, we have had to contend, again, with devastating indignities, dangers and deaths rooted in anti-Black racism. June 8th is NGAAP’s 14th year together. Yet, we cannot truly celebrate when horrifying videos, headlines, street scenes, data, rhetoric, and masks serve as unyielding reminders of threats that loom large over our health, civil rights, and humanity. We are, instead, marking this moment with an initiative of consciousness and an urgent call to give black.

NGAAP is eager to see Charlotte’s Black organizations leading differently — a change that will require uprooting longstanding belief systems, power dynamics and funding practices. The Bold Project is an initiative of NGAAP as well as a call to action to local funders, donors and community-minded Charlotteans that centers on strengthening Black-led community-based organizations as advocates and drivers of racial justice and equity.

Through this initiative, NGAAP is turning up the volume in Charlotte and joining voices nationwide urging philanthropy to invest in and support Black-led and defined work. Patterns of philanthropic under-investment and racial bias, both conscious and unconscious, have long served to undermine the operations and capacity of Black organizations and thwart their impact.

Read the full article about Black-led organizations by Valaida Fullwood at Medium.