Black Funding Denied: Where are we two years later?

Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the Movement for Black Lives helped catalyze a historic national racial reckoning in almost every sector and institution in the United States. Of course, structural racism did not first harm or impact Black Americans in 2020. Police violence is a leading cause of death for young men in this country – killing about 1 in every 1,000 Black men. A report from the Washington Post found that although Black women account for 13 %of women in the U.S., they make up 20 percent of the women fatally shot by the police and 28 %of unarmed killings. However, on-the-ground organizing and extensive mainstream media coverage that year of nationwide protests led to individuals, social media, and institutions pouring new attention and resources into the movements that Black activists have been leading for generations.

This work commanded philanthropy’s attention in new ways. We know now that in 2020, the 50 biggest public companies in America collectively committed at least $49 billion dollars. Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott alone is known to have donated at least $567 million to racial equity organizations. According to Candid’s^[1] latest data, community foundations themselves granted $125 million to Black communities in 2020.

While all these financial contributions were a significant increase from previous years, this increased funding in many instances was short-term and not multi-year. The additional money in many cases has barely moved the needle for infrastructural and programmatic success for an already underfunded community that depends on foundation-based funding to survive an ever-politically unsure climate.

This is not a new conclusion and not a new ask from communities. Countless other reports have noted how if foundations are not targeting funding to specific BIPoC communities with racial equity expertise, then they are not doing enough to address the underlying conditions of structural racial injustice or inequity. As we have written often, past NCRP research and the lived experiences of a host of partners find that funders who specifically named these communities in their giving strategy were more likely to make progress against their equity goals and to hold themselves accountable.

NCRP has always sought to provide both grant makers and nonprofits with the kind of practical data and analysis that helps bridge the gap between funders’ best intentions and the reality of where their dollars go. That is why we published Black Funding Denied (BFD) at the end of the summer of 2020. Using grant and Census data, the research brief sought to report out the amount of grantmaking that some of the top community foundations were making to explicitly benefit Black people. The 25 foundations that we looked at not only represented a cross-section of some of the country’s largest community foundations, but also foundations in communities where NCRP has Black-led nonprofit allies.

More than two years later, how did our resource brief and subsequent engagement impact the conversation? What role did the community foundations we looked at play in growing philanthropic resources for Black communities?

Here’s what we found.

A Closer Look at Community Foundations Response After BFD’s Release

From Candid data as of January 19th, 2023, we know community foundations increased their annual giving for Black communities from $78 million in 2019 to $125 million in 2020. However, this $125 million was still only 2.1% of overall giving from community foundations. Comparatively, funding for Black communities specifically represented 12% of all charitable giving and 5.4% of independent foundation giving in 2020^[2].

From Candid’s initial 2020 grants data, the 25 community foundations originally studied in Black Funding Denied only contributed, in the aggregate, 2.4% of their overall grantmaking to Black communities. However, this was more than double the 1% we found these community foundations contributed to Black communities in our original research which focused on 2016-2018. In fact, in 2021, 18 of the 25 named community foundations established new grants, funds, and initiatives explicitly for funding Black communities. NCRP will work with its members and other leaders from impacted communities to keep tracking community foundation support for Black communities to observe whether any increased scrutiny on the giving of the 25 foundations named in our August 2020 research changed in the following years.

We tracked community foundations that used data on racial disparities, program officers that were motivated by Black Funding Denied, and even worked with organizations to develop new commitments in their grantmaking to Black-led leadership serving Black populations. While it’s too soon to tell the full impact of any new funding, we do know that one-time initiatives responding to the 2020 uprisings won’t be enough. A Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) report from 2022 showed that only 27% of foundations CEP studied are now providing more multi-year unrestricted support compared to pre-pandemic giving levels, despite pledges in the pandemic to create a new normal.

COMMUNITY FOUNDATIONS SHOULD BE LEADERS

NCRP still believes in the values we encouraged the sector to embrace in our landmark 2009 publication, Criteria for Philanthropy at its Best: the most effective grantmaking comes when funders give intentionally and deeply to build power in marginalized communities. Past NCRP research shows that foundations that invest in building power in marginalized communities see tremendous structural progress toward equity goals.

The importance of this intentionality for impactful grantmaking was also a theme in Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity’s Mismatched report. “Predominantly white organizations are often happy to use movement language to walk through foundation doors opened by Black, Brown, and Indigenous activists,”: wrote authors Malkia Devich Cyril, Lyle Matthew Kan, Ben Francisco Maulbeck, and Lori Villarosa. “…this kind of funding can cast leaders and organizations of color in the role of contractors helping white organizations fulfill grant requirements, rather than as grantees receiving resources for their own strategies.” NCRP has heard this anecdotally from our Black-led nonprofit member organizations and partners.

After we released Black Funding Denied, we were told by many community foundations that we should only examine their discretionary giving, rather than a larger set of assets that included their donor advised giving. We understand that it’s more than just optics. Donors can play a decisive role in where their dollars flow, even when foundations have legal control over grantmaking. We also recognize that donor education is deep, often slow work that can take time to reflect in funding decisions.

Yet to limit a community foundation’s responsibility to their community to a tiny fraction of the dollars that pass through their doors is short-sighted, and a missed opportunity.

We continue to stand with our local and national partners in believing that community foundation leaders have an obligation to proactively break down barriers between donors and underinvested communities and set racial justice as the cornerstone of their vision. This dedication to serving their full community is what should set community foundations apart.

Some funders, like Brooklyn Community Foundation, are beginning to do just that. Months after the release of BFD, the community foundation announced a historic commitment to give “at least 30 percent of all grants to “explicitly benefit Black communities,” with priority given to Black-led groups focused on systemic change. The commitment was unprecedented among community foundations because it was a long-term, rather than a temporary, grant announcement. It promised to set giving rates that matched community demographics as a floor, not a ceiling. The pledge also covered both discretionary AND donor-advised funds, recognizing the responsibility community foundations have in setting values for their donor community.

Perhaps most importantly, it included transparency, with an invitation for the community to hold the foundation accountable to this vision.

THE BIGGER LESSON GOING FORWARD

As NCRP’s Movement Research Manager Stephanie Peng has written, “data can be an important tool to get us the better world we are all striving to make by having it as an active tool that movements can use to hold foundations accountable to their commitments to equity and justice.” The value in organizing data around us is that it helps clarify how investing in the communities most impacted by structural barriers provides them – and all of us – the resources and power to succeed and thrive. While philanthropy is not always comfortable when data highlights underfunding for communities, we’ve seen that pointing out vast disparities trigger funders into action.

Transparency is key to philanthropy being able to be honest with itself and communities about the true impact of their grantmaking. Many community foundations were unaware of how their publicly available data reflected – or didn’t reflect – the numerical representation of their mission and values. While some foundations may not have the immediate infrastructure needed to support such data analysis, the resources on how to make grant data a priority is out there.

While we saw positive outcomes from individual funders willing to devote new attention to the way they share data about their giving following BFD, we also hope to see this same type of self-reflection and improvement from the field at large on how we as a sector tend to unfairly measure the success of new funds. Black communities have and will organize for systematic structural change far beyond 2020, and their leadership deserves the sector’s trust and patience through a long-term commitment of resources.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

Based on feedback from NCRP’s Black-led members, our experience in dialogue with community foundations about their giving to Black communities, and findings from previous NCRP research, here are the areas where NCRP sees the most opportunity for progress:

1. Deeper Relationship Building – First and foremost, establishing relationships and trust with Black leaders in funders’ communities will help funders center the needs of those impacted the most by past and current racist systems of discrimination and exploitation. These relationships will help funders develop strategies on how to effectively support some of the most complex problems existing within their communities.

1. Sustained Financial Commitment – Preliminary 2020 Candid data showed that funding specifically to Black communities from community foundations from 78 million in 2019 to 125 million in 2020. While this is an exciting start, it will quickly be a thing of the past if foundations do not address how they were practicing grantmaking before 2020. Foundations should consider their internal practices, grantmaking metrics, and overall racial equity goals to ensure there is a constant flow of resources to intended communities. Funders have broken trust with communities through one-time “fad funding” before; now is not the time to repeat that mistake.

1. Shifting Power – Community foundation leaders are not solely responsible for all of their foundation’s grantmaking, but they do have the power to influence all of it. Leaders should consider how they are wielding that power in their communities and being an active voice advocating for and with Black community members.

1. Data Transparency – Ensure the sector has the most accurate and reliable data, by reporting timely information to Candid. Foundations who report that their grantmaking data are modeling transparency and how to hold themselves, and the sector at large, accountable.

Remember that targeting resources for Black communities specifically is not the same thing as funding racial justice work, which addresses the root causes of racial inequity. And increased funding to Black communities alone won’t be enough to repair past harm done to Black communities. Funding healing requires a separate, specific, and targeted response beyond investing in Black communities, but targeting philanthropic resources there is a great place to start.

ENDNOTES

¹Foundation Maps | Candid. (November 3, 2022). Foundation Maps.
https://maps.foundationcenter.org/home.php

²Ibid

Katherine Ponce is NCRP’s Senior Research Associate for Special Projects. Special thanks to NCRP’s Ryan Schlegel, Stephanie Peng, and Spencer Ozer for their work on the original research that formed the basis of 2020’s Black Funding Denied.”

With the news last week that Dr. Peter Buck bequeathed his 50 percent stake in Subway to the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation, I think it’s safe to say that donating your company to a nonprofit is now a trend.

Last year, we saw Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard donate 2 percent of the company to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and 98 percent to the Holdfast Collective, a 501-c-4 nonprofit. Also last year, we saw Barry Seid, an ultra-conservative donor, give his $1.6 billion company to the Marble Freedom Trust, a 501-c-4 nonprofit.

This phenomenon is not entirely new — the Otto Bremer Trust, a private foundation, has owned Bremer Bank for decades — but I do sense that this approach is gaining popularity.

One major driver of this trend seems to be avoiding taxes. By donating their companies to nonprofits, these wealthy individuals avoid virtually all taxes on their fortunes. For some, this is the classic “win-win” scenario, where both donors and non-profits get what they want or need. But with the ultra-wealthy already having an oversized influence in our democracy, is this really where we want philanthropy to go?

And that’s not the only important question we should be asking.

Payout

Private foundations are required to spend 5% of the value of the corpus annually on grants and other qualifying distributions. When all of your assets are illiquid (shares of a privately held corporation), how do you generate enough cash to meet your payout requirement?

Otto Bremer Trust was concerned about this as the value of the Bank skyrocketed in recent years, but they have been able to make it work thus far. Will they be able to meet payout in the future without selling the bank?

Will the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation generate enough cash from franchise fees and royalties to meet a payout requirement that will be approximately $280 million annually based on assets of $5.6 billion? Alternatively, it is rumored that a sale of Subway is in the works, which would solve this problem. The foundation would presumably take the proceeds from the sale and invest broadly to generate returns, as other private foundations do.

The Patagonia situation won’t have a payout requirement because neither entity is a private foundation. With the company valued at $3 billion, the payout requirement would have been $150 million annually if Chouinard had donated it to a private foundation. Profits paid to the Holdfast Collective are expected to be $100 million annually. If the Collective gives that entire amount away each year, that is still $50 million short of the $150 million that would have been required to meet payout.

Marble Freedom Trust also won’t have a payout requirement because it is a 501-c-4 nonprofit, not a private foundation.

Compliance with 1969 Tax Reform Act

The 1969 Tax Reform Act prohibits a private foundation from owning more than 20 percent of the voting shares of any one corporation. Otto Bremer Trust met the terms of this rule by converting most of its shares to nonvoting shares. The Trust owns 100 percent of the nonvoting shares and 20 percent of the voting shares of Bremer Bank.

How will the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation comply if Subway is not sold?

Holdfast Collective and Marble Freedom Trust won’t have to worry about this because there is no private foundation involved.

Tax Implications

By donating their companies to nonprofits, these donors avoid virtually all taxes on their fortunes. I believe that tax policy should incentivize charitable giving. And giving to nonprofits is better than passing the wealth to heirs. But do we really want wealthy individuals to be able to avoid all taxes on the growth of their assets in this way?

If Peter Buck had chosen to sell his stake or transmit it to his heirs instead of giving it to a foundation (which also happens to employ his heirs), the public revenue from estate and/or capital gains taxes could have netted the public coffers as much as $2 billion. That happens to be almost 3 times what the CDC spends each year on “Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.”

That’s why it’s so important that the public scrutinizes the policies and practices of private philanthropy. Philanthropy should be a complement to government spending as a way to serve the common good, not a replacement for it.

Democracy Implications

Holdfast Collective will be fighting Climate Change, an issue that NCRP and our members and partners’ support. The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation are big supporters of charter schools. The Marbel Freedom Trust will be moving a conservative agenda broadly, with a strong focus on influencing the judicial system.

Regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum, the wealthy already have too much influence in our democracy. This trend helps them have even more influence. Do we want that?

Aaron Dorfman is President & CEO of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

NCRP released the following statement on philanthropy’s role in the wake of the police shooting death of Tyre Nichols.

Like a lot of people, we at NCRP have been thinking a lot about violence, its connection to power and the unhealthy dependency people have on using force to get what they want or need. How no matter how many marches we attend, no matter how many achievements we appreciate and recognize, every
Black person in America is one police or Karen encounter away from never coming back home to their loved ones.

How ever you are processing the events of recent weeks, and this continued unjust reality, it’s important not to lose sight of the obvious: Tyre Nichols should be alive — a traffic stop shouldn’t lead to death.

From Interaction Lab: Folded hands opening up to a displayed message of 'reimaging public safety"

courtesy Into Action Lab

Communities have a human right to have safety defined beyond the presence of law enforcement. Individuals and families deserve to live in a world where economic, social, and political security is a standard for all, not just for those who have had it in the past or for those that can afford it.

Acknowledging that is only the beginning of the work.

Whether it is rooted in correcting past harm or a current dedication to their mission or stakeholders, philanthropy has a strong civic, economic, and moral obligation to resource a more inclusive and equitable future. Foundations, donors, DAFs, and other grantmakers must step up their support of local solutions and the visions laid out by those closest to the harm of overcriminalization and underinvestment.

Here are some ways that funders can start now:

· Check in on employees and grantees, especially those from Black and other impacted communities. Immediately provide space – and resources – for their
well-being.

· Don’t over rely on employees or community partners from impacted communities to respond in the moment.

· Provide multi-year, unrestricted grants for leaders in impacted communities and those working on these issues, starting directly with, but not limited to, Black, Latine/x, Asian American, indigenous and LGBTQ+ organizations and leaders.

· Assess grantmaking involvement in real time and be transparent about where your organization is and where it needs to go. Don’t wait for someone to search your end-of-the year 990 IRS filing or drag your feet every time Candid requests to update your data.

· If your grantmaking is not connected transformative justice and anti-violence measures, figure out how to get involved.

· And if you are doing all that you can, then ask how you can get more of your colleagues to do more.

This news should drive all our resources toward action. If there is anything that the last couple of years have shown us, it is that life is precious and that we cannot wait for the perfect time, message, or
messenger to make this world better. In fact, the way that a variety of sectors in 2020 responded in the immediate crisis of the pandemic should give hope to us all that change is possible.

Reckoning with and healing from past harms takes a deliberate and concerted effort, but as we work through the continued damage of the America’s racist past, we cannot shirk our responsibility to what is going on in the present. Our nation’s diverse foundations and allied grantmakers must be sure to answer at least this question in this moment:

What are you doing — today and tomorrow — to help this nation unwind from the destructive dependence it has on abuse and violence?

It’s easy to remember where I was seven months ago this week. On Friday, June 24th, 2022, I sat at my desk, surrounded by the chaos and boxes from my recent move, hoping my new wi-fi had enough capacity for the few zoom calls ahead of me. However, within minutes of my morning 10 o’clock call, notifications flooded my phone screen with news that would inevitably shift any work I had planned to do for the rest of the month, let alone for that day. It was the alert I’d been dreading for months.

“Dobbs” had dropped. The Supreme Court of the United States had accepted the state of Mississippi’s invitation and overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion.

I excused myself from my zoom call and braced myself to read the final decision. The next hour was spent checking in with my comrades from the frontlines, sharing space to be present with every valid feeling we were having in the moment.

I am still checking in.

The January 22nd 50th anniversary this week of the decision in Roe v. Wade to initially legally guarantee abortion access is a painful reminder of what can be lost when too many ignore the call of grassroots organizers, allies and other leaders. It is also a good opportunity to remember the mass mobilizations that immediately popped up across movements.

“Everyone Loves Someone Who Has Had An Abortion” Art created by Kenya Martin, Jasmine Burnett and Micah Bazant as a collaboration between National Network of Abortion Funds and Forward Together.

Grantmakers were amongst those mobilizing in the moment, personally or professionally supporting the many abortion storytellers, abortion fund staff and volunteers, independent clinic workers, and reproductive justice organizers across intersecting movements. People that held this work long before Dobbs was even a case and would be carrying this work beyond its ruling.

People whose sacrifices have kept the door of access open through countless economic, social and political barriers and obstacles.

People who philanthropy must continue to boldly support after this anniversary passes.

Grief that was Years in the Making

If we want to honor the good work of so many, we cannot forget that initial moment of mixed feelings. The anger that people did not believe us when we rang the alarm for decades that Roe was insufficient. Fear for the safety of people who will seek abortion services and for those of us supporting them in accessing care. The grief for all the amazing organizing and demanding work that went into creating resources, services, and strategies that this decision looks to erase. And even the relief that the decision we were all anxiously awaiting has finally been made, no matter how destructive the ruling’s potential.

In the immediate moment, it was hard not to feel angst, especially towards philanthropy. After spending two years reviewing data and creating content about the sectors’ absences and negligence that created the gaps that got us to this moment, I felt sick. I let the slack channel know I was offline for the rest of the day and needed to be in community with other reproductive justice folks in that moment rather than the sector that I was currently resenting.

Meanwhile. Anti-abortion elected officials and advocates were actively prepared, waiting with trigger laws that would go into effect almost immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision. It was just the latest example of their ability to quickly seize the opportunity to push their agenda forward during times of national distress. As past research from NCRP and others have shown, they made it a point to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict abortion access, having a major impact in just the first month of lockdown in several states. (See the box on to the right for more about the ways COVID-19 became a catalyst for the months of blatant anti-abortion attempts on access.)

Both moments of panic and uncertainty were used to the advantage of the anti-abortion agenda, resulting in countless forced pregnancies and restrictive access to reproductive and sexual healthcare with unfortunate consequences. It is now a forgone conclusion that organizations, advocates, and legislators supporting these abortion bans and attacks will seize any moment to enforce their views, no matter what the crisis or circumstance.

And they’ve only just begun.

Frontline Groups Fight Uphill to Confront Evolving Threats

Opposition is nothing new to the abortion movement. Between June of 2022 and the passing of Roe v Wade in 1973, states across the nations enacted 1,381 abortion restrictions. In fact, between 2015 and 2022, 127 independent clinics across the country closed their doors because of a lack of funding and threats of medically unnecessary abortion bans.

So yes, many organizers have grown up not knowing anything other than having to defend access from those whose life’s mission is to infringe on bodily autonomy and to gatekeep parenthood. However, the tactics and strategies of the anti-abortion movement are evolving with the times and casting a shadow over the wins for abortion access.

For example, earlier this month, the Biden administration expanded access to medication abortion after the Food and Drug Administration decided to make abortion pills available in pharmacies. With medication abortions now accounting for more than half of all abortions in the United States, pills like mifepristone and misoprostol can now be taken at home during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy. The New York City Health Department even announced that it would be offering abortion pills at no cost throughout four sexual health clinics across the city as a part of the “New York City Women’s Health Agenda.”

Not surprisingly, states with anti-abortion policymakers have stepped up their efforts to limit telemedicine, with local laws being pushed to require people to physically attend an appointment with a physician to take the pill, further restricting access. They are even going as far as using environmental laws to halt the dispensation of abortion pills. A petition has been filed requesting that the FDA regulate the disposal of abortions and treat them as “medical waste”, the argument is that if patients are flushing their abortions at home in their toilet, they are being exposed to wastewater and become an environmental hazard. In Alabama, the attorney general is even threatening to prose use medication abortion to terminate their pregnancies under an existing chemical-endangerment law. These threats have the potential to create such barriers to medication abortion that physicians will stop prescribing them.

All this while legal and financial pressure squeezes out of existence the number of facilities that offer services and support, especially in states where the assault on access is the greatest. In June 2022, 79 clinics operated in 15 states that were actively enforcing either total or 6-week abortion bans. By October 2022 – the number of facilities that offered full abortion services shrank drastically to only 13 – all in Georgia. In those 100 days since the court’s decision, 26 were forced to close their doors forever. The remaining 40 were still open but shells of their former self, restricted by local laws and dwindling resources from providing abortion services of any kind.

Frontline Groups Model a Way Forward

Many anti-abortion organizations have made it clear that Roe being overturned was never their end goal and that the work to abolish abortion access has only just begun. This movement’s opposition has the philanthropic dollar advantage by so much. For example, between 2015 and 2019 groups engaged in crisis pregnancy efforts were funded at five times the rate of those dedicated to ensuring abortion access, pulling in $278M in foundation support compared to $56M for legitimate clinics and abortion funds.

It is easy to feel defeated by these numbers and any other qualitative and quantitative data that suggests the sector’s lack of consistent interest and deep investment beyond flashpoints and the media spotlight. It certainly adds to the exhaustion that when your work is underappreciated, underfunded and constantly targeted, especially in moments when everyone’s capacity across the world is at its lowest.

However, the last seven months have provided philanthropy with yet another opportunity to see just how tactical and essential abortion organizers truly are. Abortion funds led fundraisers in their moments of depletion and panic that resulted in an amount of “rage giving” that allowed many of them to finally be able to hire paid staff after years of being volunteer-led or relying primarily on working boards of directors.

Groups like the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice have been reserving several seats on flights from Texas to bring abortion seekers into New Mexico on a weekly basis. While organizers in California, Michigan, Vermont, Kansas, Kentucky, and Montana secured state ballot measures in the last year to codify the right to an abortion or to dismiss any attempts to deny access to abortion care by the states.

Organizers – and the grantmakers who support them — also know that lasting local transformative responses must also take place beyond the legislative arena. In southern states like North Carolina, the Mountain Area Doula Collective and the Carolina Abortion Fund are offering abortion doula training to people that are interested in supporting individuals through their abortion care. Abortion doulas offer care and support for people during their scheduled clinic appointments, in addition to at home support for medication abortions and abortion aftercare. It’s a form of practical support that pre-dates Roe v Wade.

Philanthropy’s Task: Fund access as it should have always been

In the first 48 hours after Dobbs dropped, everyone, including the sectors and systems that often ignored the movements warnings, were watching the frontlines response to what was on the horizon. Donations flooded in as means of utilizing the rage and grief we were feeling not just over this moment, but over the last few years since COVID-19 previewed how abortion access was going to look.

People also stepped up to support one another. Countless people shared their abortion stories on their capitol house steps, and even dropped banners over highways to remind the world that their states were ready and waiting to receive abortion seekers. While many actions were coordinated ahead of time, in anticipation of when worst case scenario decision would be made, many others were the result of local individuals and organizers seeking community and coming together in response to the moment.

As we look 50 years ahead of the overturn of Roe, we must remember those moments if we want to firmly embed the principle and reality of access for every person living in this country. We need a shift in resources so that there can be more joy in abortion organizing rather than an endless cycle of grief and panic. Human dignity demands that those on the frontlines of access deserve not just to survive this work, but to be sustained and thrive in their service roles to our communities. We all benefit from a future where abortion seekers can choose when, how and where they have abortions and forced pregnancy is seen as the problem rather than the solution.

That future must also include one where foundations also acknowledge and address the funding gaps and disparities in their own grantmaking that has been harmful to individuals, organizations and the movement at large. Difficult conversations lie ahead of us, even among the closest of friends.

To reach these goals, philanthropy must make deep and long-term commitments to the work. This means looks like prioritizing state and local abortion funds, distributing unrestricted funding to legitimate abortion clinics, screening current and future grantees for deceptive anti-abortion groups and investing in policy work that combats the opposition directly.

Don’t know where to start? NCRP’s Road to Abortion Access and the work of We Testify, Florida Access Network and the Abortion Care Network are good places to start.

While I don’t gauge reproductive liberation by philanthropies investments, I do hope to see the sector is galvanized to be bold and transformative in its commitment to reproductive justice. Frontline leaders and impacted communities are providing models for our continued fight. All we need to do is remember and trust in what we can accomplish when we show how much we care about access – and each other.

Brandi Collins-Calhoun is a Movement Engagement Manager at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). A writer, educator and reproductive justice organizer, she leads the organization’s Reproductive Access and Gendered Violence portfolio of work.

I remember when I first met Pablo.

It was the fall of 2006. I had flown up to DC to interview for the job of executive director of NCRP. Pablo was on the search committee.

I had known of Pablo for many years before I actually met him. When I was a young organizer working for ACORN, I knew about Pablo and his incredible work at the Center for Community Change. As a student at what is now the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, I had read his writings about philanthropy. But I had never met him in person.

Also on the search committee were luminaries like David Jones, Gary Bass, Diane Feeney and others. And as we sat around that conference table, engaging in a robust conversation about what it would really take to transform philanthropy, I had no idea how much Pablo Eisenberg would be in my head for the next 16 years.

Pablo’s Lasting Impact

Pablo was one of the founders of NCRP, as you all know. In the years leading up to that founding in 1976, Pablo, along with Jim Abernathy, Thomas Asher and others nonprofit leaders, formed something called the Donee Group.

There was a blue-ribbon commission meeting at that time, the Filer Commission, that was looking into how philanthropy could best serve society. And the Filer Commission kept calling for testimony from wealthy donors and the people who led the largest foundations in the country. Pablo and his colleagues knew the commission was only getting part of the story. They weren’t hearing from the nonprofits that serve and represent Americans who had been marginalized or oppressed. They formed the Donee Group to be the voice of grantees (donees) to the Filer Commission.

After several years operating as an unincorporated coalition, they realized that philanthropy would always have blind spots. They decided to form NCRP to be an ongoing voice that could hold philanthropy accountable to those with the least wealth, power, and opportunity in our society.

Pablo was the first chair of the board of NCRP, and he served on the board for 37 continuous years after the organization’s founding. He played a key role shaping campaigns that have made philanthropy more responsive and accountable.

The early campaigns focused on transparency, blasting foundations for not sharing information about their grantmaking and operations. Many funders began publishing annual reports in response to NCRP’s work. And Pablo and NCRP helped secure changes to the 990PF tax forms that foundations file with the IRS, making sure those tax filings included important and relevant information.

In the 1990s, the organization published hard hitting reports about the lack of community foundation support for people of color and for advocacy. Many of those foundations improved after the criticism and after being confronted by local nonprofit leaders.

Pablo also successfully helped NCRP pressure workplace giving programs like the United Way and the Combined Federal Campaign to be more inclusive of communities of color, and to be bolder by funding efforts for systemic change, not just for direct service.

When we were developing Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best in 2008 and 2009, Pablo played a key role.

Continuing Pablo’s Legacy

One of Pablo’s greatest desires was for leaders of grantee organizations to stop being so deferential to funders. So, to encourage this kind of bold behavior and truth-telling, NCRP is establishing the Pablo Eisenberg Memorial Prize for Philanthropy Criticism. The prize will acknowledge and shine a spotlight on those who are speaking truth to power. We’ll share more details about the prize early next year.

The prize is just one way we’ll carry on Pablo’s legacy. Another way his legacy will live on is his impact on all of us who knew him and were moved by him.

I said earlier that I had no idea back in 2006 how much Pablo would be inside my head. For the past 16 years, whenever I had a hard decision to make, Pablo has been there, in my head.

Am I being bold enough?

Am I bringing just the right critique?

I am comforted today knowing that Pablo will be with me, inside my head, for many years to come.

Click here to learn more about how to financially support Pablo’s legacy. As mentioned above, donations made in Pablo’s name through December 31st  will go to establishing a memorial prize in philanthropic criticism and providing general operating support for NCRP’s ongoing efforts to make philanthropy more transparent and accountable to the communities we all serve.

Every year, after Thanksgiving and the consumer spending driven days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the push is for everyone to open up their charitable wallets and donate to their favorite causes and groups on #GivingTuesday.

We certainly have mixed feelings on this. While we applaud a focused effort to help fund the non-profit sector and shine a spotlight on the good work that they are doing, we know that support has to be more than just one day a year. Many of the groups having the greatest impact are working 365 days a year, so they need MULTI-year financial support, coaching and mentoring.

That being said, organizations need resources to keep the lights on and even the most dedicated of workers need to pay bills and put food on the table. So if you are in a position TODAY to give and are looking for places to steer your donations, consider financially supporting the work of the following NCRP members. While we have listed these organizations under their most active issue areas, many of the groups listed below operate intersectional across a number of connected issues.

Arts & Justice

Center for Leadership, Equity and Research (CLEAR)
Twitter: @CLEARFRESNO
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3ropLysCalifornia’s Center for Leadership, Equity and Research (CLEAR) is dedicated to eliminating educational and social disparities which impede equitable opportunities. To find out more info, you can visit their website at http://clearvoz.com

Latino Community Fund
Twitter: @LCFWA
Donation Link: https://www.latinocommunityfund.org/donateThe Latino Community Fund based in Washington, invests in the Latino community to cultivate new leaders, support effective nonprofit organizations and improve their quality of life in WA state. Learn more about LCF on their website at https://www.latinocommunityfund.org/

Alliance for Youth Action
Twitter: @alliance4youth
Donation Link: https://allianceforyouthaction.org/donate/

Alliance for Youth Action grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy & correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing. Learn more about Alliance for Youth on their website at https://allianceforyouthaction.org

Khmer Girls in Action
Twitter: @Kgalb
Donation Link: https://kgalb.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1Long Beach, CA’sKhmer Girls in Action mission is to build a progressive & sustainable Long Beach community that works for gender, racial + economic justice led by Southeast Asian young women. Learn more about Khmer Girls in Action on their website at http://kgalb.org/

Black Liberation/Racial Equity

Repower
Twitter: @repowerorg
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3aNGAIX

Repower works with organizations and individuals across the country to build transformative power with a framework of inclusive politics. Learn more about their work by visiting their website at https://repower.org/

Virginia Organizing
Twitter: @VAOrganizing
Donation Link: https://repower.org/

Virginia Organizing is a non-partisan statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their lives. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/2ZCJD5i

ABEN (A Black Education Network)
Twitter: @aben4ace

ABEN (A Black Education Network) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students of the African diaspora reach academic & cultural excellence. Learn how you can support their mission here: https://bit.ly/2ZFjJ0N

Black Students of CA United
Twitter: @BlackStudentsCU
Donation Link: https://www.blackstudentscu.us/invest

Black Students of CA United works to support African American students, groups and advisors to promote cultural learning, academic excellence and civic engagement. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/32RhGrX

Ella Baker Center
Twitter: @ellabakercenter
Donation Link: https://ellabakercenter.org/donate/

The Ella Baker Center helps organize people-powered campaigns to reinvest resources into communities most harmed by policing. Learn how you can support them here: https://bit.ly/39HkUiA

Selma Center for Nevada
Twitter: @Selma_CNTR
Donation Link: https://selmacntr.networkforgood.com/projects/149459-support-the-scntrSelma Center for Nevada works to create an equitable community by eradicating systemic barriers to growth & development through the collective implementation of personal, cultural and institutional solutions. To donate, click here: https://bit.ly/3o7xAX0

Community Change
Twitter: @communitychange
Donation Link: https://connect.clickandpledge.com/w/Form/e156aa2c-3deb-471d-9b89-deb38f25fea3Longtime partner and #NCRPMember Community Change builds the power of low-income people, especially people of color, to fight for a society where everyone can thrive. Learn how you can support their work here: https://bit.ly/2ZDzRQq

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy
Twitter: @LAANE
Donation Link: https://secure.everyaction.com/8jEw7yvkc0StHvHO3FUGLg2

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy is an advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. You can learn more about their work here: https://bit.ly/3rnJuOB

Black Voters Matters Fund
Twitter: @BlackVotersMtr
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3o5QE8f

Black Voters Matters Fund is working to increase power in marginalized, predominantly Black communities. You can learn more about their work here: https://t.co/JM9lcYmvbI

Advancement Project
Twitter: @adv_project
Donation Link: https://advancementproject.org/donate/

Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization working to create an inclusive and just democracy using innovative tools & strategies to strengthen social movements + achieve high-impact policy change. You can learn more about their work here: https://advancementproject.org/

Democracy, Civic Engagement & Journalism

LA Voice
Twitter: @LA_Voice
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3pbJ8Io

LA Voice awakens people to their own power, training them to speak, act, and work together to transform Los Angeles County communities. You can learn more about their work here: You can learn more about their work here: https://www.lavoice.org/

First Nations Development Institute
Twitter: @FNDI303
Donation Link: https://firstnations.org/ways-to-give/

First Nations Development Institute improves economic conditions for Native Americans through direct financial grants, technical assistance & training, and advocacy & policy. Learn more about their work here: https://firstnations.org/

Faith in Public Life
Twitter: @FaithPublicLife
Donate Link: https://bit.ly/3o5Xdrq

Faith in Public Life is a national movement of clergy and faith leaders united in the prophetic pursuit of justice, equality and the common good. They work to advance just policies at the local, state and federal levels. You can learn more about them here: https://www.faithinpubliclife.org/

Demos
Twitter: @Demos_Org
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3o7JXT6

Through cutting-edge policy research, inspiring litigation and deep relationships with grassroots organizations, Demos champions solutions that will create a democracy and economy rooted in racial equity. Learn more about their work here: https://www.demos.org/

Florida Rising
Twitter: @FLRising
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3IaWrkLFlorida Rising is working to increase the voting and political power of Florida’s black and brown communities. Learn more about their work here: https://floridarising.org/

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits
Twitter: @SmartNonprofits
Donation Link: https://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/about-mcn/support-mcn

Minnesota Council of Nonprofits is dedicated to advancing diversity, inclusion & equity through enhancing + improving intercultural competence, intentionally creating inclusive spaces and working to address disparities within the sector. Learn more about their work here: https://www.minnesotanonprofits.org/

Metro IAF
Twitter: @MetroIAF
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3peBuNf

MetroIAF are leaders and organizers who use the power they build to improve the lives of our families, communities, regions, and nations. Learn more about their work here:: https://www.metro-iaf.org/

Capital & Main
Twitter: @Capitalandmain
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/2ZDg3N2

Capital & Main is an award-winning nonprofit publication that reports from California on the most pressing economic, environmental and social issues of our time. Learn more about their work here: https://capitalandmain.com/

Fair Vote
Twitter: @FairVote
Donation Link: https://fairvote.org/donate/

Fair Vote is a nonpartisan organization seeking better elections for all. They research and advance voting reforms that make democracy more functional and representative for every American. Learn more about their work here: https://fairvote.org/

Pay Your Interns
Twitter: @payourinterns
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3G016UJ

Pay Your Interns is fighting to ensure students have equitable access to professional career paths through the implementation of paid internships countrywide—especially students from historically excluded communities. Learn more about their work here: https://payourinterns.org/

EDUCATION

Greene Scholars Program
Twitter: @greenescholars1
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3ogZzE5

The Greene Scholars Program helps youth of African ancestry in San Francisco Bay Area communities successfully complete higher education in STEM, and serve as positive role models and contributors to their communities. Learn more about their work here: https://www.greenescholars.org/

Mentes Puertorriqueña en Acción
Twitter: @Mentesenaccion
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3d6GspK

Mentes Puertorriqueña en Acción is a Puerto Rico-based bilingual space for college students and young professionals to develop their social and life projects. Learn more about them here: https://en.mentesenaccion.org/

National Women’s Law Center
Twitter: @nwlc
Donation Link: nwlc.org

The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. Learn more about them here: https://nwlc.org

Children’s Defense Fund
Twitter: @ChildDefender
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3oauNN4

Children’s Defense Fund works with policymakers to advocate for federal policies that improve children’s lives. Learn more about their work here: https://www.childrensdefense.org/

Catalyst California
Twitter: @CatalystCali
Donate today: https://bit.ly/31hXFJX

Catalyst California works with partners + communities to expand educational opportunities for California’s children; creates healthy and safe neighborhoods & ensures communities of color have a voice in our democracy. Learn more about their work here: https://www.catalystcalifornia.org/

Legal Aid Justice Center
Twitter: @LegalAidJustice
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3rp8AMX

Legal Aid Justice Center partners with communities and clients to achieve justice by dismantling systems that create and perpetuate poverty.

Rural Forward NC
Twitter: @MDCinc
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3xILCBF

Rural Forward NC, a project of MDC, identifies, strengthens, supports leaders to make rural counties healthier and thriving. Learn more about their work here: https://www.mdcinc.org/projects/rural-forward/

ECONOMIC EQUITY

Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc.
Twitter: @GeorgiaACT
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3Gi9i39

Georgia Advancing Communities Together, Inc. is a membership organization of nonprofit housing and community development organizations that serve families with limited housing choices. Learn more here: https://georgiaact.org/

Native American Rights Fund
Twitter: @NDNRights
Donate link: https://bit.ly/3rqo6bA

Native American Rights Fund holds governments accountable & protects Native rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, & expertise. Learn more here: https://georgiaact.org/

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.)
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3d5j0sV

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.) offers legal and technical services to aging farmers while reducing hunger in the farmers community through our 30000Acres TM food bank program. To learn more about their work, visit https://30000acres.org/

Resilience Force
@ResilienceForce
Donate : https://bit.ly/3d6MWoA

Resilience Force is a national initiative to transform America’s response to disasters by strengthening and securing America’s Resilience Workforce. Learn more about their work here: https://resilienceforce.org/

National Housing Resource Center
Twitter: @nhrc_846
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3o5jbuC

National Housing Resource Center is an advocate for the nonprofit housing counseling industry, housing consumers, for communities of color, the elderly and under-served communities. earn about them here: https://t.co/naVdHnQ82m

Prosperity Now
Twitter: @prosperitynow
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3D3TS0l

Prosperity Now is working to build an economy that is just, fair and free from structural racism. Learn more about their work here: https://prosperitynow.org/

Northern Gateway, CDC
Twitter: @ng_cdc
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3rlz9mfNorthern Gateway, CDC aims to increase the quality of life for residents and economic potential of small businesses in their community. Learn more about their work here: https://www.northerngatewaycdc.org/

LGBTQIA+ Equality,

PFLAG
Twitter: @PFLAG
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3pccer6

PFLAG is the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies. Learn more about their work here: https://pflag.org/GivingTuesday

PRO-IMMIGRANT AND REFUGEE MOVEMENT

Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC)
Twitter:@FLImmigrant
Donation Link: https://floridaimmigrant.org/#donate

The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) is a statewide coalition of more than 65 member organizations and over 100 allies, founded in 1998, work together for the fair treatment of all people, including immigrants. Learn more about them here: https://floridaimmigrant.org/about-flic/

Refugee Congress
Twitter: @RefugeeCongress
Donation Link: https://cwsglobal.org/support-refugee-congress/

Refugee Congress is a national nonpartisan organization built by & led by former refugees and asylum-seekers across the U.S. to champion domestic and international issues. Learn more about them here: https://refugeecongress.org/

Southeast Immigrant Rights Network (SEIRN)
Twitter: @SEIRN
Donation Link: https://www.seirn.org/contribute

Southeast Immigrant Rights Network (SEIRN) is comprised of 29 immigrant-led grassroots groups as well as local, state and regional organizations working together to lift the voice & leadership of immigrant communities in the Southeast. Learn more about them here: https://www.seirn.org/

UniteStateless
Twitter: @UnitedStateless
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/2ZIyj7UUniteStateless works to build & inspire community among those affected by #statelessness & to advocate for our #humanrights. Learn more about them here: https://www.unitedstateless.org/

United We Dream
Twitter: @UNITEDWEDREAM
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/31gAuQg

United We Dream is working to empower people to develop their leadership, their organizing skills, and to develop their own campaigns to fight for justice and dignity for immigrants and all people. Learn more about them here: https://unitedwedream.org/

Climate Justice and Just Transition

Greenpeace
Twitter: @Greenpeaceusa
Donation Link: https://bit.ly/3EhyrdG

Greenpeace is a global network of independent campaigning orgs that use peaceful protest + creative communication to expose environmental problems & promote solutions that are essential to a green future. Show your support: Learn more about them here: https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/

Green 2.0
Twitter: @diversegreen

Green 2.0 is dedicated to increasing diversity across mainstream environmental NGOs, foundations & government agencies. Learn more about their work here: https://bit.ly/3D8UeCW

The Conservation Fund
Twitter: @ConservationFnd
Donation Link: https://www.conservationfund.org/donate

The Conservation Fund helps protect America’s most critical lands and waters to provide greater access to nature, strengthen local economies and enhance climate resiliency. Learn more about them here: https://www.conservationfund.org/

In Western Pennsylvania, there is a long legacy of environmental stewardship by philanthropic organizations. It has taken generations of committed nature lovers, outdoor sporting enthusiasts, and climate activists decades to address the scars left during the heyday of the coal, iron, steel, and glass industries. Joining together, they formed civic and nonprofit organizations devoted to cleaning up the air, water, and soil. Today, many of these organizations receive funding from foundations set up by families enriched by these environmentally devastating industries – including Cordelia Scaife May’s Colcom Foundation.

Greenwashing Hate

The rosy story that the Colcom Foundation tells about itself is that it is a regionally-rooted foundation committed to “remediating environmental damage from a history of heavy industry and supporting the region’s rich cultural heritage.” The true story is more sinister. The primary recipient of Colcom Foundation is the United States’ anti-immigration movement, including multiple organizations the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed to be hate groups.

Colcom engages in the practice of greenwashing to obfuscate its true agenda. The Colcom Foundation claims immigration to the United States is a primary driver of the global climate crisis, as well as water scarcity, urban sprawl, and ecological destruction within U.S. borders. As a result, Colcom is the major funder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA, as well as myriad other organizations working all across the United States to make anti-immigrant scapegoating a central political issue in national debate and local politics.

Despite multiple exposés, including in the New York Times Magazine, the Colcom Foundation remains as active as ever. Its 990 from 2020 reveals that nearly 65% of its grants went to FAIR, IRLI, CIS, and Numbers USA, totaling almost $25 million. Most distressingly, many beloved civic and environmental organizations in Pennsylvania continue to take money from Colcom, directly contradicting their stated values and commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

How Funders Can Help

While these organizations must cease trading their reputations for grant funding, other foundations also have a responsibility to speak out about what Colcom and other bad actors are doing. Foundations have more power than financially precarious grantees, who worry that taking a stance might sabotage their opportunities with other foundations. Why don’t most self-identified progressive foundations speak out about well known funders of dangerous movements? Are foundations following their own code of silence, enabling funders of dangerous movements because of a culture of civility etiquette among the powerful? Staying silent reinforces a culture of civility among the powerful, prioritizing etiquette over endangerment.

Foundations should also step up and offer funds to organizations that want to escape “reputation ransom.” If foundations proactively reached out to grantees of Colcom (and other foundations of its ilk) with offers to replace their funding, Colcom would quickly find themselves without a façade of respectability to hide behind. Foundations can also show their support by signing this open letter calling on the Colcom Foundation to redirect 100% of its funding to environmental and civic organizations instead of dangerous white nationalism. When well-protected foundation leaders speak out on issues like Colcom, they open up space for public conversations and allow vulnerable organizations to fully serve their communities.

Avigail Oren
Photo credit: Julie Goetz

Avigail Oren is an organizer with Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Pittsburgh. Bend the Arc: Jewish Action Pittsburgh is part of Drop Colcom, a coalition of over seventy community organizations in the Pittsburgh area urging Colcom to stop funding white supremacy.

Former Headwaters Foundation for Justice Executive Director to Join Staff in December

Washington, D.C.- The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) announced this week that executive leader Maria De La Cruz (she, her), will join NCRP next month in the newly created position of Vice President and Chief External Affairs Officer.

A seasoned resource mobilizer and philanthropic organizer, De la Cruz will oversee NCRP’s strategic development, communications and marketing efforts. She will also serve on NCRP’s leadership team along with President and CEO Aaron Dorfman, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Timi Gerson, and Vice President and Chief Operation Officer Burhan Razi.

“I am thrilled that Maria is joining NCRP as our first-ever chief external affairs officer,” said Dorfman. “Her deep commitment, passion and track record for moving money to grassroots movements and communities with the least wealth, opportunity, and power perfectly aligns with our efforts to make philanthropy more accountable, responsive and transparent to the communities we all serve.”

Before joining NCRP, de la Cruz worked at Headwaters Foundation for Justice (HFJ) in several roles, most recently as President. Her additional leadership roles included being a board member of the Minnesota Council on Foundations, the co-chair of the Impact Driven Philanthropy Collaborative, and a co-chair of the Giving Project Network.

Her commitment to racial justice and collective liberation includes leading HFJ’s Fund of the Sacred Circle, a community-led grant program committed to Indigenous communities in Minnesota. She also helped launched the Emergency Fund for Black Lives to support Black-led community organizing in the wake of the murders of Jamar Clark and Philando Castile, as well as served on the design and core teams of Freedom Funders, a national network working to build philanthropy dedicated to Black Freedom.

That work was built on years of experience mobilizing resources for grassroots groups, including her work at OutFront Minnesota, where she helped engage donors and advocates around their Safe Schools for All and Marriage Equality Campaigns.

“After the murder of George Floyd, Maria sprung to action organizing individual donors and institutional funders to move millions of dollars to frontline groups organizing for racial justice,” said Dorfman. “She has established a reputation for being a thoughtful partner and leader who is able to take in multiple viewpoints and be a voice on complex issues without being afraid to take up space, ask questions, and speak truth to power.”

De La Cruz is looking forward to continuing to work in and with organizations that strive to live out values of racial, gender, and social justice.

“I am so excited to be stepping into this role and having the opportunity to collaborate and learn from a fantastic team of knowledgeable and connected staff and board members,” said De la Cruz. “Societal change depends on mobilizing resources to grassroots movements by rooting relationships in collective liberation. So much of that work depends on the work that NCRP does in engaging grantmakers around issues of identity, gender, race, class, and power to create a more just and equitable world.”

De La Cruz holds a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from Metropolitan State University, a master’s degree in nonprofit management from Hamline University School of Business, and a juris doctorate from Hamline University School of Law. She lives in Minnesota with her wife and two teenage children.

ABOUT NCRP

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) has served as philanthropy’s critical friend and independent watchdog since 1976. We work with foundations, nonprofits, social justice movements and other leaders to ensure that the sector is transparent with, and accountable to, those with the least wealth, power, and opportunity in American society.

Our storytelling, advocacy and research efforts, in partnership with grantees, help funders fulfill their moral and practical duty to build, share and wield economic resources and power to serve public purposes in pursuit of justice.

Together, we can create a just and equitable world where all communities get the resources they need to thrive.

NCRP PRESENTS: “A RIPPLE, NOT A WAVE:
COMPARING THE LAST DECADE OF FOUNDATION FUNDING
FOR MIGRANT COMMUNITIES AND MOVEMENTS”

Report following trends in funder support of pro-immigrant and pro-refugee organizations includes
funding data through Trump presidency, challenges philanthropic sector to do more

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) released its newest report on philanthropic support of the pro-immigrant, pro-refugee movement. While there were some promising shifts in the funding landscape with higher philanthropic participation, the overall trend over the last ten years was disappointing as local and national giving for immigrant and refugee justice did not keep pace with overall grantmaking growth in the philanthropic sector. In fact, the proportional share of pro-immigrant and pro-refugee philanthropic funding actually dropped by 11% in the last decade, despite a four-fold sector growth in overall giving.

Though the United States is nationally underfunded, with each region receiving significantly less than the immigrant population in the region, the South, Southwest and Mountain West stand out. For example, from 2017-2020 foundations only gave $8 per capita annually to benefit immigrants and refugees living in the South.

Funders also give significantly less support to immigrants and refugees with vulnerable intersecting identities, with groups focused on Black, LGBTQ, Indigenous and AAPI migrants receiving fractions of pennies for each dollar philanthropy spent in migrant justice.

The consequences of this underfunding are severe. The recent Freedom for Immigrants report from NCRP member organization Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) founds that though Black immigrants represent 6% of the population of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), they made up 28% of the accounts of abuse in ICE detention.

“Every funder who cares about racial equity and justice should be supporting frontline, immigrant- and refugee-led movement groups,” Ben Barge, NCRP Field Director asserted. “There’s a direct line between migrant justice and the progress we want to see in our democracy, in health and education equity, in our broken criminal justice systems, and so much more. It’s past time for the dollars to match that reality.”

This release is an update to NCRP’s previous reports, State of Foundation Funding for the Pro-Immigrant Movement (2019), which covered national funding for the movement, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor (2020), a state-by-state dashboard exposing the lack of local foundation support for immigrants and refugees in their own backyards. The data in those reports end in 2018, because of a lag in foundation-reported data.

A Ripple, Not a Wave gives never-before-seen insight into the past decade of foundation giving for immigrant, refugees, and the pro-immigrant, pro-refugee movement and covers the philanthropic response during the anti-immigrant Trump presidency. Foundations started to give more money to explicitly benefit immigrants and refugees after 2016. But this new support was shallow and short lived: funding to explicitly benefit immigrants and refugees only grew from 1.3% of all foundation funding in 2011-2015 to 1.8% in 2016-2020. These new resources peaked in 2017 and 2018, often via one-time special grants. Money for pro immigrant and pro-refugee movement advocacy and organizing, never exceeded 0.4% of U.S. foundation funding in any of these years.

In light of these findings, NCRP President and CEO Aaron Dorfman encouraged funders to give more boldly. “As right-wing extremists try to consolidate power, they target migrant communities – but this is the tip of the spear that threatens all of us. We can’t afford to underfund the critical movement building that immigrants and refugees lead. The stakes are too high for all of us.”

ABOUT NCRP

Together, we can create a just and equitable world where all communities get the resources they need to thrive.

Senior Fellow at Georgetown Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership and former Executive Director of the Center for Community Change was a long-time NCRP board member and one of the organization’s original founders

Washington, DC – The staff, board, and partners of the National Committee of Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) are deeply saddened to hear about the passing of one of our original founders, Pablo Eisenberg. He was 90 years old.

Eisenberg, along with Thomas R. Asher and Jim Abernathy, helped create NCRP in 1976 as an outgrowth of the Donee Group, which looked to represent the interests of grantees and small funders before the Congress’ 1973 Flier Commission on Private and Public Needs.

Eisenberg was the organization’s founding board chair and would serve continuously on the board of directors for 37 years.

Pablo Eisenberg (1932- 2022)

“Pablo worked hard to make grantmakers move beyond their own intentions and ideals in order to deliver real opportunities and funding to those looking to create a better world,” said NCRP President and CEO Aaron Dorfman. “He especially never lost his focus on low-income people, continually and intentionally centering his efforts with communities that the sector’s actions often marginalized. He was not afraid to shake things up and challenge powerful leaders, organizations, and friends when he thought they could be more and do more. Including NCRP.”

Several years ago, in reflecting on NCRP’s history and legacy, Eisenberg noted the crucial role that the organization has had in ensuring that institutions were more accountable to their grantees and more just giving.

“I remember when foundations never issued reports, and now that’s commonplace, remarked Eisenberg in the 2021 June issue of NCRP’s Responsive Philanthropy. “People know that there are folks looking over their shoulder as they give money.”

“Transparency, humility, power-sharing – these were all behaviors that Pablo challenged all philanthropists to adopt, even when they didn’t think it was necessary,” added Dorfman. “While there is still a lot of work to be done in the sector on this, these mechanisms are no longer outlandish demands thanks to the work of people like Pablo Eisenberg.”

Eisenberg served as the Executive Director of the Center for Community Change for 23 years. A prolific writer well past his 80s, he was a senior fellow at Georgetown Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the time of his death.

You can read more about Eisenberg and the NCRP’s founding in the History section of our website. A first-person oral history told by Eisenberg himself is also available on the HistPhil website.