Black-led collaboratives step up as broader equity efforts fade

Leaders of collaborative funds focused on supporting Black communities worldwide want to increase their number and take the lead on driving efforts to create more equitable systems amid concerns that philanthropic support for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts is waning. Three years after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer spurred a wave of pledges for DEI from corporations and foundations, there is a growing conservative backlash in the United States and elsewhere against the promotion of so-called “woke” social causes, which includes racial equality. Increasing uncertainty about the economy has also prompted some companies, particularly in the tech sector, to begin laying off recently hired DEI staff. Black-led collaborative funds, however, are committed to keeping equity “squarely on the agenda” within the philanthropy sector, and may be best positioned to push for greater accountability, said Rebecca Darwent, co-founder of Foundation for Black Communities, a Canadian collaborative fund. Earlier this year, the fund secured a $200 million commitment from the Canadian government to support Black-led and Black-serving nonprofits in the country. Because collaborative funds are typically led by people from the communities they serve, they are often better connected to grassroots organizations that could benefit from charitable donations, she said. Those connections also increase their sense of accountability to those communities, she said. These collaboratives are also more likely to persist in their efforts to promote equity despite changes in public sentiments, Darwent told Devex. “A lot of them were founded recognizing that 2020 was a moment and that things would change,” said Darwent, also senior advisor of collaboratives at Philanthropy Together, an international network of community-led giving circles and collaborative funds. The organization launched in 2020 with seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Philanthropy Together has started hosting conversations with groups around the world about how to launch more collaboratives to raise funding for issues that disproportionately impact Black communities such as the lack of access to health care, unemployment, and climate change, she said. Black communities have had “different moments where we’re at the forefront and many more moments when we’re not, and so we do the organizing ourselves for the long-term recognizing that political will will change, corporate will will change, but our communities will still have needs,” she said. One of the organizations that Philanthropy Together works with as it tries to expand the reach of collaborative funds is the Black Feminist Fund, an organization founded in 2021 to support Black feminist movements worldwide. Earlier this year, the fund and its backers — which include the Ford Foundation, Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, and popstar Rihanna’s Clara Lionel Foundation — announced a $100 million fundraising goal for Black women-led nonprofits. So far, the Black Feminist Fund has raised about $43 million of that goal, said Tynesha McHarris, the fund’s co-founder. It’s critical to “challenge” the sector to pour more funding into Black women-led nonprofits as well as groups focused on LGBTQ+ and human rights as they are increasingly targeted by conservative and authoritarian governments, she said. “I think we’re in a moment where we have to be deep into coalition building,” McHarris said. Black Feminist Fund recently announced that it would begin accepting a new round of applications for its Solidarity Fund on Oct. 9. The call is open to organizations in Africa, the Americas, and Europe.