It’s the 10th anniversary of global Black Philanthropy Month. Founder Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland shares the ups and downs — and what’s next.

The Black community has a history of practicing philanthropic giving, but are not always on the receiving end of it. 

Since 2011, Africans and generations of African emigrants have sent more than $40 billion to their ancestral homes. Despite individual commitment to investing in Black communities, the philanthropic sector gives significantly less. 

Between 2010 and 2019, African NGOs received 14 percent of grants from non-African donors and 9 percent of grants from African donors. In Canada, the Black community receives even less, getting 0.7 percent of grants awarded to Black-serving organizations.  

August marks the 10-year anniversary of Black Philanthropy Month, where philanthropists and Black community leaders celebrate and elevate African-descent giving around the world. Created by Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland and the Pan-African Women’s Philanthropy Network, this year’s theme is, “TENacity: Making Equity Real”. 

Future of Good spoke with Copeland about the nature of Black philanthropy and the evolution of economic justice for Black communities in the philanthropic sector. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Sherlyn Assam: What were some of the precursors to establishing a month dedicated to Black Philanthropy, and what goals did you wish to achieve?

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland: I have been trained in the African diaspora and in anthropology as a cultural historian. Frankly, since my teen years I have been interested in how to promote human rights and economic justice for all people, including Black people. Having worked on human rights, philanthropy, and social justice issues, especially in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the US in particular, I started becoming a pro bono consultant to a group of women who wanted to start philanthropy. I had this simple idea initially of getting those women together for mutual support and founded an organizing group, originally called the Pan-African Women’s Philanthropy Network, that is now called Reunity. I also conceived this idea of an action summit, which I have been working with since the 1990’s and improving it, based on a UN model where you put together groups that may not have a connection to identify common interest, and then collaborate on addressing the same community problem. 

That is when I got the idea of organizing a Black Philanthropy Month — to make the world aware of the amazing philanthropic prowess and contributions of Black people of any ethnicity and background. As someone who has worked in philanthropy for decades, I was frustrated that even after 20 years’ worth of research conclusively documenting that Black people have philanthropy; that in the U.S., Black people give the highest proportion of our income in philanthropy, you will still hear in the field that Black people don’t give.

So part of Black Philanthropy Month is to ensure that Black people themselves are conscious of the fact that the giving we’re raised to do without even a name attached to it, is about being a responsible person. Giving time, talent, and treasure, and poise, and tithes, and anything you have to help someone else — that actually is powerful, and is as good as anybody else’s philanthropy. You don’t have to be rich to be a philanthropist. 

So what can we do through a forum, like Black Philanthropy Month, especially given how decimated all of our communities are now by COVID, the recession, anti-Black racism that we witnessed in the prominent lynching of George Floyd? It’s almost as if we have the power if we work together to solve a lot of our challenges, now that this commemorative month of August exists.

Sherlyn: How has the greater awareness of systemic inequalities Black people face translated within the philanthropic sector over the last decade, and how has that changed Black Philanthropy Month as an organization to get to where it is today?

Jackie: Part of the reason we exist is because there is no racial equity in philanthropy and our community’s contribution is largely still not recognized. And furthermore, there is a huge lack of access to private capital in the world for Black people.

Depending on which study you look at, Black people in the U.S. only get 2 to 8 percent of foundation funding. When you look at venture capital — funding for our businesses — we only get one percent of funding in the U.S. and Black women only 0.6 percent. And it’s not much better with impact investing. Our community generally doesn’t even have the network to access impact investing that can be given to a non-profit organization or even a for profit company to support some social or environmental benefit. Any slice of the private capital world you look at, Black folks are hardly at the table, and we’re not getting our fair share of funding. 

That has been true for the 40 years I’ve been working in the field. I must say, there have been a variety of groups working on those issues and have been for decades. But it changed for me personally in the first quarter of 2020, where I decided to leave my previous position and work full-time to create an organization called the Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE Fund). That is what I call a funding equity and innovation enterprise. We support efforts like Black Philanthropy Month, Black women, and other under supported entrepreneurs, including Indigenous people. Their statistics are as bad or even a little worse than African people around the world. Our objective is to really increase access to capital for high-profit organizations that are addressing some of the most severe social and environmental challenges of our time. 

Sherlyn: Your Global Black Funding Principles range from flexible operation support to the preservation of Black philanthropic practices, which don’t seem like radical changes. Are there bureaucratic barriers to upholding these principles or is it a case of conscious or unconscious racism towards Black-led and Black-serving organizations?

Jackie: Economic justice is the last frontier of the civil rights and Black liberation movements around the world. Unless we get fair access to private capital, we will repeat the same cycle of history. We fundamentally still do not have enough capital to sustain our community. Whenever there is a recession, or some sort of economic downturn, a health calamity like the current pandemic, we’re among the first and worst hit. We take two steps forward for several decades, and then we take huge leaps backwards. That’s what’s happening now. So you would think those 10 principles would not be radical, right? They seem perfectly reasonable, correct? But they are very difficult, especially for dominant funders to adopt. If I recall the study correctly, Black-led non-profits in the USA get 25 percent less funding than your white counterparts. There are more stringent and draconian conditions tied to grants given to Black organizations. They tend to skip over grassroots or community-based Black non-profits. And those tend to be often closer to the problem and more likely to also be an economic agent in their community because they also hire Black vendors and Black employees.

The non-profit sector also has a large multiplier effect in communities. It’s not just because they do good, and they help people — it’s because they’re also vital economic actors in our community, and are a vehicle for people to constructively advocate for their rights. They feel a stake in our democracy and can help improve it. Our communities are undermined and weakened when our grassroots nonprofits are not equally supported. You see this also play out in venture funding; the basic reason why we receive significantly less. You can’t have a strong Black community if the businesses are strong, right? So there is an implicit bias that has been well-documented in the venture community, that knee jerk assumption that Black businesses will be less competent and viable. Also, that if you fund a Black business, it’s a diversity program, and that somehow diversity means less quality, less competent. So they just kind of perpetuate the networks that look like them.

Sherlyn: Is there anything else you’d like to add about the work Black Philanthropy Month is going to do in future, or about how to care for the Black community at this point in time?

Jackie: [One] of the questions I’d like people to really ask ourselves during Black Philanthropy Month is just — use it to assess how they can have greater impact. Greater impact doesn’t always necessarily mean funding more, or volunteering more. Perhaps sharing your resources with another organization, advocating for the support of another organization, speaking up at your job or in your community when you see an injustice — just being a collaborative, global, Black citizen who is ready to use the time, talent, treasure, voice, and ties that they have for true Black self-love. Remove yourself from any type of internalized racism that can sneak up on anyone because white supremacy has had such a long shelf life. Find a way to give collectively. 

And finally, we should keep our eyes on the prize. As bad as it is, it is not the worst time in Black history. Really knowing your history helps sustain confidence because once you really notice that, you realize it’s an absolute miracle that there are still Black people in America and on the planet, given the terrorism and oppression that we suffer. We have within our history, within our lineage, the capacity to not only survive, but absolutely succeed and lead the world.

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