When the New Economy Coalition’s (NEC’s) Black-focused working group met for the first time last year to start a mutual aid fund for Black-led organizations, they had a lot on their plate. 

Their plan to raise as much money as possible — $120,000 U.S. at last count — comes as COVID-19 continues to decimate Black communities across the U.S. in ways that are all too familiar to health equity advocates north of the border. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control statistics from April 2021, Black Americans are 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than their white counterparts and nearly twice as likely to die of the virus. 

While Black-led organizations are often at the forefront of responding to crises such as the pandemic and the impacts of systemic racism, the Black Solidarity Economy Working Group says they are often ignored when it comes to funding. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Black-led organizations raise significantly less money overall, have trouble building rapport with foundation staff due to bias, and run with much smaller budgets than their white counterparts. 

“The redistribution of our funding to Black-led organizations is an intentional act of reparations at a time when we must acknowledge both how nonprofit organizations benefit from structural racism, and the role we should play in dismantling it,” reads an open letter from the working group. “We must reckon with the reality that the organizations that are funded to address challenges impacting Black communities have historically been white-led.” 

The NEC’s network of U.S. non-profits, mission-driven businesses, grassroots organizations, and sectoral associations are already involved in building what they see as a more fair, equitable economic system — what they call the solidarity economy. As part of their efforts to redistribute funding to Black-led organizations, the Black Solidarity Economy Fund is calling on wealthy white individuals, as well as other people of colour, to donate and help Black-led organizations do their work. 

Public support for anti-racist action by the social impact sector is important, but Symone Jackson, the coordinator of the Black Solidarity Economy Working Group, says it is not enough. “Money is a key part of changing the material conditions of communities that have been experiencing disinvestment and racism for a long time,” she says

The fund started with just $25,000 U.S. in the bank from NEC, a commitment matched by the Center for Economic Democracy and supported by Beneficial State Foundation (who Jackson works for). This brought their total to over $65,000 U.S., and donations from other non-profits and foundations, as well as some individuals, raised the fund’s total to just under $120,000 U.S.

Jackson says even non-wealthy people can help out. For Americans who are financially stable, redistributing wealth to Black organizations in need could be as simple as giving a portion of the U.S. federal government’s COVID-19 stimulus cheques. So far, Congress has issued three rounds of cheques to Americans, worth $1200 U.S. $600 U.S. and $1400 U.S.respectively. “People who qualify for the stimulus checks have been giving funds to folks who need it, even though they may not be rich on paper,” Jackson says. 

Jackson says the plan is to accept additional donation pledges up until June 2021, at which point the fund’s governance team will meet to hash out eligibility criteria. Whatever they do decide, Jackson says the plan is to offer unrestricted funding to Black-led organizations. “Is your organization led by Black folks? Does your work serve Black communities? Are you in the NEC member network? That’s it,” she says. 

In the midst of the world’s ongoing reckoning with anti-Black racism, some social impact sector leaders are finally reflecting on how they can help Black-led organizations tackle a racist funding gap. Offering unrestricted funds and clear criteria are important steps, Jackson says, as well as removing reporting requirements. “It should not be hard for people to just get resources and money,” she says. 

COVID-19 response is a major issue for Black-led organizations (and the social impact sector as a whole), but Jackson says it was actually the social impact sector’s response to another crisis — anti-Black police violence last summer — that really galvanized the working group to act. Many social impact organizations put out statements of solidarity with the Black community, as well as other marginalized groups who routinely face police violence, but Jackson says that wasn’t enough. 

“There’s a lot of worrying about wanting to do better, wanting to build a better world, wanting to change things — and we have member organizations who are doing the work to change things,” she says. “We really saw this as an opportunity to hold people to that commitment.” 

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