In solidarity with Black-led and Black-empowering organizations (BLOs) we invite you to join as signers on an open letter to philanthropy urging them to stay the course on funding racial equity. When BLOs called on philanthropy to invest in 2020, many heeded the call. Those investments are moving the needle on several fronts- housing justice, educational equity, worker justice, justice transformation and contributing to multiracial democracy for the benefit of all. However, we all feel the pullback

Today, we stand on the precipice at a critical moment when investments in racial equity are under attack. We anticipated that any form of Black progress would be met with backlash. We also know that these attacks are designed to stifle and roll back progress on eradicating structural racism. Now is not the time for philanthropy to waiver but to live into its simple yet profound meaning: to “love humanity.” This is why we are calling on BLOs and ally organizations to join us in urging philanthropy to make eradicating anti-Blackness the new funding standard. We believe that now more than ever, we need philanthropy to be bold and unapologetic about the moral and economic imperative that equity-based funding compels.

Join us in calling on philanthropy to stay the course by adding your organization’s name to the Black Equity Collective’s Open Letter to Philanthropy.

Our letter calls on funders to enact the Principles for Black Equity:

Truth

• Continue the conversations on race and refuse to be silenced during this time of denial and deflection.
• Study the CA Reparations Task Force Report and use it as a framework for your philanthropic investments.
• Use your voice and public platforms to speak about systemic harm to Black people and advocate for equity-based investments.
• Build the muscle for race-consciousness in your philanthropic practices by listening deeply to the lived experiences of your grantee

Strength

• Follow the lead of funders like the Weingart Foundation and make an institutional commitment to invest in Black-led organizations for the next 10-15 years.
• Hire staff and create a dedicated funding portfolio to Black liberation work and commit at least 25% of your annual grantmaking budget to fund it (see strategic disruption below).
• Seed endowments into Black-led nonprofit organizations to support their sustainability and their ability to prepare themselves for the long fight for justice without worrying about short-term funding. Join foundations, like the Schott Foundation, in investing in nonprofit endowments.

Strategic Disruption

• Increase the amount of your investments in Black-led organizations. Meet the challenge presented by ABFE in 2017 to dedicate 25% of your grant-making portfolio to black liberation and to eradicating anti-blackness.
• Pay attention to regional equity–data show that funding per capita to Los Angeles and the Inland Empire combined is less than half that of the Bay Area.

Love

• Provide flexible, unrestricted, multi-year funding like the Black Freedom Fund.
• Allow organizations to build a culture of healing and rest by investing in their people, paying life-sustaining wages, and providing health benefits and retirement funds.
• Talk about the ways in which Black-led organizations are innovating and contributing to the fabric of communities in impactful and inspiring ways.

"If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything...that smacks of discrimination or slander."

—Mary McLeod Bethune

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The Black Equity Collective (BEC) represents the voices of over 54 Black-led and Black-empowering (BLOs) organizations that span three regions of southern California, including Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Since 2021, the Black Equity Collective has raised over $20M for grantmaking, operations, technical assistance, and other programming to support the sustainability of Black-led and empowering organizations in Southern California. We do this because BLOs are an antidote to anti-Blackness, nurturing and defending Black people, their families, communities, and their causes.