Black Feminists Are Organizing with Little to No Funding. Here Are Three Ways to Change That
/At a rally by grantmakers for Girls of Color, 2021. Photo courtesy of FJS.
Around the world, Black feminists are doing transformational work to advance human rights and social justice. As people who are among those most impacted by multiple, systemic injustices, Black women and gender nonconforming people are dreaming and delivering the solutions we need.
Historically and presently, Black feminists — activists like Marielle Franco, Sonia Pierre, Sibongile Ndashe, Awa Fall Diop, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, the members of the Combahee River Collective, Marsha P. Johnson and Francia Márquez — have always pushed social justice movements to expand analysis and deepen action. In the United States, Black feminists, many leading inside of the Movement for Black Lives, sparked uprisings against state and police violence across the country. In 550 places around the country, a half-million people participated, making this Black-feminist-led movement the largest in U.S. history.
Black feminists bring lived experience, knowledge, visions and solutions to every issue relevant to philanthropy: human rights, economic justice, gender justice, LGBTQI rights, territory and land defense, climate change, civil and political rights — the list goes on. They demand that non-Black feminists examine their internal biases and address racism, classism and queerphobia so that global feminism embraces all of the critical movements being led by women and gender nonconforming people.
Black feminist movements are dramatically under-resourced
Black feminist leadership has been and remains a crucial force for justice, yet globally, Black feminist movements are dramatically under-resourced.
The Black Feminist Fund’s research points to an alarming lack of philanthropic support. In 2018, 81% of Black feminist organizations reported that they did not have the resources to meet their goals. Less than half of 1% of almost $70 billion in foundation giving globally went to Black women, girls and trans people. For Black feminist organizers, a lack of funding is one of the steepest barriers to their work.
This dramatic lack of funding must change. We can’t allow Black feminist leaders to continue organizing on shoestring budgets while their communities are threatened by authoritarianism, racism, queer- and transphobia, and climate change. We know that when we center the vision, leadership and movements of those most impacted by injustice, including the leadership of Black feminists, democracy flourishes, the planet breathes, and we all win.
Challenging philanthropy to fund Black feminist movements
Early in 2023, the Black Feminist Fund issued a global call to action in its Open Letter to Philanthropy. It challenged the sector to step up and to fund Black feminist movements to win. Foundation for a Just Society (FJS), Wellspring Philanthropic Fund and nine other prominent foundations and philanthropic leaders signed a commitment to change the funding landscape.
This April, FJS, in partnership with Wellspring, launched an important new resource: Resourcing Black Feminist Organizing in Latin America and the Caribbean. This online resource highlights the learnings from a remarkable research initiative conducted by a team of 16 Black women academics, artists and activists. The initiative maps the realities, organizing, needs and priorities of Black feminist-led groups throughout the region.
The site also calls attention to the severe lack of funding for Black feminist leadership and activism. Funders are not yet meaningfully reaching Black feminist groups in Latin America and the Caribbean (or globally), but there are abundant opportunities for funders to make a difference. The research lifts up more than 300 Black feminist-led initiatives and groups in 17 countries doing groundbreaking work.
Based on all this work, we are excited to share three key takeaways on how philanthropy can support Black feminist movements.
1. Dismantling racism is core to the work
Black feminists encounter racism and discrimination when they seek funding. We cannot ignore the histories of racism within our own philanthropic organizations. As funders, we must commit to “decolonizing” philanthropy and doing antiracist self and organization-wide education to identify the root causes of why our funding is not reaching Black feminist movements. This is essential preliminary work to prepare us to build trust with Black feminist organizers.
2. Relationship building is essential
Black feminist movements are multifaceted: informed by intersectional and decolonial analysis, rooted in community histories, and focused on collective wellbeing. These movements center trusting relationships — between activists, and between activists and funders. Many funders do not yet have relationships with Black feminist groups and must commit the time necessary to building new relationships and working through accumulated mistrust.
Here’s the good news: Every funder has a role to play in resourcing Black feminist organizing, and opportunities abound. Whatever issues your mission prioritizes, there are countless ways to support Black feminist organizations and to center Black feminist leadership.
Feminist funds, other public foundations and private funders can all show up by building bridges to Black feminist groups through their existing grantmaking programs. All funders can expand the inclusiveness of their grantmaking frameworks by building a deeper analysis of the experiences, needs and priorities of Black feminists.
Funding Black feminist organizing benefits from collaboration. By working in partnership, funders can address shared barriers, complement each others’ work, fill knowledge gaps and connect with potential grantee partners. For example, funders can learn from peers that are creating funding opportunities in the Caribbean, where Black feminist organizing has a distinct and particularly underfunded history. Caribbean activists, supported by the Equality Fund and Astraea, are currently working to develop a regional fund.
Finally, we must fund with care, and resource the work of care, protection and healing. As funders, we can contribute by making our grantmaking processes accessible and supportive, rather than contributing to the burdens that Black women-led groups carry. In building healthy relationships, care and responsive attention between funders and grantees are essential.
3. Prioritize long-term resource pathways over short-term funding
Black feminist organizations need sustained and flexible resourcing at all levels — from grassroots collectives to cross-border networks. This breadth of funding will allow Black feminists to strengthen their movements on their own terms.
Black feminist movements need long-term sustenance, not short-term project support. An abundant funding landscape will provide multiple pathways for resources to flow to Black feminist movements. The need for funding that centers, and shifts power to, Black feminist leadership is acute. Providing flexible, long-term core support directly to groups led by Black women and gender nonconforming people is essential. Likewise, creating funding mechanisms dedicated specifically to organizing in Latin America and the Caribbean is an important area for growth.
To assess our direct support to Black women and gender nonconforming people, funders must collect and track disaggregated grantmaking data that counts these as unique populations. Are we reaching organizing led by Black women and gender nonconforming folks? How effectively are we responding to their needs, realities and priorities? Sharing our data with both movements and other funders builds our collective understanding of needs and opportunities.
We also need to shift the narrative about groups’ “absorptive capacity.” As funders, it is our responsibility to support organizations to grow their capacity. Black feminists have done deep community organizing with scant resources for far too long. It is time we recognize the brilliance and resilience of Black feminist movements — and match their courage and urgency by offering sustained and flexible support.
Inviting funders to step up
In the last few years, we have seen funders beginning to commit new resources to support Black feminist movements. Let’s nurture this momentum. In response to the Black Feminist Fund’s open letter, 11 foundations signed on to increase their giving toward the goal of mobilizing $100 million. To date, the Black Feminist Fund has raised $43 million. Foundation for a Just Society has just joined the Black Feminist Fund to raise $57 million more.
We recognize that this is an ambitious goal. But transformative change only comes when we stretch ourselves. Following the lead of Black feminists, both private philanthropy and public funders must embrace the contributions we each can make, dismantle individual and institutional bias, and work together to ensure that generous resources are made available to unleash the full power of Black feminist movements.
This call to philanthropy is an ethical appeal to trust and fund the leadership of Black women. And it is also a strategic call to recognize that we cannot secure meaningful change without investing in Black feminist leadership.
Join us today to #FundBlackFeminists.
Nicky McIntyre is CEO of the Foundation for a Just Society. Tynesha McHarris is co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund.