Philanthropists Bench Women of Color, the M.V.P.s of Social Change

November begins the peak season for charitable giving in the United States. Over the next several months, donors and foundations will allocate billions of dollars to progressive causes. And this year, the stakes are higher than ever: The future of the climate, of abortion rights and of our democracy are on the line.

I run a national public foundation, and I see up close that the people who are overrepresented in success at social change — women of color who lead grass-roots nonprofits — are wildly underrepresented in funding. Only 0.6 percent of foundation giving was targeted to women of color in 2016. The record for individual donors is not much better.

Our misdirected philanthropy is costing us beyond measure.  A mountain of evidence shows progressive victories are surging up from groups led by women of color, particularly black women, that build power on the ground — not trickling down from large Beltway organizations headed by white men.

Click here to read the full op-ed. 

Source: The New York Times