Report Finds Scant Funding for Disability Rights and Social Justice — and Points the Way Forward

One in four Americans and an estimated 1 billion people globally experience some form of disability, but foundation funding for disability causes receives only about 2% of philanthropic funding. That’s the starting point for a rigorous new study commissioned by the Disability & Philanthropy Forum. But the report goes beyond big-picture dollar figures to point out key imbalances within philanthropy, most notably the minuscule amount of support and action to advance social justice for people with disabilities across the spectrum of funding. 

 

As a result, the report is a must-read for disability rights advocates and backers, but also for any funder aiming to drive social justice and address complex and overlapping issues of racial, gender and other inequities.

“Foundation Giving for Disability: Priorities and Trends” is the first study of its kind to map philanthropic giving for disability causes. It worked from Candid’s “Foundation 1,000” data sets for 2019, the latest year for which complete grant data were available; the author also compared 2019 data with 2016 to illuminate patterns and changes in grantmaking among these foundations. While the data covers only a fraction of the total number of philanthropic givers, it accounts for an estimated 45% of overall foundation giving.

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Source: Inside Philanthropy