American Express Promises $50 Million to Charities Led by People of Color

Here are notable new grant awards compiled by the Chronicle:

American Express

$50 million commitment over four years to support nonprofit organizations around the world with leaders who are people of color or from underrepresented groups, with a focus on organizations that address inequality and promote social justice.

The grants are part of the bank’s $1 billion commitment to promote racial, ethnic, and gender justice through loans to small businesses, spending more on suppliers who come from minority groups, and achieving equitable pay for its employees who are from underrepresented backgrounds.

Duke Endowment

$16 million to Duke University for efforts to recruit more diverse professors and instructors, and develop programs to broaden diversity, equity, and inclusion for underrepresented faculty and students.

Morgan Stanley

$12 million to create the Morgan Stanley HBCU Scholars, which will provide 60 full-tuition scholarships over four years for students at historically Black colleges and universities. The recipients are Howard University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College.

Pew Center for Arts and Heritage

$10.5 million across 41 grants to the Philadelphia region’s artists and cultural organizations for programs, events, artistic work, fellowships, and unrestricted general operating support.

Bank of America, Kaiser Permanente, and Dignity Health

$5 million to the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation to create a new fund that backs behavioral- and mental-health programs, services, and improvements at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

Perenchio Foundation

$5 million to the American Film Institute to create the Perenchio Family Endowed Scholarship, which will support diverse artists at the AFI Conservatory. Andrew Jerrold (Jerry) Perenchio, who died in 2017, was the billionaire former chairman and CEO of Univision.

Ford Foundation

$4 million to El Museo del Barrio to support the museum’s general operations, curatorial and education programs, and organizational capacity building, with an emphasis on developing new digital strategies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

$3 million to four organizations that help journalists increase their knowledge and resources to combat misinformation in the United States. The largest grant was $1.2 million to First Draft to train journalists and aid collaborative reporting projects that develop skills and tools to halt the spread of misinformation and disinformation online.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

$1.7 million to Living Cities to study and develop an investment program for fund managers of color and help them make investments in small businesses owned by Black, Latino, and Asian entrepreneurs and generate wealth in their communities.

Ascendium Education Group

$1.5 million to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the National College Attainment Network, and the Yes We Must Coalition to boost college graduation rates among low-income students and prevent equity gaps from widening during the duration of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Truist Charitable Fund

$1 million to Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation to establish the Recovery Grant Fund for Rural Nonprofits, which will make grants to nonprofit organizations with operating budgets under $2 million in rural communities located in 17 states and help them stay open during the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Grant Opportunity

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation are accepting applications for their Award for Health Equity. Unrestricted grants of $3,000 will recognize health partnerships that successfully address the root causes of health, social, environmental, and economic inequalities. Each of the following organizations will administer and present one award: AIDS United; the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus for Public Health; Community-Campus Partnerships for Health; Hispanics in Philanthropy; LeadingAge Inc.; the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics; the National Civic League; the National Recreation and Parks Association; and Youth MOVE National. Applications are due November 16.

Send grant announcements to grants.editor@philanthropy.com.

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