September 16, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Foundation support for nonprofit groups that fight racism is on the decline, according to a report by the Applied Research Center, a public-policy group in Oakland, Calif., that focuses on race and social change.
The center examined the number of grants made by the largest foundations to eliminate “institutional and structural racism through public-policy advocacy, organizing, and movement building.” Among the recipients of such grants were the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, and the National Council of Negro Women.
The report’s findings were based on information from the Foundation Center’s “Foundation Giving Trends 2003″ report. The Applied Research Center identified eight racial-justice organizations among the top 50 recipients of civil-rights grants in 2001 and found that they had received a total of $12.7-million, a five-year low. A year earlier, 10 such groups were among the top 50 recipients and they received $48-million, while 15 such recipients in 1998 were awarded $30-million.
Changes in Economy
The report, which also drew on interviews with more than 40 philanthropic leaders and other research on philanthropic trends, says increased diversity among foundation staff members has not led to an increase in giving to minority groups in general or to racial-justice groups in particular.
Rinku Sen, the center’s communications officer and a co-author of the report, “Short Changed: Foundation Giving and Communities of Color,” says the slowdown in the economy in the past few years may have diverted funds from efforts aimed at specific minority groups to projects dealing with general economic concerns. And some grant makers, Ms. Sen adds, believe that racism is “tied to an individual’s attitudes and beliefs” and therefore are not putting much money into efforts that promote institutional changes.
The report calls on foundations to increase their spending on minority issues and antidiscrimin-ation efforts.
Ms. Sen says foundations need to consider the “behavior of institutions and the discriminatory outcomes of the policies and practices that can take place within those institutions, be they banks, schools, or welfare departments.”
One encouraging sign, according to Ms. Sen, is the formation of the Racial Justice Collaborative last year. The New York City group has received funds from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, the Open Society Institute, and others, and it plans to award $6-million in grants beginning in 2005.
The coalition says its money will go to groups working to achieve “equity and fairer policies for communities marginalized by race, ethnicity, and immigrant or citizenship status.”
The report is available free online at http://arc.org; print copies can be ordered for $10 per copy from the Applied Research Center, 3781 Broadway, Oakland, Calif. 94611.
