The Philanthropic Collective to Combat Anti-Blackness & Realize Racial Justice is a coalition of more than 20 foundations and philanthropic organizations that have joined in partnership to overcome anti-Blackness and racism in Minnesota.
The Collective commits to transformation across Minnesota and within the field of philanthropy and to build, yield, and share power with Black communities.
It’s raising $25 million for the Minnesota Holistic Black-Led Movement Fund, which invests in Black-led movements and social change.
Here’s the short answer to why we’ve become an active partner.
We’ve joined the Collective because we believe deeply in the need to eliminate racism and achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through the rising of the Black-led protest movement in response to the killing of George Floyd, there’s an opportunity and an urgency to elevate community-led responses to steep racial disparities in Minnesota that harm Indigenous communities, people of color, immigrants and refugees, and—especially—Black communities.
We’ve heard through the voices of grantees serving our priority communities an unavoidable conclusion: The impact of the multiple crises we’re experiencing this year has been made much worse by long-standing racial inequities. We can’t go back to “normal.” We must take urgent action for change.
Partners in the Collective back up the assertion that Black lives matter with action.
The Collective calls for three commitments from its partners:
1. Invest
2. Come to the table as active partners to study, act, and transform our communities
3. Sign the joint statement
We’re doing all three.
We’ve made an initial $250,000 grant commitment. And, we were one of the first to sign the joint statement. Our CEO, Kevin Walker, is personally coming to the table as an active partner and will continue to do so on an ongoing basis.
Many of our grantees have been advancing equity in Black communities for years.
Among them are six grantee cohorts in the African American Financial Capability Initiative, which fosters grassroots, community-tailored financial capability projects that bridge the racial wealth gap through Black-led communities of practice in metro areas in our region: Des Moines, IA; Portland, OR; Seattle and Tacoma, WA; and the Twin Cities.
A recent blog post also provides links to local, Black-led grantees leading advocacy and systems change. Several African-immigrant-led grantees are advancing equity, too, including African Economic Development Solutions (AEDS) and African Development Center (ADC), which provide access to safe capital for African businesses and which have also established a relief fund for businesses impacted by COVID-19 and civil unrest in the Twin Cities.
We’re invested and ready to get to work.
You’ll hear more about our participation—and about funding and other action we’re taking—in the weeks to come.
For now, we’d like to lift up the words of the Collective.
