Celebrating Women Philanthropy

From administrative assistant to the Founder of Black Philanthropy Month - Meet Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland

As a youth, summer jobs can play a key role in what you see is possible for your future. For Dr. Copeland, her summer job working for the Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance Unit of the Navy in Philadelphia as a young person gave her a 360 view of the world of work and community. She saw the problems people of color faced and the lack of action to address those problems.

In the years to come, using her educational experiences at Georgetown University and the University of Pennsylvania and her work globally in diversity, equity, inclusion, community investment and philanthropy would shape her life and her professional work to solve those problems. Those solutions came in form of organizations focused on building black-led movements and organizations that bring philanthropy, black women, and activism together to hurdle the obstacles to black parity and trample the racist and sexist behaviors that keep people of color locked in economic chains.

They came in the form of collaborations with other organizations. They came in the form of a month dedicated to acknowledging the power of collective black philanthropy that moves mountains, lifts heavy burdens, and breaks economic chains. They came as fast as Dr. Copeland could create them and rally resources to make them sustainable.

Her work has been recognized numerous times. She has been profiled in HistoryMakers and ranked among the top 100 philanthropy leaders.

It has taken as long as 20 years for some of Dr. Copeland's programs and initiatives to take hold. Some of those efforts are noted here.

• Black Philanthropy Month (BPM) - Created in 2011, BPM recognizes and elevates the contributions of time, talent, and treasure by black people to communities, causes, and projects across the world. It is celebrated in August along with Black Business Month.
• The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (WISE) - an environmental justice model focused on helping innovators in that field of study and of diverse backgrounds to gain support for their innovative ideas to address social issues and climate change.
• Reunity (formerly the Pan-African Women’s Philanthropy Network) - This is a community of black women from across the globe focused on being well while doing good. This group was formed in 2001.

Dr. Copeland had touched the lives of 19 million people in 60 countries. She measures progress toward economic parity against 10 Funding Equity Principles that were developed in 2020 during BPM. She hopes that the work she and others are doing will move the needle on each of those principles.

I encourage you to read more about the work she is doing. If you like what you read, see how you can get involved.

Reference: Woman of Influence August 2022, Give Butter August 2022, Black Philanthropy Month, Reunity