White Moderate Foundations

By June of 2020, our economy and society had already been majorly impacted by COVID-19. People were losing their jobs and being furloughed. Every other day, we saw increases in the number of cases and deaths across the country. It was around this time that we also started seeing local and national foundations reallocate funding or create new programs to specifically address the communities that they serve. While these programs were incredibly helpful and allowed some individuals, nonprofits, and the occasional small business to survive another six months, many of them were not designed for the long-term. They were not designed to change the very systems that led to our economic infrastructure collapsing. The support systems, frequently led by nonprofits, were failing.

Around this time, I read an article on @Nonprofit AF's website that focused on the glaring racial disparities brought to light as the pandemic raged on, suggesting that the philanthropy world, foundations in particular, has become the white moderate that Dr. King warned about in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. To paraphrase, the white moderate is the white population that is more concerned with order and peace rather than justice in times of political turmoil. A perfect example of this white moderate right now is the people calling for unity with the rioters that attacked our country's capitol building earlier this month instead of strongly condemning them for what they are: domestic terrorists.

The white moderate is complacent when injustice occurs, despite having the means to do something about it. To put that into perspective, while the majority of my work is based out of Pennsylvania and is only a small population size to speak for all foundations, we happen to have the 3rd highest concentration of foundations in the country, sitting at just under 7,000 foundations, the 7th highest total giving at ~$2.6 B, and the 6th highest total assets at ~$36 B as of 2015 (https://data.foundationcenter.org/).

Of those 7,000 foundations, almost half of them are based out of Pittsburgh, where I currently live. A study completed by Charity Navigator in 2017 compared the median performance and size of the largest nonprofits in the 30 largest metropolitan areas, including cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was ranked 27th overall and ranked 27th in terms of commitment to being accountable and transparent.

To put it bluntly, the white moderate is alive and well in both Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

The same author of Nonprofit AF recently published an article, 21 Signs You or Your Organization May Be the White Moderate Dr. King Warned About. Over the next few weeks, I will be going through the 21 signs observed here in Pittsburgh and offering solutions to the grantmaking world. There is a much larger conversation to be had around foundation interaction and grant processes; however, in this series, I am focusing on Pittsburgh and the experiences I have had as a white male grant writer, writing for small black or women-led (or both) nonprofits. The program officers I have met along the way typically have the best of intentions when it comes to effectively serving our region; however, the grant process itself gets in the way of their work, ultimately widening the gap between the nonprofits I work with and the philanthropy world.

Click here for part one!