December 29, 2008
Calif. Foundations Pledge $30-Million to Help Minorities
By Ian Wilhelm
Nine wealthy California foundations have pledged to distribute at least $30-million during the next two to three years to aid needy members of minority groups, a move that is meant to quell critics who argue that the grant makers fail to provide adequate assistance to blacks, Hispanics, and members of other racial and ethnic minorities.
The group of philanthropies, known as the Foundation Coalition, said that $20-million will support charities led by members of minority groups and other small nonprofit groups helping poor neighborhoods and areas with diverse populations, according to a report the coalition released last week.
An additional $10-million will pay for training to help minority and grass-roots groups improve their management, accounting, and other management and leadership skills. The charitable funds will also continue to give research grants to study the operations of minority nonprofit groups in California.
The coalition, which includes some of the wealthiest grant makers in the country, are the Ahmanson Foundation, the Annenberg Foundation, the California Endowment, the California Wellness Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the UniHealth Foundation, and the Weingart Foundation.
Their plan drew praise from some foundation critics.
“We think it’s a good start,” said Orson Aguilar, executive director of the Greenlining Institute, an advocacy group in Berkeley, Calif., that has pushed foundations to do more for minorities in need.
He said his organization would use the coalition’s efforts to push other California grant makers, especially corporations, to do more for Hispanics and others. “They created a model that foundations can emulate elsewhere.”
However, Mr. Aguilar was disappointed that some of the foundations — ones that have not historically supported diverse populations — did not make large commitments. For example, the Ahmanson fund did not pledge new money but restated a pledge to do more with its current grant making to help minorities, he said.
“It’s hard to tell what some of them are doing,” he said. “It requires more clarification.”
The Foundation Coalition originally banned together in February to fight a controversial proposal in the California State Legislature.
The bill, which Greenling supported, would have required grant makers to disclose to the public information about the diversity of their staff and board members and their grantees.
The author of the measure, Assemblyman Joe Coto, a Democrat from San Jose, agreed to withdraw it in June after the foundations promised to develop a plan to strengthen minority-led and grass-roots groups. The commitments announced last week are the result of that agreement.
(Read The Chronicle’s article on the legislative battle and about how lawmakers in other parts of the country are examining the issue.)
To develop the new programs, the grant makers spent five months talking with nonprofit leaders who are members of minority groups to see what they thought would best improve their organizations — and the relationship between minority-group grant seekers and foundations — said Fred Ali, chief executive officer of Weingart, in a letter that accompanied last week’s report.
“While each of our foundations was already providing substantial funding in these areas, we agreed more could, and should, be done,” he writes.
He also said that “despite heavy losses in their investment portfolios, they have kept faith” with their pledge to help minorities.
The 28-page report outlines the coalition’s plans and provides details on the work of each foundation member.
For example, the California Wellness Foundation, the California Endowment, and Weingart will award $3-million to the Liberty Hill Foundation, a charity in Los Angeles that works closely with grass-roots groups. Liberty Hill will provide training and redistribute some of the money to small organizations with budgets less than $2-million.
In addition to making grants, some members of the coalition have promised to change internal practices. For example, the California Endowment will conduct an “internal diversity audit” of its staff, and Ahmanson said it will revamp its Web site to help small charities learn about its programs.
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If someone came by your office and “suggested” that you pay them $50 to protect your windows from being broken, and you said “ok,” would you be surprised when they returned a few weeks later and said that was “a good start,” but now the price has gone up to $100? This is in a nutshell what is happening in California. Furthermore, although Mr. Aguilar mentions “minorities (plural)”, he wants California grantmakers to do more for Hispanics. So much for solidarity among minority groups. The “internal diversity audit” is scary, and it’s hard to believe foundations would assent to this. Mr. Aguilar is on to something big —the classic “shakedown” — and it will eventually drive many foundations out of California.
— David Dec 29, 03:40 PM #
I recommend that anyone concerned with these issues see today’s Wall Street Journal opinion page for a very thoughtful item on how both California and Florida foundations are being pressured.
— Margaret Dec 30, 01:25 PM #
I was a public relations consultant in California for almost 20 years, and saw the seeds of this kind of thing way back when. It has just gotten worse and worse. I never thought I’d see the day, but this is nothing short of extortion. And, it’s just plain wrong.
— Alicia Dec 31, 03:48 PM #
The civil society we all love being a part of, has long needed more accountability -both among grantees and grant-makers. I’m glad the foundations are coming along and joining the movement to acknowledge and empower the important work done by “minority” led organizations. The resistance being expressed in the Wall Street Journal and in the comments here are the normal death throws of power being taken away from whites. As a white woman, I understand. We are not used to sharing our authority or influence. However our strategy of hoarding power was never very elevated or productive. Our futures are bound up in the well-being of poor. minority communities in ways we would best begin to understand. To have a strong civil society will actually require we share not only the wealth (which is a good beginning) but the power.
— Deanna Cherry Jan 2, 06:19 PM #
While minority-led charitable organizations are operating on the fringes of the philanthropic sector and should have a fair share in charitable gifts disbursed, it seems to me that establishing set-asides does nothing for the integration and maturation of the philanthropic sector as a whole. It begs the question of whether philanthropies and the charitable organizations they fund are performing due diligence on commitments to ethnic and cultural diversity and addressing areas where the needs are greatest. Building a separate enclave of well-funded, minority-led charitable organizations does nothing to address the long-term issues of diversity in philanthropy. Challenges facing a society are everyone’s business, and should not be treated as a “niche-market” issues.
— Gina Jan 5, 03:53 PM #
The strength of reaction to the Foundation Coalition’s report shows that this dialogue is both timely and necessary. Foundations are no stranger to requests/demands regarding the need to factor diversity into their impact metrics and giving priorities, but the Foundation Coalition stepped up and outlined collective and individual commitments to addressing inequalities in giving. I commend their initiative and consider it necessary that foundations in majority-minority states like California play a critical role in the success of minority-led organizations in order to create empowerment for minority communities. The Foundation Coalition offers a glimmer of hope for foundation transparency, real policy change, and more opportunities for organizations to grow and fulfill their missions. May their example strengthen philanthropy’s resolve.
— Alexis Terry Jan 9, 05:13 PM #
Both supporters and critics of this initiative make valid arguments. There are, however, two issues that must not get lost in the debate:
(1) There is a great need to provide financial support to small grassroots nonprofits that serve minority populations and other low-income communities. The issue of scale matters a great deal in the nonprofit sector. Funding is clearly skewed in favor of the larger business-like organizations. Very often the funding provided to the large nonprofits does not ‘trickle-down’ to diverse and underserved communities.
(2) There is a great need to support and encourage a leadership transition from the older Baby Boomer generation to a newer and more diverse leadership in the nonprofit sector. The expertise and experience of Baby Boomer executive directors could be put to good use by mentoring a younger leadership and becoming members of boards of directors of small grassroots nonprofits.
— Jorge Riquelme Jan 18, 11:44 AM #