14 Black Funds to Support
“DONATE”
Words by Sam Rakestraw
The San Francisco sidewalk was tattooed with chalk writings. “Step out of your privilege,” one urged. “Donate,” another one advocated, followed up by the names of several police brutality victims—Dion Johnson and Tony McDade. Even though it’s unspoken, there’s a different kind of emphasis on that “Donate” request. Nonprofits and Black funds organizations aren’t asking for just any kind of contribution. They need funding, and that funding needs to come from the collective efforts of the populace, since those in power never divert the resources and funding that it’s common knowledge they have. It connects back to stepping out of one’s privilege, because there are those who were never able to step into privilege of their own that guarantees them education, love, support and safety. Some of the biggest names on the frontlines, like the NAACP and the AAPC, have made it their nonprofit mission to secure those resources for Black families around America. This is a spotlight on fourteen Black organizations and funds that have been seeking to level the playing field.
NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is one of the oldest and largest civil rights organizations in the United States. Founded in 1909, they have over 2,200 branches, along with two million activist members and volunteers. As previously mentioned, they’ve been at the frontline with their new social movement #WeAreDoneDying, which urges Congress to take measures to protect Black lives. Federal advocacy is one of their many focus areas, the others being education, health and justice. As a result, their Legal Defense and Educational Fund became a separate entity during the 40s and 50s. In fact, during the 60s, they provided legal counsel for MLK along with several landmark Supreme Court cases, including Brown vs. Board of Education. Cases of this nature continue to this day, and this fund allows Black lives the legal representation that is often poorly streamlined or flat-out denied in the U.S. justice system.
Another larger organization with origins in the 1960s, 100 Black Men of America focuses on community mentoring with chapters across the nation and more than 10,000 members. Their work aims to establish resources such as mentoring, career building and additional education as the new normal. However, it can’t become normal until Black children are included in the vision for a more supportive educational system that promotes professionalism and knowledge. Until then, it’s just privilege and not a right. Mentors teach not just educational literacy but financial, health, and leadership literacy—areas that are often swept under the rug when it comes to Black lives.
Project H.O.O.D is a relatively new, local Black fund started in the communities of Englewood and Woodlawn in the South Side of Chicago. It was started in 2012 by Pastor Corey B. Brooks, the “Rooftop Pastor” himself. He had spent 94 days on the rooftop of an abandoned motel as a way to bring attention to the gun violence in his community. His vision is to end violence and build communities by working with kids, adults, and families in order to equip people with the resources and experience they otherwise wouldn’t have access to. “Equip, not excuse,” the website says, because it was never a question if they needed an alibi to deal with inequality.
Streetwise is a Chicago street magazine that literally pays to sell-their vendors, that is. Started in 1992 by Judd Lofchie as a practical solution to homelessness in the city, Streetwise empowers homeless or at-risk men and women to become self-employed vendors, allowing them to return to or start the path of economic sufficiency while at the same time reclaiming their dignity. The publication itself contains art, poetry, and Chicago news. Some vendors also get the chance to write their own editorials and have their voices heard to thousands of readers a week, being the largest street newspaper in the nation. Vendors are able to sell thousands of copies each week and keep the profit. They also offer support to their vendors with emergency clothing, hygiene kits, and warm meals.
Thurgood Marshall College Fund
The 300,000 students and 47 member-schools hold the TMCF in high regard with the placement they were able to find that changed their lives. Many of the member-institutions include Historically Black Colleges and Universities (private and public) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). During this time, they also created an emergency COVID-19 fund for HBCU students missing out on valuable school time. Higher education isn’t their only area of focus, though: TMCF has also been a valuable resource for Black students in grades K-12. Similarly to 100 Black Men of America, TMCF brings educational privileges in early childhood development and college prep that are so often seen as entitlements with the proper funding.
HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)
The importance of HBCUs is extremely underestimated, even as their presence is taken for granted. Two years ago, Bennett College, an all-female HBCU in North Carolina, narrowly lost its teaching credentials because of lack of funding. There were payments they couldn’t make to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Bennett is only of two all-female HBCUs in the nation. The students-—known as the Bennett Belles—came together and expressed how much the school had meant to them, how it had given their identity meaning, and how it had made them the best young women they could be. The surrounding community of the Triad area came together with a total donation of over seven million dollars, more than enough to save their credentials. There are several HBCUs around the United States, just like Bennett, that are full of young Black professionals that are confident, bright, and eager to take on the world. They’re always taking donations personally or through their websites so that they may educate the next generation, and the one after that.
Black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted of murder than White people. If a White person is wrongfully convicted, then they are likely to spend more time in prison then their Black counterparts. As the name suggests, The Innocence Project is on the national stage, working to exonerate the innocent with DNA testing, providing protection against any legal misuse, and advocating for criminal justice reforms free from racial bias.
In their 40 years, there isn’t one current event or timely issue that the National Black Child Development Institute hasn’t touched on. They aim to free Black children from the unfortunate legacies of poverty and discrimination they inherit from systemic inequalities present in America. “It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men,” Frederick Douglass once said, and that’s exactly how NBCDI builds up their children and families. They specialize in early childhood development, health and wellness, engagement with family, and literacy. Infancy through the age of eight is extremely important to them, and they want to ensure Black children have access to adequate care and education.
3Arts takes the freedom fight to the art world with a focus on women, Black, and disabled creators in the Chicagoland area. Whereas the rest of these funds focus on resource access for the future, 3Arts nurtures the creative energy which is uniquely present in every person. By sustaining and promoting these artists, they invite a new wave of visions and voices in a way that promotes diversity. 3Arts has supported 1,000 artists since their founding in 2007. They’ve also distributed $3.8 million in their grantmaking. Recently, they’ve partnered with the Arts for Illinois Relief Fund (AIRF) to help artists and people who are experiencing financial hardships because of COVID-19.
Black trans women are among the most persecuted groups in America. With transgender people seven times more likely to experience physical violence when interacting with police than non-trans people, there’s an incredible need for representation and strength within the community for justice to follow. TGI Justice works closely with low income transgender women of color and families of those who have target or detained or targeted by police. At the same time, hate crimes are a serious hazard—last year at least 27 trans people were killed from fatal violence, and the majority of them were Black women. And we say at least, because a majority of these murders go unreported or misreported. This year, 17 transgender people have already been killed from violence. And the persecution doesn’t stop there. Nearly half of all Black trans people are incarcerated, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. Consequently, TGI Justice works to give trans people the legal aid they need, and in doing so, creating more Black transgender voices of leadership.
Jesse Jackson’s own nonprofits Operation PUSH and the National Rainbow Coalition merged to create the Rainbow Push Coalition in 1996 . Now as one, the organization has come to represent everyone- Black, women, LGBTQ and countless other minorities. With a large platform and Rev. Jackson’s experience and impact in politics, it’s one of the foremost authorities on social change and how to actively make that change through the most nonviolent means . Rev. Jackson’s own activism dates back to the 60s, where he had worked with MLK and a diplomatic career in international relations. The familiar motif of leveling the economic and societal playing field is their driving practice.
President Barack Obama founded MBKA in 2014 to reach out to and mentor communities of young Black people. “That’s what ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ is all about. Helping more of our young people stay on track. Providing the support they need to think more broadly about their future. Building on what works, when it works, in those critical life changing moments,” Obama remarked when he first announced MBKA it to the public. The organization would also provide funding and support to communities that mentor consistently to create a larger infrastructure. MBKA is working in 250 cities and counting.
Everyone deserves a chance to chase their passion, and for a number of aspiring professionals and students, it’s engineering. Some of those students help manage the National Society of Black Engineers. The mission statement there is very simple—increase the number of Black engineers in the workplace. But first, they’ve got to excel academically by honing in on their desired craft. They offer scholarships, significant boosts in GPAs with their extra learning programs, and projects focused on growth.
The Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated, was converted into the National Civil Rights Museum in 1991. King scholars have said that, from start to finish, the museum gives the best insight and education on the Civil Rights Movement than anywhere else. In fact, not just this museum but every museum of Black History requires a donation. Places like the DuSable Museum of African American History, National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, and dozens more valuable Black funds have furthered the betterment of African Americans, but everyone else.
