Giving During Black History Month

February was Black History Month, a time to reflect on and celebrate Black excellence. At Every.org, we were fortunate to work with Give Blck, which exists to elevate all Black organizations in the United States and create an easy-to-use, comprehensive database to advance racial equity in giving.

There is a huge disparity in the racial equity of giving. At least 13.4% of the US identify as Black, but organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and Latinx leaders in total receive only an estimated 4% of total grants and contributions in the nonprofit sector with “funding is largely small-dollar, short-term, and restricted, leaving these leaders with little room to innovate and grow.”

For Black History Month, Give Blck curated a Black Founders cause page on Every.org to showcase the diversity of causes that Black-founded nonprofits organize around. Give Blck was founded in 2020 to create a movement to elevate all Black organizations in the US and tackle the racial inequity in giving.

“Black people are closer to many of society’s problems, yet Black leaders receive the fewest charitable dollars. This racial giving gap is wrong and we need to close it.”
-  Christina Lewis, co-founder of Give Blck.

Throughout the month of February, Give Blck and Every.org raised $28,300 for nonprofits at giveblck.org and every.org/black-founders, and 10.25% of all donations on Every.org went to Black-founded organizations. This was higher than the national average and all unrestricted funding, suggesting that highlighting Black-founded organizations and making it easier to find them helps. Most of these donations were in the $10-50 range, and every donation helped these organizations gain more visibility and in turn, more support.

We know that the disparity exists.

One part of addressing this systemic issue is raising awareness of the disparity, but that needs to translate into more dollars going to Black-led organizations. Our partnership for Black History Month was a first step, but we have a lot of work remaining to create a more equitable future.

We are asking for your help to encourage people to think more critically about their giving and to close the racial wealth gap in the nonprofit sector by choosing to #GiveBlack. Together, we can advance racial equity in giving. Share this post and support a Black-founded nonprofit today.

If you are interested in helping fund large, catalytic investments to encourage more dollars going to Black-founded nonprofits, please contact hello@giveblck.org and hello@every.org.