OVERLOOKED AND UNDERVALUED: GIVING BY WOMEN OF COLOR
During a recent energizing lunch meeting with Michele Minter, Vice President of Development, The College Board, we talked about the glaring lack of information, research and knowledge about how women of color prefer to give, the causes they choose and how they make their philanthropic decisions. For instance, we don’t really know if African American women donors identify first with race or first with gender when they give. In other words, even the basic research stuff has not been addressed.
Such concerns were investigated in a presentation by Michele and Kijua Sanders McMurtry, an associate dean at Agnes Scott College, at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute symposium last November. While philanthropic behavior usually focuses on whites, and, in particular, on white males, African Americans give more of their discretionary income to charity than any other racial or ethnic group. Women are at the heart of that giving, both in money and time.
“Of course, different communities of color have different giving patterns, histories and experiences, so it’s hard to generalize,” reminds Michele. “Still, women of color have a perspective both as a female and as a person of color so fundraisers need to honor their multiple identities.”
Fundraisers must avoid making the mistake of assuming that female solidarity will smooth over other cultural differences.
A case study of African American women’s contributions can be seen in The Links, Inc., an African American social services organization. Founded in 1946, The Links was started by two women who galvanized their friends to establish a club at a time when Jim Crow laws were still in effect. The group’s philosophy was rooted in “linking friends in service” to their communities and to targeting educational, civic and cultural issues.
In 1974, The Links gave the largest donation ever made by a black organization up to that point when they contributed $132,000 to the United Negro College Fund. Over the past 60 years, the group has given $1 million each to the UNCF, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “When you link service, friendship, resources, and talent, you are able to make remarkable differences in the communities you serve,” says Kijua Sanders-McMurtry.
Today, The Links, Inc., remains an activist black women’s service organization with more than 11,000 members and 275 chapters in the U.S., the Bahamas, Germany and South Africa. Its members have a proven philanthropic record of racial and social support. It offers an organizational model for other African American groups and nonprofits, specifically related to activism, philanthropy and uplift.