African-Americans have a long history of sacrificial giving. Below are articles and reports that study their giving relative to the larger population, as well as examine the extent to which black communities rely on the generosity of their own members.
Shell-Shocked into Action: Black Groups, Critical of Slow Response to Katrina, Vow to Strengthen Their Own Charitable Efforts
Suzanne Perry. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 29, 2005.
Several black support groups were disappointed with the perceived slow response to aid Hurricane Katrina victims, the majority of whom were low-income blacks. Consequently, “Black charities must find a way to reach out to more donors and strengthen ‘organized philanthropy.’ ” At least one black charity leader is pushing this vision for more leveraged giving among the black community: “I don’t want the relief effort, recovery effort, reconstruction effort to be lost in this reactive mode of how do we save New Orleans now?” He and other black leaders hope to “discuss ways to help build a steady stream of income for African-American community organizations.”
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Reflections on Endowment Building in the African-American Community
Mary-Frances Winters. Chapter in “Cultures of Caring: Philanthropy in Diverse American Communities.” Washington: Council on Foundations, 1999.
The author has compiled a 39-page report on African-American philanthropy based on research and interviews with affluent donors. Winters writes that the African-American community has a tradition of philanthropy that dates back to the colonial period. Ever since their arrival in the United States, blacks have felt strongly about helping one another, giving to the needy members of its community as almost a survival mechanism. Already in the early 1800s, several hundred mutual aid organizations had been established to provide assistance within the black community. African-Americans always have supported causes that help the human condition—religion, education, health and human services. Fifty-three percent of all African-American households give to charity, with the church being the largest recipient of this giving. Today, the African-American community has many high-profile givers—including celebrities, athletes and professionals—and most of these continue to make African-American organizations a high priority when they consider where to give.
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African American Philanthropy
Erica L. Ball. New York: The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, The Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, n.d.
This article analyzes past, present and future trends in black philanthropy, maintaining that the commonly African-American desire to “give back” to the community will continue to develop into an ever broader and more interdependent array of charitable foundations and organizations. As our nation moves beyond the Civil Rights era, African-American demographics is showing trends toward ever greater prosperity, and black philanthropy is correspondingly increasing and evolving. The article also lays out many specific details about black philanthropy, primarily concerning its objectives and its infrastructure. This is primarily a technical, informational article which offers little in the way of perspective.
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Yvonne M. Brake. Council of Michigan Foundations, Learning to Give, and Case Western Reserve University, n.d.
Attempting to “dispel the preconceived notion that blacks are not as generous as whites,” the author offers a revised definition of the term “philanthropy.” She says that this term is “often used to mean large financial gifts given by wealthy individuals,” but she maintains that this obscures the great generosity of blacks over the course of their history in the United States. If the definition is abstracted and expanded to include all forms of giving of oneself, then black philanthropy has been enormous over the years. She sketches out various forms of African-American giving and concludes that ridding our society of the false notion that blacks give less will encourage them to give still more, particularly as they grow steadily more prosperous.
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Charities, Churches, Causes Benefit from Generosity
Jacinthia Jones. The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., May 31, 2003.
Blacks give a larger portion (8.6 percent) of their discretionary income to charity than any other racial group in America. Emmett Carson has studied black philanthropy and attributes the generosity to necessity. “They had to give because society was not geared to support the development of the African-American community.” Historically, black giving has occurred in “three waves.” The first wave is through the church, which funneled funds to education, social welfare programs, and black-owned insurance companies and banks. In the 1960s the second wave of giving began when black and civil rights groups sought access to payroll deductions, previously limited to contributions to United Way. Now, the black community has evolved to “actual philanthropy” as the first generation of extremely wealthy black philanthropists—Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan and Camille and Bill Cosby, to name a few—start thinking about giving through their estates.
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