On October 31, 1992, the Philadelphia-based Black United Fund of Pennsylvania, Inc. (BUF/PA) sponsored a Fundraising in the Black Community Conference at the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh. Only a hand-full of people attended this long-forgotten forum. Still, the conference workshops, panels, and other presentations made several very important contributions to local Black fundraising. The conference will be briefly discussed later.
First, as we all well know, Black people are constantly scolded for not giving their share of financial support to worthy projects in the community. And, who in honesty, can deny that fundraising in the black community has some very serious problems?
But much of this scolding is just bad-mouthing about “Black apathy,” and it does next to nothing to help Black people understand the issues facing Black philanthropy or how to remedy any of them.
A lot of people run around bad-mouthing the Black community for “begging” White private and public foundations for funding. But across the board, White ethnic organizations receive infinity more foundation funding than Black programs, and no one ever accuses these White organizations of “begging.” Black folks who blindly do this are parroting white racists.
Never forget, these major US private and public foundations exist to distribute funds. That’s what the people who work for these institutions are paid to do. And these foundation monies are just petty cash from the overall super-duper profits of American capitalism. And a significant portion of that profit is from monies the Black community spends in the US market place. It’s just Black money coming back to Black people.
Further, the Back community is owed reparations, affirmative action, ad infinity for White America’s historical crimes of slavery, sharecropper exploitation, and contemporary racial oppression. Still, not every so-called “Black” program deserves to be funded.
This criticism also misses a central fact related to Black fundraising that is so important it is almost impossible to point it out too often or to exaggerate it: Black fundraising is both a science and art; and the Black community must master and constantly develop both.
First and foremost, Black fundraising immediately impacts the ethical and power relationships between Black individuals; between Black individuals and Black institutions; and between Black institutions. The late political activist and renowned author Amiri Baraka once said, during a speech in Pittsburgh that some Black organizations and Black leaders really do not want significant financial support from the Black masses because it would force them to be more accountable to the masses.
Here are several of many African American fundraising related examples for you to consider. In 1984, Phil Carter, with the original local Black Political Assembly, organized an ingenious lottery and raised thousands of dollars for Jesse Jackson’ presidential campaign. The widely coveted prize was a season ticket to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ football games.
A decade or so ago, The Pittsburgh chapter of the Links Sorority held several concerts and raised tens of thousands of dollars that benefited the August Wilson Center, the Homewood Branch of Carnegie Library, the Afro-American Music Institute, and other programs for local youth.
At the national level, the well-known African American scholar Martin Kilson reported that fifty-five African Americans were on the top level, 300-member National Finance Committee for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Each member was responsible for raising at least $250,000. See the very important book The Obama Phenomenon co-edited by Charles Henry and Robert Allen.
The African American church has a long-established tradition and constantly up dated methods to raise Black funds. Black people have always supported projects they believe benefits the community. But this still requires hard work and the means to solicited Black funding.
In Pittsburgh, the Black community would have given a lot of financial support to the Harambee II Black Arts Festival during it’s hey days. But the novice Harambee organization, battling with programming, logistics, publicity and other necessities did not have the infrastructure to solicit this labor-intensive support.
The Harambee II Festival, at its heights, received about $25,000 annually from public grants, and made about $40,000 from merchandising. But the dollar market value of Black in-kind services, excluding the Harambee volunteer board, was in the high six figures. Black volunteer in-kind support is the back bone of African American community projects. It must be placed at the center of Black fund raising.
American mainstream philanthropy (read White) is far more than just spontaneous altruism, as many Black people make themselves believe, because they want to believe that. Big time institutions, the University of Pittsburgh, for example, have formal fundraising departments.
Numerous US colleges and universities, the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, for example, offer advanced degrees in the intricate art and science of fundraising.
A great deal of America’s funding (read White) is from super-duper rich White individuals and families like the Hillman, Heinz, and Frick families who have major institutions named after them. The Black community has never had this class of people. It is therefore wrong to equate heads-up Black philanthropy with White philanthropy given the unfathomable difference between Black and White wealth.
Now keep this profound fact in mind, a 2012 W. E. Kellogg Foundation report found by income comparison African Americans give 25% more of their income to charities than the national average.
The program for the 1992 Black fund-raising conference, we mentioned above, did not use the specific words “Art” and “Science.” But these concepts were central in the panels, workshop, and other presentations. The keynote address by Dr. King Davis, former director of the National Black United Fund, was on Black Fund-Raising Past, Present, and Future.
The morning panel looked at four diverse local fund-raising projects, The Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, The Jobs with Peace Campaign, The African Heritage Classroom Campaign and Bob Pitts Mayoral Campaigns.
A lunch hour panel focused on four philanthropic foundations, the Black United Fund of Pennsylvania, Maurice Falk Medical Foundation, Three River Community Fund, and Poise Foundation.
An afternoon workshop discussed Fund Raising Dinners, Fund Raising, Fund Raising Radiothons, Raising Patron Books, and Fund Raising From Individual Donors, four very important fund raising techniques.
Unfortunately, BUF/PA folded before the proposed radiothon to benefit local Black youth programs could be developed. And the very important video recording of the conference has been lost. Still, the conference is one very important outline to help develop Black fund raising in Pittsburgh which has a very promising future.
