Reports

Philanthropy Always Sounds Like Someone Else: A Portrait of High Net Worth Donors of Color shares the stories, themes, values, dreams, and giving practices of 113 individual BIPOC donors from ten cities across the US. We conducted 90-minute interviews, mostly in-person, from 2016-2020.

These are stories that have never been told, because of course, #philanthropysowhite. The context is philanthropy in the US, which has historically been a white story, a male story, sometimes a dead white male story, and recently a billionaire’s story. 

The assumption has been that BIPOC folks don’t have the resources to be major donors. The truth is exactly the opposite. We’ve always been there, we’ve just been apparitional, unseen. I’m so happy to share 113 stories here, but there are many, many, countless more!

When we expand the notion of who is a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropy, the picture becomes much more varied, more biodiverse, more spicy, deeper, more truthful, more joyful. No longer a monoculture, the story of generosity in the US is much more vibrant when we seek to include BIPOC donors and collectives.

Looking ahead, we’d love to share more stories in more formats of generous, civically engaged, values-driven donors of color doing their mightiest to move their Time, Talent, Treasure, Testimony, and Ties in order to make all our communities more fair, more equitable, more open, and more just. 

I hope you enjoy reading these reports as much as I enjoyed doing the research.