Black Leadership Matters
Like many of you, over the past few weeks the Battery Powered team has watched (and participated in) the sustained protests against Black lives lost, White supremacy, police brutality, and an unjust justice system.
This groundswell had brought new urgency to an issue we grapple with continuously: privilege and power dynamics in philanthropy.
Nonprofit organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) face persistent and substantial barriers in securing philanthropic funding. In fact, less than 10% of philanthropic dollars go to BIPOC-led organizations. This underinvestment is leaving impact on the table.
The Battery Powered community is challenged to examine what part we have played, individually and collectively, in this severe racial inequity -- and what role we can play going forward. We don't have the answers yet. But we're asking our members, grantees, and fellow funders to hold us accountable and to partner with us as we make change.
Among our Battery Powered grantees are many who have spent years and decades working tirelessly to dismantle racism, elevate BIPOC leadership, and build a more just and inclusive society. To them we say thank you. Thank you for your work and commitment during the long period when fewer of us were paying attention.
We invite you to consider donating to one or more of the Black-led organizations that Battery Powered has funded in the past. Six grantees whose work is especially resonant right now are:
A New Way of Life Reentry Project: housing, legal services, and leadership development for women rebuilding their lives after prison; advocating for full restoration of civil and human rights for people with convictions.
Community Justice Reform Coalition: a coalition of POC-led organizations developing leader-advocates who center urban communities of color, confront violence, and challenge the criminal justice system.
Ever Forward: mentoring underserved young men of color in middle and high school by providing them with safe, brave communities that build character and transform lives.
Faith in Action: a national network of faith-based congregations and community organizing institutions advocating for racial, economic, and social justice, including an end to mass incarceration and gun violence.
Groundswell Action Fund: supporting grassroots organizing led by women of color so that those most left out of our democracy are part of transforming it.
Inside Circle: empowering systems-impacted people to lead change from within by providing opportunities for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people to heal and serve both themselves and others.
Contact Jill Minkus for a full list of our BIPOC-led grantees.