Before his death in 2019, Barron Hilton, son of hotel magnate Conrad N. Hilton, bequeathed 97% of his fortune to the foundation that his father established in 1944. Barron’s bequest more than doubled the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s endowment, which today, totals a whopping $7.5 billion. It also enabled the foundation to increase annual grantmaking by 88%, from $110 million in 2019 to $207 million in 2020.
Historically, the Hilton Foundation has been known for its philanthropy in areas such as global early childhood development, foster youth, refugees, safe water and support for the Catholic sisters. But in 2020, the foundation entered a new corner of philanthropy with the launch of its Equity Fund.
“The impact of the pandemic, as well as the racial uprisings in 2020, uncovered long-standing systemic barriers and shed a light on the undeniable need to address the root causes of inequity,” Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the foundation, told IP. “The Hilton Foundation created an equity fund to combat racism and other forms of bias, and [support] justice across multiple dimensions, including gender, disability and LGBTQI+.”
In 2021, the Equity Fund awarded $14.3 million—up from $5 million the previous year—in capacity-building and general operating support to organizations led and governed by historically underserved populations in the U.S.
One such grantee is RespectAbility, “a diverse, disability-led nonprofit that works to create systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities, and advances policies and practices that empower people with disabilities so they can have a better future.” In December, the organization announced a $1 million grant from the fund, the highest one-time gift it’s received since its inception in 2013.
Disability rights is a historically underfunded area of philanthropy, but one that’s been gaining more traction in recent years. Most notably, the Ford Foundation launched its first U.S. Disability Rights Program, run by new Program Officer Rebecca Cokley, and is “incorporating a disability lens” into all of its grantmaking. Moves like Hilton’s latest are perhaps a sign that more funders are following suit, which would be a welcome trend.
RespectAbility founder and CEO Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi calls the Hilton grant “a game changer. We are growing because of Hilton,” said Mizrahi. “We just added seven new permanent positions and three of them are very senior positions, which we’re super-excited about.” Additionally, said Mizrahi, the grant has attracted new funders such as the Milbank Foundation, which recently gave $100,000 to RespectAbility.
When Mizrahi and a group of Jewish funders established RespectAbility in 2013, its mission was to encourage Jewish organizations to become more inclusive of individuals with disabilities.
“But the vast bulk of our work now is in the non-Jewish community,” said Mizrahi, whose background is in strategic communications, and who plans to retire in June. Mizrahi relied on tools such as polls and focus groups to determine where to concentrate the nonprofit’s resources.
For example, the group completed a recent large survey of Jews, and found that they wanted to see more support to increase employment among people living with disabilities and to fight stigmas that are undermining people with disabilities.
“So it’s interesting to see that the Jewish community thinks that the Jewish inclusion work—which we’re doing, and we’re probably the largest in the world doing it—is less important to them than our non-Jewish work,” she said. RespectAbility continues to conduct the Jewish inclusion work that inspired its formation. In the future, the organization plans to share best practices with diverse faith communities.
Based on the community’s priorities, RespectAbility focuses its work in four areas: entertainment and news media, leadership, public policy, and faith inclusion.
The organization’s entertainment and news media team collaborates with media and entertainment professionals to encourage them to hire people with disabilities. The team conducts trainings on inclusion for Hollywood studio executives, writers, news organizations and production companies. Team members also serve as consultants on television and movie projects that depict individuals with disabilities to ensure that the depictions are realistic and inoffensive.
“We work with Disney, we work with Netflix, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures… with all the big [entertainment companies]. And this year, we did 200 productions,” Mizrahi said.
RespectAbility also has a “training and contacts” program for disabled performers who have difficulty entering the film and television industries due to their disabilities.
“We find these talented people — we take 30 a year — and then they go through what’s called ‘The Lab’ in Hollywood,” said Mizrahi. The Lab’s top students are given the opportunity to join RespectAbility’s consulting team.
RespectAbility also sponsors the National Leadership Program which gives gifted young people planning careers in public policy, advocacy, communications, DEI, fundraising, nonprofit management or faith-based inclusion with the skills, contacts and experiences necessary for successful careers.
The organization’s public policy arm is bipartisan and uses best practices to make systemic change. Through its public policy efforts, RespectAbility works to remove obstacles faced by people with disabilities in the areas of education, employment, entrepreneurship and civic engagement.
Mizrahi said the fact that RespectAbility is disability-led is one of the main attractions for the Hilton Foundation. “There are a lot of organizations in the equity space,” says Mizrahi, who has dyslexia and ADHD. “But very few disability organizations are led by people with disabilities.”
RespectAbility Board Chair Olegario “Ollie” Cantos agrees.
“Our extremely diverse team includes people who, like myself, are blind or have other disabilities, including autism, deafness, learning, mental [health], chronic health and mobility disabilities. We are also very diverse racially and ideologically. We have a very big tent. And that gives us the broad capacity to bounce ideas off each other and come up with big, bold and impactful solutions.”
RespectAbility is also attractive to donors “because we are very specific and transparent in our theory of change goals and metrics,” said Cantos, noting their extensive annual report and strategic plan, which point to what they’re able to accomplish, even during a pandemic.
“We recognize that this is a unique moment in history,” he said. “There are severe labor gaps and people with disabilities are largely an untapped talent pool that can help supercharge our economy. An investment in our work helps people with disabilities while also enabling the disability community to turn around and help many others. The potential ripple effects are enormous.”