We’re about two months out from one of the most important midterm elections in American history. While I realize there’s a limit to how much hyperbole one can deploy when talking about an election, it’s safe to say the stakes are especially high for BIPOC-led organizations prioritizing voting and democracy at a time when state legislatures have introduced dozens of bills to restrict access to the ballot box.
These organizations typically receive a surge of philanthropic support in the run-up to Election Day. But the real challenge for such groups begins the day after, when many donors pivot to new time-sensitive priorities. Leaders at grassroots organizations in other fields continually navigate a similar ebb and flow in funding. It’s hard to gain traction when you apply for a grant as soon as the check for the previous grant clears.
This isn’t news to IP readers, but it still underscores a critical lesson that has come into sharper focus across these past two and a half years: If philanthropy aims to build power and infrastructure at the grassroots level, organizations need what activist and philanthropist Martin Luther King III calls “sustained funding so that you can continue to mobilize, organize, and lift up communities.”
King III, who is the oldest living child of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, shared this sentiment with me not long after he and his wife, educator and civil rights activist Arndrea Waters King, launched the Drum Major Coalition, which provides unrestricted, multiyear support to 40 power-building organizations. The collaborative funding effort launched with $5 million in “significant four-year” commitments from donors like actor Ben Stiller and billionaire cryptocurrency investor Michael Novogratz, as well as funders like the Hellman Foundation. Funders — dubbed coalition members — also engage with grantees and will join the Kings at public events in the coming years.
The Kings hope to expand the coalition to 200 funders who can contribute a combined $100 million by 2024. “We felt that the best way that we could ensure democracy is to fund Black- and brown-led community organizers that are doing the critical work,” Arndrea told me. “In our estimation, they are the front-line workers of democracy.”
Giving organizations “the freedom to do the work”
The Kings launched the coalition with the goal of extricating organizations from a fundraising model tied to the election cycle. To meet this goal, two important things needed to happen. First, funders would have to go all-in on power-building organizations primarily serving communities of color.
Yet two years after George Floyd’s murder, Arndrea has noticed a “dwindling” of support for these kinds of organizations. She attributes this to economic uncertainty, the fact that so many other issues are vying for donors’ attention, and “the inevitable backlash that comes whenever any type of perceived progress is made.” Her latter point comports with what we’ve been hearing in our chats with foundation leaders, many of whom sense that philanthropy, consciously or otherwise, is sliding back toward the pre-2020 status quo.
At the same time, the Kings were intent on providing unrestricted multiyear support. “As activists, we know what it’s like being on that side of the work,” Arndrea said. But would donors be comfortable providing no-strings-attached funding spread across multiple years?
While nonprofits report some progress on this front, recent studies indicate that funders still have a long way to go, especially in their support for BIPOC-led groups. Nonprofit Finance Fund’s State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey found that in 2021, 41% of white-led nonprofits received 50% or more in unrestricted funds, compared to just 26% for BIPOC-led organizations. Meanwhile, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity found that of the mere 27% of foundations providing unrestricted multiyear support to all types of organizations at the height of COVID, 31% were undecided about continuing to provide it once the pandemic recedes.
On the bright side, IP’s exhaustive analysis of 11 post-2020 racial justice pledges found that a majority of the grantmaking was given as unrestricted funds, and all but one funder’s support was made through at least some multiyear grants. Fortunately, the coalition’s funders were more aligned with this set of grantmakers, providing the kind of unrestricted support that Arndrea says gives organizations “the freedom to do the work in a way that they feel is best for the community.”
Ensuring ongoing engagement
The Kings convened a committee to identify and select grantees. Members included Georgia Alliance for Progress Executive Director Christine White, Groundwork Project Founder Joe Kennedy III, and Galaxy Gives Foundation Program Director Alex Duran, who oversees the funder’s criminal justice reform portfolio.
“Martin’s father talked about the eradication of what he called the triple evils of racism, poverty and violence,” Arndrea said. “So we were looking for groups that had a significant track record in working to eradicate those triple evils through the embracing of peace, justice and equity,” as well as what the coalition calls an “ability to build power in key swing states and high-potential states.”
Grantees hail from fields like community organizing, voter education and registration, and interfaith activism. Examples include Michigan People’s Campaign, Project Say Something, Texas Freedom Network, Black Voters Matter, Missouri Faith Voices, and Florida’s Mission Talk. The Kings said each organization receives an equal amount of funding.
The Kings stressed that the coalition’s work doesn’t end after delivering a check. “Our job,” Martin said, “is to make sure the donor community understands this and to keep them engaged.” Coalition members receive material introducing them to the 40 grantees and will get updates on their peers’ work on a monthly basis. Arndrea noted that coalition members are already offering non-financial services to grantees. One member proposed making a documentary on some of the coalition’s grantees to share their stories with the public.
In addition, members will join the Kings at public events. Next year will mark the 60th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the publication of “Letters from Birmingham Jail,” and the 55th anniversary of his assassination. The coalition also aims to build networking and collaboration among leaders at grantee organizations. “The last few years have been very difficult for everybody in so many ways,” Arndrea said. “To be part of a community that’s bigger than yourself and full of like-minded individuals who are looking at solutions to problems can be very fortifying.”
As noted, the coalition hopes to raise a total of $100 million to be regranted by 2024. While Martin said it’s too early to say if it will expand its number of grantees in the coming years, “there can never be enough support, particularly when you look at the fact that 20-plus states have legislation on the books to make it more difficult to vote. Protecting democracy and expanding and protecting voting rights will be areas of great focus for us.”