Black Women Claiming Philanthropic Space: A Conversation with LaTosha Brown

Editors’ Note: This article was originally written for the Spring 2025 issue of Nonprofit Quarterly Magazine, “How Women of Color in the South Are Reclaiming Space.”

Rebekah Barber: How are you doing in the wake of the 2024 elections? 

LaTosha Brown: I am doing remarkably well in this moment, considering the circumstances.

“Some of our greatest moments of change in this country came out of the most painful moments of political history.I’m in that space right now.”

I’m leaning into gratefulness. The election result was a really big blow—for a variety of reasons. One: being a Black person. Two: being a woman. Three: being a human rights activist. For all those reasons, it was a major blow.

But since then, I have allowed myself time to breathe.

There’s a particular kind of calmness in the eye of the storm. There’s a particular kind of calmness when you center yourself back into your own body. I had to recenter myself and be grounded on who I am and what I believe. I believe that love will win.

Some of our greatest moments of change in this country came out of the most painful moments of political history. I’m in that space right now. More than ever, I understand the value and importance of my voice and my work.

I’m not clear about “the what” yet. I’m so clear about who I am. I’m so clear about what I believe. I am so clear about what my contributions are, so in some ways, I even feel more purposeful.

RB: You’re from the South—Selma, AL. Growing up as a young Black girl, who were the women in your life who showed you how to take up and reclaim space?

LB: Two people in particular. One is my grandmother, Nellie. She was born in 1910 and would have been 114 on November 1.

I grew a lot of strength from her because I see her as my spiritual maven. I think that’s what I’m leaning into now.

I don’t believe that the ultimate power is politics. One of my quotes that I’ve said for a number of years is, “I don’t think our politics will save us. It’ll be our humanity.”

The second person is my aunt. She just did whatever she wanted to do. Her husband was always a provider and had a really good job, but she was clear—she would have a business. She was always going to have her own source of income. And her husband was good to her—it didn’t have anything to do with that.

She did not abdicate or give up her power at all. Whatever she wanted to say, she was going to say. Whatever she felt, that’s what she felt. She didn’t need anybody to validate what she felt. She did not shy away from her spiritual gifts of discernment. If she didn’t get a good feeling about someone, she had her antennas up—and it never failed.

Because of that, I’m comfortable with my “spidey senses.” When my spidey senses are up, I don’t try to question. I don’t try to put it in the back of my head. I receive it as information, like all other information, and factor it into my decision-making process.

RB: You made a conscious decision to stay in the South and to organize in places that are often overlooked and considered lost causes. What was it like making that decision?

LB: The South is my home. I love the South. It’s beautiful.

In addition to that, this is not only my home, but for Africans who were forcibly brought to this country, this was our introduction to this country. This land has been anointed with my ancestors’ blood, sweat, and tears. That’s what makes this region real for me—not just the politics. It’s the presence of spirit and my family’s history.

I used to wonder why my folks never left the South. There were some who migrated later. I know why now that I’ve gotten older. I think the ties that bind us as a family are a reason why I stayed in the South. Believe it or not, I believe the key to changing the nation is the South. I fundamentally believe in that.

Different places have different contributions to the development of a nation. For example, when we think about the financial centers in the United States, we think about New York.

When we think about media hubs, we think about New York and Chicago. When we think about movie centers, we think about Los Angeles. When we think about vacation spaces, we think about Florida. When we think about racism and oppression, we think about the South.

It’s almost like the South has worn racial discrimination and oppression like it’s a badge of honor, but the South also has a powerful and rich history on the roots of resistance here. I believe that when we are able to transform the South, the entire nature of this nation will change. I believe the key to changing this nation’s character and heart is in the South.

RB: You’re very passionate about uplifting work in the South. You created the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium to address the vast underfunding of Black women and girls. As a well-known activist, how have you leveraged your resources to make space for others within the funding arena?

LB: Initially, it was a spiritual calling. There was one report, [Unequal Lives, from the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, in 2022], that talked about underinvestment in Black women and girls. One day, I was thinking about this report and was so upset because I couldn’t believe we were still here. Less than one percent of the $4.8 billion in funding was going to women and girls—and that’s all women and girls. When I look around, women are carrying the South on our backs. How could this be?

I wanted to go around to the funder organizations, use my influence in philanthropy, and convince organizations to see these numbers.

Then, I thought, “You could do that, or help lead the way.” I just started getting a burst of ideas—the idea of using my influence, relationships, creativity, and innovation.

I felt that philanthropy didn’t just need to give Black girls and women more money but that the very character of the field needed to shift, which is part of the reason why I, and the other anchors, developed the consortium the way we developed it.

We believe that the best funding model is one that is informed by the people who are at the center of that work. I wanted to create a self-determination model. Everything from the inception to the execution to the evaluation to the decision-making process—every aspect of our funding model is informed by the people who are the subject matter.

“Women and girls throughout the South…bring their expertise and help make the recommendations around how funding is given.”

I wanted to disrupt philanthropy in a way that says that philanthropy always has to look a certain way. I come from a really rich culture and history, where my grandmother used to have Christmas savings clubs with her friends. They didn’t raise a lot of money, but they raised money. They used to have burial clubs. There were susus, social savings, social aid, and pleasure clubs.

There have always been these mechanisms in our community that community people would contribute to and enjoy. I wanted to create a model that provided the opportunity for people who are doing this work to not just see themselves as recipients. I wanted them to see themselves as philanthropists.

Because of that, part of our funding model is that we have wisdom circles during each of our grant cycles. We pull together our wisdom circles that are made up of women and girls throughout the South who bring their expertise and help make the recommendations around how funding is given.

That was like tapping into the best and the most brilliant thoughts around that field because this is what they do all the time. It also provides them the opportunity to give the way that they give.

In addition to that, we also have sage circles at the Southern Black Women and Girls Consortium. On the third Thursday of every month, we have women who volunteer who come and bring their expertise. If a woman is a CPA, for instance, she gives a workshop on managing your budget.

We bring our gifts to bear so that we have a model based on the abundance of what we are already bringing to the table, not based on a lack thereof or the frame that we don’t have.

Additionally, showcasing our work as a joy movement has been intentional. My work centers on capturing people’s hearts, minds, and imaginations.

We aspire toward joy because joy is created and cultivated in safe, healthy environments where girls feel seen, heard, and valued. That’s what the work is about.

Sometimes, philanthropy focuses on the mechanics of the outcome, and the purpose gets lost. Traditional philanthropy can be very transactional, but I wanted our work to be transformative.

I’ve used my work as an artist to ensure we’re incorporating culture, music, joy, sparkles, and all the stuff girls like. I’ve also tried to incorporate my influence and my voice in other spaces to get people to dream.

The foundation of our work was centered around two questions: ”What is a Black girl’s dream?” and “What’s needed for that dream to manifest?” That’s been the prompt that has driven this work.

This idea of centering and building work around Black girls’ dreams, while others did not see the seriousness or the impact of that work, has opened up spaces that I believe are impacting philanthropy.

In the last five years, I’ve been happy to see how the words “joy” and “Black joy” have been incorporated. I don’t know if we influenced this, but I hope we have. I think we are helping to reinforce the language that works for Black women and girls in the South.

RB: It seems that the funding model you use in the consortium could be incorporated all across the country. Are there any specific ways you’ve seen this model incorporated, even outside the South?

LB: Absolutely. This year, we had our fourth annual Black Girls Dream conference. This year was our largest. We had 1,400 Black girls and women from all over the South. It was amazing.

We also had 20 international guests. We brought 20 women from Kenya, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Senegal, Belize, Guyana, and the Caribbean to come and share with us, but they are also in relationship with us.

We’re exploring this Global South strategy. We heard they wanted to learn from our model and had much to share.

I don’t think our work is just an inspiration to Black women and girls in the South. I never envisioned this as exclusive in that we only work with Black girls in the South. I wanted to start where I thought was the hard place first. The whole idea was that the South as a region has been grossly underfunded, the majority of Black people live in the South, and this is the space in which you see a lot of the roots of resistance.

The South is also the space where we’ve seen the most reactionary, racist policies. For those reasons, I wanted to start in the South.

I don’t think it’s a model just for Black girls and women. Part of our ability to own our identity and use our cultural tools to connect and shape the work gives it a particular kind of uniqueness that can be adapted to other people based on their culture.

We see the girls as being generative of creating the solutions, not just for Black girls. We see the Black girls as a part of the salvation and liberation of the world. We believe that our innovation, leadership, and contributions will help not only ourselves but the world.

RB: What are some of the organizations that the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium is helping to bring resources to?

LB: We’ve funded close to 300 organizations already. One group in Alabama is organized by two twin girls. They were very concerned about period poverty—how young women, when they are on their menses, often would miss school because they didn’t have the necessary products. They wanted to address this, particularly in rural areas.

We gave them our largest grant at the time. They were able to provide that service to certain places throughout the state.

It was so effective that not only did they get recognition from the state legislature, but the State of Alabama asked them if they would expand that program across the state. These are teenage girls coming up with a solution that would prevent girls from missing school unnecessarily. We don’t usually think of that because we think that’s a problem outside of the United States.

Another organization has been doing amazing work around using math as a tool to build self-esteem—to get girls to think about science and technology, not because you are a good performer in that but to reinforce this idea that because you are a thinking human being, you have the ability to compute, and to take away the stigma so girls can find their inner genius.

We’ve worked with organizations like Bama Kids in Wilcox County that has done everything from tutoring to leadership development. Now, they’re using the theater.

We’ve got organizations that are doing specific leadership skill development, from speaking to organizing to getting girls to mentor each other.

The most rewarding part of this work is the depth and breadth of some of the work, brilliance, and genius. To see and witness this has been breathtaking for me. I feel that every day I’m learning something new.

What I love about this work is that our focus is not just on the solution. Our investment is on the solution drivers. Often, girls and women do not get the research and development support or investment to be experimental, exploratory, and create these solutions.

RB: Diversity initiatives have been under attack. How have you combated this backlash? Are there any specific ways that you’re asking philanthropists to show up for Black women and girls?

LB: Part of the attacks by people who attacked the Fearless Fund, for instance, is because people are projecting their worldview. They create a worldview from the perspective of being exclusive and not inclusive. That’s not who we are. We’re not an organization that says, “If you’re not a Black girl, we can’t help you.”

That’s not who we are. We’re centering Black girls in our work because they have been the most marginalized, but that is not at the exclusion of any other human being. Anybody can attend anything that we offer—and we encourage that!

We’re saying this is an aspect of our community that has gone ignored, overlooked, devalued, and discriminated against. That is just real.

But the truth is, we see our work in service of the whole—not as separate from the whole. We’re saying this is a part of the work that we’re offering that is needed that is going to help all of us. Come join us! Come be a part of this movement!

I’m not going to be in any space where I have to defend my identity. Racism’s goal is to dehumanize you to the point that you’ve got to justify your humanity. We’re not doing that.

We don’t spend a moment justifying our identity or our mission. We believe that our mission is big, bold, and righteous enough that there is something for everybody in it.

In this moment, to not acknowledge the level, scope, and intensity of which Black women and girls have been discriminated against is just dishonest.

I’m moving into the space of what is the solution because the world needs Black girls. I’m not pushing the frame that Black girls need the world to help them. No, the world needs Black girls. The world needs all of us.

RB: What does reclaiming space mean to you?

LB: Reclaiming space means understanding that liberation is always a choice. When we’re reclaiming space, we have to practice our liberation every day. It’s standing on your truth and owning your truth.

We are launching our first capital campaign. It’s called “She Got Next.” If we really believe that Black women and Black girls are key constituencies in shifting the culture, we should invest in that.

“I use this Harriet Tubman example often. Some people dreaded the night. She saw the night as an opportunity.”

We will invest in buildings. We will invest in museums. We will invest millions of dollars into new technology when we’ve got the best technology on earth. That’s human technology.

We have a moment that we can be investing because we’re at this crossroads in US culture. Who captures the hearts, minds, and imaginations of people will literally determine what our future needs.

The executive director [of Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium], Chancée Lundy, is my mentee. She is the prime example of how mentorship and investing in Black girls work, because now she’s taking this vision I had to another level. I lean on her leadership and guidance.

It’s such a beautiful example. We’re walking the walk. We’re a demonstration of our work in action. We’ve got this hundred-million-dollar dream to come to fruition to hopefully feed into many hundred-million-dollar dreams. The idea is not to create a model just to feed ourselves, but how do we create a model that can replicate what we know will work to change the world?

I use this Harriet Tubman example often. Some people dreaded the night. She saw the night as an opportunity. She also followed the North Star. The North Star is not the brightest star in the sky but the most consistent, the most dependable star.

That’s why we want to focus on supporting community organizations and grassroots groups—when no one else is there, those groups that are on the ground that are made up of people who are most impacted will be there.

I’ve just been thinking that at night that’s the time when you see the stars. Although this seems like a politically difficult moment, I believe that this is a moment that Black women and girls can shine.

Black women and girls are built for this. The core problems in this country are sexism and racism, and how they have dismantled this idea of human value. We sit squarely in that box. Because of that, there’s a unique approach, perspective, story, strategy, and spirit that we’re going to add in this moment that many see as daunting. We were built for this.