Built for a Time Such as This: How ABFE Used a Tumultuous Time in History to Uplift Its Community

In 2020, the world turned completely upside down as we all experienced the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the Black community, the trauma of the pandemic was compounded by the latest iteration of violence against Black people. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd thrust issues of police brutality and racial inequity onto a national stage.

Afterward, there was a surge of support for Black-owned businesses, Black media, and Black lives as a whole. Several corporations implemented DEI initiatives, made promises to the Black community, and ensured that they would be on the right side of history. For the members of ABFE (Association of Black Foundation Executives), this moment was nothing new. In fact, it was the perfect opportunity to shine a light on what they’ve been doing for over 50 years.

The nonprofit membership-based organization strives to combat racism and advance Black joy by advocating for impactful, transformative investments in the Black community. Their most recent report, Equity Under Review: Black Voices in Corporate Grantmaking at a Crossroads, speaks to the unique position of Black leaders in philanthropy, as they are often a very small group. The report also highlights the setbacks and successes of Black leaders in philanthropic spaces.

Hostile Politics

After speaking with several Black leaders in corporate philanthropy during ABFE’s annual Harambee conference in 2021, the organization planned to create a report highlighting the investments and initiatives corporate philanthropy pursued after 2020. Tahira Christmon, vice president of external affairs at ABFE, told NPQ in an interview that the organization’s perspective was unique in its focus on the work being done in Black philanthropy for the Black community.

By 2023, information gathering for the report was in motion, but in November 2024, when Donald Trump was elected to a second term, everything changed. Almost immediately after the election, ABFE lost access to the critical data that supported their work, as DEI initiatives were cut and databases were wiped. Partners and colleagues within the ABFE ecosystem also had their access to this data heavily restricted or were censored in what they could speak on, Christmon explains. In the quickly changing and hostile political climate, ABFE partners had to be much more tight-lipped about their findings or present them differently.

“We couldn’t tell the story we initially wanted to tell, which was [about] how much corporate philanthropy [through the hands of Black leaders] has given the Black community since 2020,” Christmon said. “Instead, we created a report that centered Black leaders in corporate philanthropy….This story tells the human side.”

Blockers and Advocates

The report highlights that while racial equity promises after 2020 were made in earnest, they were stymied by a profound lack of foundational support for Black communities that often “stunts bottom-up efforts” and creates a ceiling for their progress and impact. The 2024 election, which forced ABFE to change course, only deepened this dynamic. According to the report’s authors, “While this shift in research priorities [the 2024 election] came unexpectedly, our team wasn’t completely surprised by what we found.” ABFE’s inquiry confirmed that since the election, investments in Black communities have gone down, internal organizational resistance to racial equity giving has gone up, and Black corporate philanthropy leaders holding the line are often doing so alone or being pushed aside. This is an about-face from the commitments made just five years ago.

The report also pulls back the curtain on the experiences of Black leaders in corporate philanthropy. Black leaders in these spaces feel unsupported, have their ideas blocked, and see funding reallocated to causes the organization deems “more valuable.” One anonymous philanthropic leader interviewed in the report noted that their boss, a Black woman, supports them and “takes all the shots” from other colleagues.

Looking at philanthropic portfolios, 75 percent of respondents to the ABFE survey said that their organization does not have a fund or portfolio unique to addressing the needs of Black communities. Another 57 percent of participants shared that the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to end affirmative action directly impacted their organization’s current and future efforts. All of the examples in the report shed light on the hardships that Black leaders in corporate philanthropy face. They are dealing with dwindling funds and the devaluation of their ideas.

The report goes on to detail the tensions that Black leaders face when non-Black people in the organization, whom the report calls “Blockers,” make it difficult for those Black leaders to support communities that they’re supposed to be serving. One of the biggest tensions respondents reported is that these Blockers often need a way to make themselves look good in the wider organization, so they deliberately pick apart and slow the progress of grants that support Black communities in order to retain funds for other issues they deem relevant. As one anonymous interviewee put it, “Blockers can’t leave well enough alone. They have to figure out a way to dilute [the work supporting Black communities] in the name of adding value.”

The report isn’t all doom and gloom, though. It also tells the story of people, dubbed “Advocates,” who genuinely want to help and are making the jobs of Black leaders in corporate philanthropy much easier. Another anonymous participant in the report referred to these Advocates as “dream makers,” positioning them as people who do not run from the challenge when a political paradigm shift proves detrimental to the racial equity work.

“Their resilience and resolve is grounded in the recognition that if the work is to continue, they will need to hold the line and be stewards for racial justice,” the report detailed. It also noted that leaders remaining in community with these advocates is vital as many of them feel “isolated within their work, whether due to a lack of demographic diversity or due to the nature of the position itself.”

The report makes it clear that even though these corporate philanthropic leaders often feel unsupported, the Advocates and those who still believe in the cause help to ensure that promises are kept.

Supporting Black Philanthropic Efforts

Pivoting in response to a hostile political landscape is not new for ABFE. The organization itself was born out of protest in 1971, Christmon explained, after the Council on Foundations board rejected Black representation. In response, ABFE founders decided to build an organization that would specifically address the issues affecting their community. Now, over 50 years later, realizing that Black people were yet again being shut out of the conversation, ABFE leaders felt the need to shift from describing Black excellence to highlighting the dynamics that stifle it.

While the report speaks to the dichotomy of being a Black leader in the corporate philanthropy space, it also maps a path forward, providing tangible ways that Black philanthropic efforts can be supported through capital, talent, and commitment to justice. It concludes with seven strategies for success, including: making the case, shifting the narrative, investing boldly, building a pipeline, strengthening allyship, fostering collaboration, and committing to the long term. This looks like:

• Expressing why DEI is important and why it should be supported internally and externally
• Explaining the benefit of these policies to the broader community, not just the Black community
• Continuing to invest in the Black community
• Continuing to counter the Blockers by creating a pipeline for Black corporate philanthropy leaders to advance their careers
• Replace Blockers with Advocates and build internal support for these leaders
• Committing to multiyear, flexible funding for Black-led and Black-serving operations

An initial key objective of the study was to “understand the giving landscape of corporate philanthropy to Black communities following the 2020 uprisings” and how Black leaders in philanthropy were—or were not—able to execute their work.

But ultimately, Christmon says the report provides an avenue to hold corporate philanthropy accountable for its impacts on the Black community, and to shine a light on what it looks like when the political climate shifts and interest dissipates.