This month is Black History Month. It’s a time to celebrate the achievements of Black leaders and pioneers, and educate ourselves on the roles they have played throughout history. People who have fought, often against overwhelming odds, to pursue their dreams, ambitions and passions to build a legacy for future generations. That fight is just as real in the charity sector as it is across society.
Despite global awareness movements such as Black Lives Matter and smaller sector-centric initiatives such as #CharitySoWhite, the fundamental structures that underpin society remain embedded in a bedrock of colonialism and institutional racism. This is painfully apparent in the mechanisms and processes of charitable funding in this country. Every day, small Black-led grassroots organisations struggle to raise funds. Under-resourced and underfunded, these charities face existential threats on a daily basis.
Our cover story this month looks at the plight of one such organisation, the Black Heroes Foundation, as it struggles to secure funding for its work educating, entertaining and empowering the Black community through the arts. Its story is typical of many other small charities that face barriers to getting funds such as arduous application processes, unrealistic reporting requirements or a lack of awareness around issues facing the communities they serve. Until funding structures are radically overhauled to better enable income channels to be easily accessed, organisations such as these will struggle to survive and starve communities of vital services and betterment initiatives.
In the feature, founder and chair of the Black Heroes Foundation, Joyce Fraser OBE, writes that in reality, equity, diversity and inclusion approaches “have had very little impact” in the way that Black-led organisations are viewed by funders. A power imbalance between white gatekeepers and Black grassroots charities still exists when it comes to the charitable fundraising ecosystem. This can also be said of the wider charity sector in regards to career progression, recruitment and accessibility.
Black History Month is an important, inspiring and triumphant celebration of the contribution that Black people make to the evolution of society. But it is also an important opportunity to hold up a mirror to the failings of our own sector, push for change and accept that by doing nothing we are complicit in perpetuating racism. It’s an opportunity that should not be missed.
@stevejcotterill is the editor of Fundraising Magazine
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