Black-led nonprofits saw post-2020 funding boosts fade quickly, study says

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The racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder in 2020 sparked hopes of longer-term support for underfunded, Black-led nonprofits. But a new study released Tuesday found that for many of those groups, any funding boosts were short-lived or did not materialize in lasting ways.

The research, conducted by nonprofit research service Candid and the Black philanthropy group ABFE, examined changes in giving after 2020. It found that a subset of large Black-led nonprofits experienced temporary funding increases between 2020 and 2022, while smaller organizations did not see significant change, according to the report highlighted by AP.

The study’s authors and interviewees tied those funding patterns to broader uncertainty in the nonprofit sector during the Trump administration. The report describes a backdrop in which Trump’s policies curtailed funding for diversity, equity and inclusion, threatened social service programs, and left future grant-making less predictable, while anti-DEI executive orders chilled racial justice funding.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said the same community nonprofits are now being asked to handle growing needs from low-income families facing spiking healthcare costs and rising food prices. “We’re literally being asked to do more with less resources,” Albright told AP.

ABFE CEO Susan Taylor Batten said the problems were not only about money but also about relationships. She said foundations lacked relationships with Black organizations of any scale before 2020, and that created a scramble when protestors pressed businesses and philanthropies to address systemic racism. Fundraising professionals described how some nonprofits faced a cycle of initial attention followed by a pullback once the moment passed.

Several nonprofit leaders said the influx of new donors after 2020 did not consistently translate into enduring partnerships. Asiaha Butler, CEO of the Resident Association of Greater Englewood on Chicago’s South Side, said “summer 2020 brought more than two dozen new funders,” which she described as a “spurt” that later tapered. Butler recalled that at first, she thought the group was building relationships, but that “those priorities shifted quickly,” and said she started seeing rapid changes as funding dwindled.

Butler also described what the consequences looked like on the ground. She said the delayed downturn affected a nearly $7 million capital project connected to the group’s economic justice work, including plans for an 8,800-square-foot building intended to include a dine-in restaurant and another Black-owned business. By 2023, she had secured a $1 million grant—her nonprofit’s largest—to begin the project, and she said she later turned to public funding, including a $2.5 million grant from the City of Chicago, with another $1.5 million state award pending.

In Los Angeles, Kandee Lewis, CEO of the Positive Results Center, described receiving checks from new supporters while also questioning whether that attention reflected an understanding of the work. Lewis said it was “wonderful” to receive money from new supporters, but that the support often proved to be a one-time donation rather than the start of a relationship. She said the funding came because her group was Black-led “—not because funders understood its work,” adding that donors were “so busy trying to figure out who was who that they didn’t really take time to get to know people.”

The report’s findings also address how networks affect access to grants. Jaleesa Hall, who heads Raising A Village Foundation in Washington, D.C., said she founded her nonprofit more than six years ago with limited high net worth contacts in her network, making it difficult to capture the attention of foundations. Hall said foundations “haven’t really cracked” how to identify potential grantees outside their existing web of connections, adding: “Small, Black-led nonprofits simply aren’t in those rooms to begin with.”

Hall said most of their foundation grant dollars came from first-time funders. She pointed to an annual pattern she described as “song and dance” needed to secure long-term investment, and ABFE’s Batten said Black-led nonprofits have fewer continuing funders than non-Black counterparts. The report cited that only one-third of Black-led nonprofits received general operating support, compared with just over half of other nonprofits, and Batten said the sector has not fully adopted best practices such as the shift toward trust-based models and multi-year grants that offer general operating support.

Smaller nonprofits also face barriers tied to administrative capacity, according to the report and interviews. Hall said grant eligibility requirements and limited staff time can make it hard to meet foundations’ reporting demands. She described the process as a burden and said, “The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”

Even when donors expressed support during the broader racial justice push, some leaders said they heard similar explanations later as funding waned. Butler said supporters told her that priorities had shifted or that there were “new strategic goals,” and she said she is now pursuing public funding rather than starting a capital campaign because “the timing was off.”