The Yin and Yang of Equity-Centered Philanthropy

“Centering equity” has become one of the most pronounced trends in philanthropy over the past two decades. Beginning in the early 2000s, a handful of foundations across the U.S. explicitly reframed their grantmaking and strategies around concepts such as equity, social justice, racial equity, health equity, health disparities, and building the power of traditionally dis-enfranchised populations and communities (GrantCraft, 2007). This trend accelerated following the police killings of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2015. It became a groundswell in the summer of 2020 with the intense public attention and protests surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans. In a survey of 60 health foundations conducted in the fall of 2020, 81% of respondents indicated that their foundation had increased their focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion over the past six months (James, 2021). The critical question now is whether this newfound focus on equity will translate into different philanthropic practices (Behrens, 2020; Easterling & Benton-Clark, 2020; Hayling, 2021). © 2022 Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. The Foundation Review is reproduced electronically by ScholarWorks@GVSU. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/tfr