In an economically good year, private family foundations
give roughly 7% of their assets (in 2015, those assets were more than $400 billion). Since on average a stock investment portfolio will see an annual 7% market return, giving at that exact number ensures that foundations will continue to accumulate wealth. While 7% is already minimal, money designated for women of color is a fraction of that; in a report from the
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, just 0.6% of 2016’s grant dollars went to women of color from the largest 1,000 foundations in the U.S. According to
Funders for LGBTQ Issues, for every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations, only $.04 support TGNC folks, with significantly less going to
TGNC people of color.