In 2020, many foundations and corporations made big shows of support for racial justice in response to George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent uprisings. Five years later, funding for communities of color has slid back more than a decade—not only erasing the spike in 2020, but also undoing much of the slow progress made for racial justice funding in the years before that. PRE’s forthcoming report reveals that funding for communities of color has fallen back below the low percentage of overall grantmaking captured in 2011–2014.
Behind the numbers lies a deeper story: one of funders overhyping their commitment to racial justice in 2020 and then retreating all too quickly and quietly in the face of unprecedented attacks on equity, democracy, and philanthropic freedom.
Sign up to Download
Derailed: Rising Attacks and Retreating
Resources for Racial Justice
Five Years after MISMATCHED — Where Philanthropy Stands Now
Learn More
- How funding has shifted for Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities
- Which sectors saw the biggest spikes — and the steepest declines — since 2020
- Why grassroots movements remain underfunded
- How movement leaders are experiencing philanthropy’s wild fluctuations and their impact on community organizations already responding to multiple crises.
- How funders can support and partner with movement leaders to get back on track in moving resources to the struggle for racial justice and democracy at a vital turning point in the nation’s journey.
FUNDING FOR COMMUNITIES OF COLOR HAS FALLEN BACK A DECADE
After a brief surge in 2020 and 2021, philanthropic support for communities of color is off track. While overall foundation and corporate giving grew by nearly 50 percent between 2019 and 2023—from $96 billion to $141 billion—the share devoted to communities of color actually shrank. Even at its height in 2021, funding for communities of color made up less than a tenth of all giving. By 2023, it had dropped to 6.8 percent, lower than the proportion dedicated to communities of color in 2012. Funding for racial justice—focused specifically on systemic change and building power in communities of color—was even lower, never exceeding 1.4 percent of all institutional giving.
The data are clear: philanthropy never fully came through on the call for racial justice, and now many are retreating further from meaningful work around equity when they should be doubling down on moving resources to systemic change. The gap between intention and impact is widening, and the communities who ignited this call are urging philanthropy to get back on track.
