Breaking Down Barriers: Reimagining Equitable Access to Data, Tools, and Funding

Roughly 10% of the nation’s nonprofits are led by individuals from Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, but they only receive about 4% of grant dollars annually. There are many reasons for this, but it is no coincidence that over 90% of foundation CEOs are white, while organizations led by individuals of color face barriers to funding that their white-led counterparts simply do not, resulting in significantly less funding.

Many in our sector have explicitly stated intentions to address equity gaps in philanthropy. It’s time to convert those intentions to concrete action. Candid will be joined by two partners — a funder and a nonprofit — to discuss how we are working to advance racial equity in the sector. We will discuss our efforts to identify and remove barriers to Candid’s crucial data and tools and, leading by example, how we might influence the sector broadly to encourage advancement of more equitable practices.

The conversation will detail how each panelist’s organization is focusing their efforts to address institutional and interpersonal bias, a lack of social capital, lower visibility among funders and donors, less resources, and gaps in capacity — all of which are oft-cited barriers to funding among BIPOC-led or BIPOC-serving organizations .