Yesterday, after we posted about @SeattleFdn’s contributions to the Seattle Police Foundation, SeattleFdn responded by highlighting how much it gives to orgs serving BIPOC communities

Today we’ll look at SeattleFdn's SPF grants vs. its funding for BIPOC-focused orgs.

(THREAD)

First, a word on how the SeattleFdn works. It’s a community foundation, which is essentially like a investment management company for philanthropy.

One of the largest national community foundations is run by Charles Schwab.

(2/12)

Donors use community foundations because it’s easier than setting up their own.

Also, it enables them to maximize their tax benefit & allows them to give anonymously to causes they’d rather not have their names associated with, i.e a police foundation.

(3/12)

The vast majority (>95%) of Seattle Foundation’s grants are guided by donors in one of three ways:

-Donor-advised: Donors suggest recipients
-Designated: Donors specify recipients
-Area of Interest: Donors choose a broad area (ex. housing), SF picks orgs

(4/12)

As a result, the Seattle Foundation’s giving tends to reflect the values & priorities of its donors, who are largely white and wealthy.

For example, the foundation gives more to the Seattle Opera ($2.4m) than it does to the entire South End ($1.9m)

(5/12)

Giving over $110m annually, @SeattleFdn spends on the scale of an entire city department. Its grants to the Seattle Police Foundation mirror disparities in the city budget.

In 2018, it gave more to SPF ($217k) than it did to the library ($100k) & parks ($77k) combined. (6/12)

A @SeattleFdn rep told us that it spent $8.5m since 2018 on community programs, 82% of which were BIPOC-led.

Let’s do the math:

.82*8.5=$7m

2018-2019 grants=$245m

That’s 2.8% to BIPOC-led groups

(7/12)

In 2018, SeattleFdn launched Creative Equity, which distributed $200k to 14 arts orgs in BIPOC communities, ie less than it gave to SPF

That year, it gave 3x more to SPF than it did to @NikkitaOliver’s Creative Justice, 22x more than its grants to Central District Forum

(8/12)

The @SeattleFdn gave more to the Seattle Police Foundation than it did to all @KCEquityNow groups combined:

11x more than East African Community Services
36x more than Nurturing Roots
40x more than WA-BLOC

(9/12)

Its other equity-focused program the Resilience Fund provides a greater pool of funds spread across a wider variety of orgs. The maximum grant is $20k.

By comparison, the average grant to SPF has been roughly $17k from 2003-2020.

(10/12)

In its response yesterday, the @SeattleFdn talked of a “reckoning” and how the “philanthropic sector has chronically underinvested in BIPOC organizations.”

As a leader in local philanthropy, Seattle Foundation should take a hard look at its own role in that process. (11/12)

While it may not be able to make its donors give more to BIPOC orgs, it can leverage its power & connections to mobilize more resources.

And at the very least, it can stop facilitating the flow of hundreds of thousands of dollars used to do harm to these communities.

(12/12)

Yesterday's thread https://twitter.com/DivestSPD/status/1303373176596905985?s=20