The Black Freedom Fund was founded in 2020 under the auspices of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in the wake of several such calamities: the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and the killing of Breonna Taylor. “Every time there’s a crisis, there’s a wave of support from philanthropy, but that support is often not sustained,” says Philpart, 46. “And when it’s not sustained, you can’t get to transformative solutions.” In order to put a more robust engine behind the efforts to bring about change, a coalition of Black organizers and California-based foundations started the fund to provide capital for organizations that were seeking racial justice. “Building real movement infrastructure to sustain folks for the long term—that has been our focus,” Philpart says.
The fund, which has raised about $100 million since its inception and was spun off from the SVCF last year, has given away roughly half of that money to local Californian organizations that “are focused on ensuring that Black communities have a seat at the table when it comes to opportunities,” says Philpart. These include enterprises that are seeking to build safe neighborhoods, economic opportunity, health equity, and education, among other things. Philpart, who joined the fund in 2022, is now seeking to grow its coffers to at least $200 million.
One of the initiatives the group has supported is ensuring that the Black community is included in the Golden State’s ambitious plans to ramp up the number of apprenticeships being undertaken to 500,000 by 2029. “By virtue of our investment, community organizations had the capacity to sit at the table and really engage in thoughtful and fruitful conversations that get to real solutions that are much more inclusive,” says Philpart. The fund has also partnered with organizations aiming to keep Black children in school by changing the rules under which they could be suspended. “You can’t talk about closing the racial wealth gap without being able to actually graduate people,” he says.
A lot of corporations have rolled back their diversity and equity programs in the past year, but Philpart observes that what those businesses had in common was a low appreciation of the advantages of inclusion. “You have people who are backing away, but also people who are stepping up,” he says. “And the people who are stepping up are doing so as a matter of course, and of core beliefs: ‘This is fundamental to who I am as a person. This is fundamental to who my organization is.’”
Philpart worked previously for the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color. He learned there that there are no fixes without collaboration and bridge-building. “It’s easier to tell people to come out and vote and support something that is on the books than it is to sit across from someone and work on changing their heart and mind over a decade,” he says. “That is where the real work and opportunity is.”
