By Maximillian Boudreaux and Briasia Russ

A year has passed of global protesting for the treatment of African Americans in the United States and the need for America to fixed the racial inequities within our country with philanthropic dollars. People are still confused as to whether financial donations were ever delivered to the organizations, they were promised to.  

Tons of money was supposed to be set aside for new philanthropic initiatives and business models that were going to be for the betterment of Black and Brown communities. As reported by AP News, only $1.5 billion of the $12 billion that was pledged can be track to actual charitable recipients.  

President and CEO of PolicyLink, Michael McAfee, reported that a consensus is needed to differentiate really good acts of charity and the liberatory work that is necessary to create a fair society.  

Due to the limitations on philanthropic data, institutional funders are sharing information about grants to Candid. Laura Lanzerotti, a Bridgespan Group partners poke on a larger takeaway.  

“One of the larger takeaways is around what’s not possible to say at this point about the data for 2020,” Lanzerotti said.  

Not only has the tracking of the donations been difficult, but locating the true definition of ‘racial equity funding’ has been as well.  

Associate dean Una Osili at the Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University reports that this may cause more issues. “There may be a need for more systematic definition because this work is boundary spanning,” Osili said.