Social justice philanthropy¹ increased through the recent recession, but the share of foundation dollars reported as supporting advocacy, organizing, civic engagement and other strategies to promote structural change remains relatively unchanged.

As part of its ongoing research into current giving trends, NCRP compared the latest available data on a sample of 906 large grantmakers’ average giving from 2008–2010 to a previous 2004–2006 sample analyzed in NCRP’s Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best. The findings demonstrate that more grant dollars are classified as social justice grants and the number of foundations noting that they provide such funding at a substantial level increased. The analysis found that:

• The reported amount of social justice philanthropy increased 66 percent to more than $3 billion.

• The share of grant dollars made as social justice grants increased slightly from 12 percent to 15 percent of total giving, but when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s giving is excluded, the share remains unchanged (13 percent).

• Social justice philanthropy decreased as a share of total giving among community foundations, operating foundations and foundations in the South.

• The median foundation share for social justice philanthropy remained 3 percent, but there was an increase in the number of funders giving at or above NCRP’s suggested benchmark of 25 percent.

THE CASE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPYIn 2009, NCRP’s Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best encouraged grantmakers to invest in a strong, participatory democracy that engages all communities by providing at least 25 percent of grant dollars for advocacy, organizing and civic

engagement to promote equity, opportunity and justice in our society.²

Investing in advocacy, community organizing and civic engagement has the potential to increase and unite the voices of those who have been historically marginalized and improve the lives of communities with the least wealth, opportunity and power. It is among the most strategic ways to address long-standing structural barriers to equality and advance social capital and civic engagement:

• It increases available funding for nonprofits working to effect long-term structural change

• It provides grantmakers with significant impact and leverage. NCRP’s Grantmaking for Community Impact Project tracked the activities of 110 nonprofit organizations in 13 states over five years. The project documented $26.6 billion in benefits for taxpayers and communities, and found that every dollar grantmakers and other donors invested in policy and civic engagement provided a return of $115 in community benefit.³

• It aligns with philanthropy’s historic role of con-tributing to a nonprofit sector in which most of the major social movements and significant policy changes of the last century arose.

The State of Social Justice PhilanthropyBy Niki Jagpal and Kevin Laskowski

THE PHILANTHROPIC LANDSCAPE

AT A GLANCE$3B Average annual funding for social

justice from 2008-2010

15% Share of grant dollars made with a social justice purpose from 2008-2010

8% Average foundation share of giving coded as social justice philanthropy

3% Median foundation share of giving coded as social justice philanthropy

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

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• It is the only way for foundations that have change-oriented missions to remain true to their mission and donor intent.

• It is the most direct path to building social capital and creating sustainable, long-term change for the most disenfranchised of our community members.

Social justice philanthropy declined as a share of total giving among sampled community and operating foundations. Family foundations are primarily responsible for the overall increase in social justice grantmaking.

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY DECLINED AS A SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING AMONG COMMUNITY AND OPERATING FOUNDATIONS

0.00 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.40

2008-20102004-2006

All Sampled Grantmakers

Operating

Independent

Family

Corporate

Community9%

7%

9%10%

7%14%

18%21%

17%18%

12%15%

FIGURE 1. SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY BY FOUNDATION TYPE

The share of grantmaking to empower underserved communities and contribute to our democracy increased slightly among foundations of all sizes.

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY AS A SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING INCREASED MOST AMONG LARGER FUNDERS

0.00 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.40

2008-20102004-2006

More than $10 million

Between $5-10 million

Less than $5 million6%

7%

5%

7%

13%

16%

FIGURE 3. SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY BY FOUNDATION SIZE

Social justice philanthropy increased in all areas of the country, especially in the West, though it declined as a share of total giving among grantmakers located in the South.

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY DECLINED AS A SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING IN THE SOUTH

0.00 0.08 0.16 0.24 0.32 0.40

2008-20102004-2006

West

South

Northeast

Midwest13%

15%

16%

18%

9%8%

10%17%

FIGURE 2. SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY BY FOUNDATION REGION

3The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Social Justice Philanthropy

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY (2008-2010)FOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

Rosenberg Foundation IN CA $2,041,000 93%

A Glimmer of Hope Foundation FM TX $6,309,044 92%

The Melville Charitable Trust FM MA $4,367,428 84%

Marguerite Casey Foundation IN WA $20,421,521 74%

Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, Inc. FM NY $1,265,167 73%

The Annie E. Casey Foundation IN MD $61,296,383 68%

Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Inc. FM NC $4,629,667 67%

Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund FM CA $20,745,278 66%

Public Welfare Foundation, Inc. IN DC $14,142,143 64%

The Gill Foundation FM CO $5,551,616 64%

New York Foundation IN NY $2,339,750 64%

The Weberg Trust FM IL $5,233,333 63%

Opus Prize Foundation FM SD $766,667 63%

Ford Foundation IN NY $288,104,367 62%

The Mitchell Kapor Foundation FM CA $1,296,507 62%

Levi Strauss Foundation CS CA $4,399,167 61%

NIKE Foundation CS OR $9,083,921 59%

The Rockefeller Foundation IN NY $77,986,206 58%

Arcus Foundation IN MI $14,880,863 57%

NoVo Foundation FM NY $14,824,106 57%

More than 25%

Between 5-25%

Between 0-5%

Zero

2008-20102004-2006

50%

15%

28%

50%

7%

28%

14%8%

4Most sampled grantmakers reported less than 5 percent of their grant dollars for social justice-focused work. However, the share of funders doing at least some social justice philanthropy and the number of funders giving at NCRP’s suggested level of 25 percent increased slightly.

In our latest sample, 76 grantmakers (8 percent of sampled funders) reported giving at least 25 percent of their grant dollars for social justice purposes from 2008–2010.

MOST GRANTMAKERS REPORT LESS THAN 5 PERCENT OF GRANT DOLLARS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE LARGEST SOCIAL JUSTICE GRANTMAKERS

FIGURE 4. HOW MUCH SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY DO GRANTMAKERS DO?

TABLE 1. LARGEST SOCIAL JUSTICE FUNDERS BY SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, 2008-2010

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy

4

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY (2008-2010)FOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

Open Society Institute OP NY $48,343,810 57%

Moriah Fund FM DC $4,647,434 54%

The California Endowment IN CA $69,566,827 53%

Banyan Tree Foundation FM DC $2,156,110 53%

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation IN MI $49,498,107 52%

TABLE 1. LARGEST SOCIAL JUSTICE FUNDERS BY SHARE OF TOTAL GIVING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, 2008-2010 (CONTINUED)

SOCIAL JUSTICE PHILANTHROPY (2008-2010)FOUNDATION NAME TYPE¹ STATE AMOUNT PERCENTAGE

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation FM WA $808,167,861 29%

Ford Foundation IN NY $288,104,367 62%

W. K. Kellogg Foundation IN MI $114,246,972 46%

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation IN NJ $98,344,357 29%

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation IN IL $95,127,910 47%

The Rockefeller Foundation IN NY $77,986,206 58%

The California Endowment IN CA $69,566,827 53%

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation IN CA $67,598,203 17%

The Annie E. Casey Foundation IN MD $61,296,383 68%

The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation FM NE $53,176,164 16%

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation IN MI $49,498,107 52%

Carnegie Corporation of New York IN NY $48,769,014 44%

Open Society Institute OP NY $48,343,810 57%

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation FM CA $35,118,442 13%

Citi Foundation CS NY $30,526,000 42%

The Kresge Foundation IN MI $27,165,339 16%

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation, Inc. CS NC $27,165,339 17%

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation IN FL $25,800,958 29%

Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund FM CA $20,745,278 66%

Marguerite Casey Foundation IN WA $20,421,521 74%

The McKnight Foundation FM MN $19,277,165 26%

Howard G. Buffett Foundation FM IL $17,270,806 33%

Silicon Valley Community Foundation CM CA $17,184,376 7%

Omidyar Network Fund, Inc. FM CA $14,916,294 43%

Arcus Foundation IN MI $14,880,863 57%

TABLE 2. LARGEST SOCIAL JUSTICE FUNDERS BY TOTAL AMOUNT, 2008-2010

¹ CM=community, CS=corporate, FM=family, IN=independent, OP=operating

¹ CS=corporate, FM=family, IN=independent, OP=operating

5The Philanthropic Landscape: The State of Social Justice Philanthropy

METHODOLOGYNCRP worked with the Foundation Center to develop custom datasets using the center’s grants sample data-base, which includes detailed information on all grants of $10,000 or more awarded to organizations by more than 1,300 of the largest foundations in the United States. Grants to individuals are not included in the file. International grants are included. For community foun-dations, discretionary grants and donor-advised funds are included. The Center’s grants classification system provides much more detail on current giving trends than other data sources and represents approximately half of the foundation grantmaking in the United States.

These NCRP data are based on three-year averages, which avoids the influence of potential outliers. The first sample was developed for Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best, using all grantmakers that appeared in all three annual samples from 2004–2006, a group of 806 large grantmakers. A second sample, a group of 906 funders, was developed using 2008–2010 data to assess trends in foundation giving four years later.

Information on social justice giving is based on foun-dations’ reports of their grants and Foundation Center criteria for social justice grantmaking. Foundations noted in the data as giving zero to social justice either did not have grants that met the criteria for social justice grant-making or did not provide enough information to code them as such. NCRP encourages grantmakers to contact the Foundation Center to ensure appropriate classifica-tion of their grants.

For more information, please contact research@ncrp.org.

Niki Jagpal is the research and policy director at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Kevin Laskowski is the research and policy associate at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. The authors would like to extend a special thanks to Steven Lawrence, director of research at the Foundation Center, for his review and guidance. NOTES1. The Foundation Center defines “social justice philanthropy” as

“the granting of philanthropic contributions to nonprofit organi-

zations based in the United States and other countries that work

for structural change in order to increase the opportunity of those

who are the least well off politically, economically, and socially.”

An advisory committee consisting of grantmakers and others cre-

ated the working definition of social justice philanthropy used by

the Foundation Center. See Tanya E. Coke, Scott Nielsen, Henry

A.J. Ramos, Sherry Seward and Bradford K. Smith, Social Justice

Grantmaking II: An Update on U.S. Foundation Trends, ed. Ste-

ven Lawrence (New York: Foundation Center, 2009).

2. Niki Jagpal, Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best: Benchmarks

to Assess and Enhance Grantmaker Impact (Washington, D.C.:

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, 2009).

3. Lisa Ranghelli, Leveraging Limited Dollars: How Grantmakers

Can Achieve Tangible Results by Funding Policy and Commu-

nity Engagement (Washington, D.C.: National Committee for

Responsive Philanthropy, 2012).

4. These figures are based on foundations’ reports of their grants

and Foundation Center criteria for social justice grantmaking.

Foundations noted as giving zero dollars for social justice either

did not give social justice grants or did not provide enough in-

formation to code them as such. If all social justice grants could

be appropriately coded, these figures might change.

ABOUT NCRPThe National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) aims to ensure that philanthropy contributes in meaningful ways to the creation of a fair, just and equitable world. We promote philanthropy that serves the public good, is responsive to people and communities with the least wealth and opportunity, and is held accountable to the highest standards of integrity and openness.

For more information, please contact us at: 1331 H Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, D.C. 20005P: 202.387.9177 | F: 202.332.5084 | E-mail: info@ncrp.org www.ncrp.org | blog.ncrp.org