'It's not enough to just approach giving through a racial equity lens': A commentary by Edgar Villanueva

For philanthropy, racial equity isn't enough: Why we've moved to redistribution to address the racial wealth gap:

The past few years have seen a radical shift in philanthropy, a shift that was further fueled by George Floyd's murder, the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, the ongoing pandemic, and a polarized presidential election. More companies, funds, and philanthropic organizations have come to better understand the importance of racial equity in their giving and the very important role philanthropy can play in addressing the racial wealth gap in the United States.

My organization, Decolonizing Wealth Project, and its corresponding fund, Liberated Capital, have been proud to help spearhead this movement. But recently, we came to a hard conclusion: It's not enough to just approach giving through a racial equity lens; we must shift from a conversation solely about grantmaking to redistribution through reparations if we want to honestly tackle and close the racial wealth gaps in this country. As funders we have the opportunity both to redistribute our wealth and to fuel the movement for reparations.

Last month, Liberated Capital made our first grants totaling more than $1.7 million as part of our #Case4Reparations funding initiative, a monumental step in this movement. This first-of-its-kind multiyear, multimillion-dollar initiative supports community-driven reparations advocacy and movement building efforts to redistribute wealth — both money and land — to Black and Native American communities....

Read the full commentary by Edgar Villanueva, founder and principal of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital.