Philanthropy Underfunds Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Study Finds

Even more striking is that from 2015-19—the last five years of IRS-confirmed grant data from foundations of all sizes—the average Ivy League institution received 178 times more funding than the average HBCU, the report said. Compared with colleges and universities that have “highly similar attributes,” such as location, size, and specialities, HBCUs received two-thirds of foundation grants, the report said. 

To glean why the funding disparities are so striking, the report’s authors conducted interviews with HBCU staffers and determined one reason is simply the lack of relationships these institutions have with philanthropists. 

“One of the things that we’re hoping this report can do is encourage foundations that do fund HBCUs to help build relationships with other funders,” says Michell Speight, ABFE’s chief of staff. “I don’t think that philanthropy doesn’t want to fund HBCUs. I feel like there’s a gap in the connections.” 

There’s also the issue of what kind of funding is being granted to HBCUs versus other institutions of higher education, says Grace Sato, Candid’s director of research and a lead author of the report. 

“A lower proportion of general operating support goes to HBCUs, and general support is often kind of seen as a proxy for trust in the grantee,” Sato says. Through interviews with HBCU staff, the authors also learned that institutions suffered from a lack of appropriate staffing and a lack of resources and skills to reach potential philanthropists. 

“When HBCUs are understaffed and under-resourced, it makes it hard for them to build the relationships that they need to be able to develop with funders,” Sato says. 

Fortunately, signs of change appear to be afoot. After George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in May 2020 sparked racial justice protests and greater awareness of racial disparities, money started flowing to HBCUs. Unofficial totals show that giving by foundations reached US$249 million through Dec. 16 last year, according to Candid’s database. 

The report authors were careful not to champion those figures as they included data found in news stories and not official sources, and it’s unclear if the amounts reported will be granted in one year or over several years, Sato says.  

But the report did note that even if half of the US$249 million documented was real, it would be more than twice what foundations gave in 2019. 

The preliminary data also shows new funders are stepping up. According to the report, 27% of 303 foundations that awarded grants to HBCUs since 2020 were giving for the first time in recent history. 

Much of the report is spent analyzing the period from 2015 to 2019, and includes data from a broader range of foundations beyond the 1,000 largest. In that period, total funding each year was about US$61 million.

The top HBCU funders in that period were the Duke Endowment, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Coca-Cola Foundation, Verizon Foundation, and the Lilly Endowment. The top recipients were Johnson C. Smith University (with grants solely from the Duke Endowment), Spelman College, Morehouse College, the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Howard University, the report said. 

Some of the more recent grants that have been announced from private donors and corporations are more open-ended than usual, offering HBCUs operational and flexible funding, the report said. 

The most notable private donor is MacKenzie Scott, who awarded several large grants, including US$40 million each to Norfolk State University in Virginia and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and US$25 million to Bowie State University in Maryland. 

“These are really transformational gifts for these HBCUs,” Sato says. “We have to wait and see if others follow her.”