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Natalie
R.
Coles,
vice
president
& chief
development
officer
at
Wilberforce
University,
poses on
the
campus
in
Wilberforce,
Ohio,
Friday,
May 12,
2023.
Coles
will
never
forget
receiving
an
unexpected
phone
call in
2020. On
the line
was
Virginia-based
Dominion
Energy,
asking
to give
money to
Wilberforce
University,
the
small
historically
Black
college
where
she is
in
charge
of
fundraising.
(AP
Photo/Michael
Conroy) |
|
US
companies,
nudged
by Black
employees,
have
stepped
up
donations
to HBCUs
By ANNIE
MA
and
THALIA
BEATY
apnews.com
Natalie
Coles
will
never
forget
receiving
an
unexpected
phone
call in
2020. On
the line
was
Virginia-based
Dominion
Energy,
offering
to give
money to
Wilberforce
University,
the
small
historically
Black
college
where
she is
in
charge
of
fundraising.
The
company’s
$500,000
donation
went in
part
toward
laptops
and hot
spots
for
students
when the
pandemic
shut
down the
college’s
campus
outside
of
Dayton,
Ohio.
“It was
like
manna
from
heaven,”
Coles
said.
Historically
Black
colleges
and
universities,
which
had seen
giving
from
foundations
decline
in
recent
decades,
lately
are
benefiting
from an
increase
in
gifts,
particularly
from
corporations
and
corporate
foundations.
Some
have
received
a new
look
from
companies
amid the
reckoning
over
racial
injustice
spurred
by the
killing
of
George
Floyd.
But the
colleges
also
have
been
pitching
themselves,
emphasizing
their
ability
to
deliver
returns
on the
investment
in
student
mobility.
Another
factor
in the
giving
by
corporations
has been
the
influence
of their
Black
employees.
At the
beverage
company
Diageo
North
America,
the
employee
resource
group
for
African
Americans
shaped a
program
that has
provided
almost
$12
million
to
HBCUs,
said
Danielle
Robinson,
head of
community
engagement
and
partnerships
for
Diageo.
The
money
has gone
toward
scholarships
at 29
schools
to
lessen
the debt
burden
on Black
graduates.
“We
talked
about a
lot of
different
things,
but one
of the
things
that
kept
coming
up was
the
generational
wealth
gap,”
Robinson
said.
The
giving
to HBCUs
is a new
trend
for
corporations,
which
had
largely
ignored
them
before
2020,
said
Marybeth
Gasman,
a
Rutgers
University
professor
who
researches
HBCUs.
Increasingly,
HBCUs
have
been
using
the
language
of
business
to argue
they not
only
have a
high
need but
also are
a good
investment,
she
said.
HBCUs
often
have
smaller
endowments
and
lower
levels
of
public
funding
than
other
universities.
A report
released
in May
found
foundation
support
of HBCUs
declined
30%
between
2002 and
2019.
Data is
incomplete
for more
recent
years,
but
HBCUs
have
been
reporting
a
sustained
increase
lately
in
donations
from
corporations
as well
as
philanthropic
foundations.
Delaware
State
University
received
$20
million
from
MacKenzie
Scott in
2020,
part of
the $560
million
that the
ex-wife
of Jeff
Bezos
gave to
HBCUs.
The
money
helped
DSU
rescue a
small
college
in their
county
that was
closing
and
invest
in their
facilities.
Foundations
have
been
more
receptive
when the
school
reaches
out,
said
Vita
Pickrum,
the
school’s
vice
president
of
institutional
advancement.
She said
she
would
like to
see
foundations
shape
giving
in
partnership
with
HBCUS.
Gifts to
HBCUs
typically
are more
restricted
than
those
given to
predominantly
white
schools,
she
said,
which
she
would
like to
see
change.
“Trust
the
institutions
to be
able to
address
the
problem
that the
foundation
is
trying
to
address
in the
most
efficient
way that
they see
fit,”
she
said.
While
giving
to HBCUs
has
increased
lately,
better-known
schools,
such as
large
private
and
land-grant
universities,
have
been
more
likely
to
receive
donations
compared
with
small
schools,
said
Michael
Lomax,
CEO of
the
United
Negro
College
Fund.
Those
small
institutions
often
operate
as
engines
of
economic
mobility
that
lift
students
from
poverty
to the
middle
class,
Lomax
said.
Many
have
near
open-enrollment
policies,
educating
nearly
any
student
that
wishes
to
pursue
higher
education.
While
HBCUs
have
produced
celebrated
entrepreneurs,
scientists
and
doctors,
they
have
also
educated
an
outsize
number
of
teachers,
nurses
and
other
jobs
that are
essential
for
society,
he said.
“I want
to see
more of
American
philanthropy
recognizing
that
those
are
important,”
Lomax
said.
“That
they’re
going to
help us
ensure
that
those
jobs and
those
positions
are
filled,
because
they are
the
positions
which
will
ensure a
healthy
Black
America,
but
really,
a
healthy
America.”
At
Wilberforce
University,
the
donation
from
Dominion
supports
scholarships
and a
lecture
series
on
racial
inequality
in
addition
to the
technology
investments.
It’s a
lot to
squeeze
out of a
half-million
dollars,
which
Coles
said
reflects
the way
historically
Black
colleges
and
universities
stretch
their
money.
“I would
really
applaud
my
fellow
African
Americans
for
really
pushing
things
within
corporate
America
to make
certain
that the
George
Floyd
incident
was a
movement,
a
long-term
movement,
just not
just a
one-off,”
Coles
said.
At
Spelman
College
in
Georgia,
an
increase
in
donations
has
allowed
the
school
to
expand
financial
aid and
start
centers
for
Black
entrepreneurship
and the
arts.
Jessie
Brooks,
senior
vice
president
for
institutional
advancement,
said the
racial
justice
movement
of 2020
offered
visibility
that
allowed
HBCUs to
make
their
case to
new
potential
donors.
“If a
donor
gives
you the
resources,
and you
can show
impact
in terms
of how
their
gift
made a
difference,
they
will
continue
to
give,”
Brooks
said.
Whether
corporations
will
stick
with
funding
HBCUs
for the
long
term is
still a
question
for
Shawnta
Friday-Stroud,
vice
president
of
advancement
at
Florida
Agricultural
and
Mechanical
University.
Donations
from
corporate
and
philanthropic
foundations
have
almost
doubled
from
last
year,
when
they’d
received
$2.4
million
at this
time
compared
with
$5.3
million
so far
this
year.
She’s
observed
that
corporate
foundations
are
making
funding
commitments
over
multiple
years
and have
expressed
interest
in
partnering
with her
institution,
rather
than
just
giving
money
and
walking
away.
They
have put
the
money
toward
scholarships
and
professional
development
training.
“My hope
is that
that
continues,
let’s
say,
over the
next
three,
four or
five
years,”
she
said.
“And I
think
that’s
what’s
going to
be the
true
test.”
___
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Associated
Press
education
team
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support
from the
Carnegie
Corporation
of New
York.
The AP
is
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responsible
for all
content.
___
Associated
Press
coverage
of
philanthropy
and
nonprofits
receives
support
through
the AP’s
collaboration
with The
Conversation
US, with
funding
from
Lilly
Endowment
Inc. The
AP is
solely
responsible
for this
content.
For all
of AP’s
philanthropy
coverage,
visit
https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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