Black Philanthropy Circle, a fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation, has been launched to focus on charitable giving to nonprofits that directly support Black people and communities in the Baltimore area.
Black Philanthropy Circle was founded by a group of more than 30 Black business and civic leaders in Baltimore.
The fund has already raised over $550,000.
“Baltimore has a rich history of Black philanthropy by individual men and women,” said Alicia Wilson, a founder of the Black Philanthropy Circle and vice president for economic development at the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System, in a news release.
“The power of the Black Philanthropy Circle is the pooling of our funds together to support Black-led nonprofits and those that impact the Black community,” she said.
The group has begun its first grant-making cycle and will be accepting applications until Feb. 28.
The Circle plans to award $25,000 grants to Black-led nonprofits or those that are based in Black communities.
Nonprofits that focus on the following areas will receive priority: arts and culture, economic welfare, education, non-political community organizing, environment, human services, and health and wellness.
The group is “a powerful convergence of an older generation of Black philanthropists with a new generation of Black philanthropists who desire to use their resources, power, and influence to positively impact a community that has given so much to them,” Wilson said.
“A significant segment of the Founding Black Philanthropy Circle are in their late 30s and early 40s and are first-generation, in a number of respects,” she said, “Simply put, the Black Philanthropy Circle represents the greatest ideal of Black Baltimore — that we are better when we give, support, and care for one another.”
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Black Philanthropy Circle was launched at the Baltimore Community Foundation, not by the Baltimore Community Foundation.
