New initiative centers Black joy, leadership and the Black experience
Sharon Bush is the president of the Grand Victoria Foundation. Bush, along with Liz
Dozier, created the Abundance Movement to ensure equitable giving from philanthropic
organizations to Black-led and Black-centered organizations. PHOTO PROVIDED BY SHARON BUSH.
By Tia Carol Jones
In the Summer of 2020, George Floyd had been killed and people were coming out with statements of support for Black life and social justice.
A question that Liz Dozier and Sharon Bush kept coming back to was, what does that support translate to, and what do those statements of support actually mean, in terms of action, specifically in the philanthropy community.
Dozier and Bush began to talk about how to create a space and a movement that would center Black lives, Black leadership, Black experience and be rooted in joy. They came up with the Abundance movement.
The Abundance movement is an initiative led by Chicago Beyond, Grand Victoria Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and its goal is to make sure Black-centered and Black-led organizations receive more equitable funding from the philanthropy community.
Dozier, founder and CEO of Chicago Beyond, and Bush, president of the Grand Victoria Foundation. They know how Black-led and Black-centered are funded in comparison to their white counterparts, and it is not equitable.
Dozier, Bush and John Palfrey, The MacArthur President, began a movement to get more philanthropic entities invested in doing work differently and creating funding and spaces that would honor Black-led and Black-centered work to get more new dollars to those communities.
“One of the things we talked about was having other leaders of bigger foundations, white leaders of foundations to also consider what the moment meant, and what it meant to be in relationship to Black communities, what philanthropy’s relationship to Black communities could be,” said Bush about adding Palfrey to join the Abundance movement.
Abundance has just hired a director. Jasmine Jones was formerly the executive director of West Contra Costa Public Education Fund.
“Jasmine is a dynamic leader, a creative strategist who excels at building and strengthening relationships and fostering trust while calling for accountability,” said Dozier in a release. “She is a strong communicator who is able to build and maintain a movement that goes against the grain of traditional philanthropy. She has high emotional intelligence and the maturity and insight required to guide people through individual and organizational changes. That’s exactly what we need to move the needle with Abundance.”
There is a three-year commitment to launch to get the work started. The aim is for those in the philanthropic community across the country to take clear, strong, actionable, publicly accountable steps to increase the support of Black-led and Black-centered groups.
There are philanthropic organizations in Chicago that have stepped up, even before the public launch of Abundance.
“We really think of the Abundance movement, particularly the learning action community, which is a part of the Abundance movement, which is where foundations and foundation leaders can gather to talk through some of their internal policies and internal practices,” Dozier said. “Unpacking some of the biases that exist, that we all have in us, that will hopefully lead to more equitable decision making and essentially unleash new dollars out to Black-led and Black centered work.”
Bush believes it is an opportunity for Black-led and Black-centered organizations that have existed for a long time to be seen and considered. The goal is to show others in philanthropy what it looks like when philanthropy and foundations love Black people and community. The hope is that it will lead to better understanding, more trust in Black leaders and more money for Black-led and Black-centered organizations.
For more information about the Abundance movement, visit www.abundancemovement.org.
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