Several years ago, the Bay Area Black United Fund (BABUF), a workplace-giving program founded by Congresswomen Barbara Lee, Reverend J. Alfred Smith, Sr. and other community leaders, began a conversation about the need to expand our community's options for giving--beyond workplace campaign--to enhance African American mutual assistance and self-help in addressing community needs in the Bay Area.
OUR VISION
The concept of philanthropy, or giving back as many African Americans call it, is not new to the African American community. African American giving is a centuries old tradition that has been driven by the necessities of survival, mutual assistance, and self-help. African American giving has helped to establish churches and schools; it has launched leaders and institutions that expressed and agenda for empowerment and civil rights. African American giving has been shaped by the realities of black life on this continent. Now it's time to bring the tradition of African American philanthropy into the twenty-first century.
To counterattack decreased public spending in education, human and social services, and economic development in especially poor and low-income communities, the foundation would focus its efforts on both identifying existing community assets and strengthening them through grant making and partnerships with other institutions to promote the health and wellbeing of the community.
Currently, there is no foundation in the Bay Area dedicated to the needs of African Americans. The creation of a new foundation would fill this void and answer a real and pressing need for a concentrated infusion of resources to address old problems in new ways.
Foundation's Proposed Mission
To increase African American giving to address the needs of African American communities in the Bay Area.
The Foundation's service area would be the Bay Area and its nine counties including: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. The nine counties are home to 406,501 plus African Americans representing approximately 7.3% of the total Bay Area population.
Foundation's Goals
In order to create opportunities to strengthen especially African American giving and grow a catalytic voice that calls people to action, the foundation's goals would include:
- Convening and motivating individuals and institutions to work together in support of Bay area African American communities,
- Researching "best practice" programs and services, and becoming a repository for information in priority areas for potential donors,
- Supporting the use of best practices and promoting increased volunteerism in service delivery within the community,
- Creating mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of programs and services supported to insure that the foundation's grantmaking is accountable to its donors.
- Providing estate planning services and opportunities to establish memorial, family, and professional association funds at the foundation.
Foundation Leadership
The Foundation would be a separate legal entity with the same leadership as BABUF including: Woody Carter, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Bay Area Black United Fund, LJ Jennings, Chairman of the BABUF Board along with an eleven (11) to fifteen (15) member Board of Trustees.
We Invite You
BABUF is in the pre-launch phase of establishing an African American foundation to raise the community's philanthropic consciousness toward the engagement of African American wealth on behalf of the total community. BABUF is conducting a feasibility study to learn from community leadership whether there is enough support for the development of an African American foundation.
We invite you to support this groundbreaking study by sharing your personal thoughts on whether you see a need for such a foundation. Please share your comments with us by email at:
ldails@babuf.org
or contacting Linda Dails, Office Manager, at
(510) 839-7140. |
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