Candid (formerly Foundation Center and GuideStar) has expanded its definition of "racial equity grantmaking" to better reflect the intent of funders and foster additional support, the Associated Press reports.

Previously, the organization had defined funding for racial equity as "grantmaking focused on systemic change to advance racial equity." Following the influx of philanthropic funding for racial equity-related causes in 2020 in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd and nationwide demonstrations, Candid worked with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) and sought input from other groups to expand its definition of funding for racial equity, which now reads: "grantmaking explicitly awarded to benefit people of color broadly or to organizations that explicitly serve these populations. This grantmaking specifies a focus on people of color but may focus on any number of issues (e.g., arts, education, health) or use any number of approaches (e.g., service delivery, research, advocacy.)"

Candid president Bradford K. Smith told the AP that the organization had two goals in expanding the definition — to help organizations that are combating racism find contributors and to help donors see who else is funding racial equity work and which groups could use support. "We wanted to show the many different ways contributions are making real progress," he said.

In expanding the definition and updating Candid's racial equity data going back to 2011, the number of racial equity grants in its database over the last decade increased from roughly 60,000 to 600,000, Candid director of research Anna Koob told the AP, including nearly 29,000 grants totaling $14.1 billion awarded since Floyd's death.

"Shortly after the 2020 relaunch of Candid's racial equity funding site, the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) contacted us with two primary concerns about the way the data was presented: the distinction between racial equity and racial justice funding, and the mixing of grants and pledges," Lisa Philp, vice president of development and communications at Candid, wrote in a blog post. "Over the last year, we've worked with PRE to address both issues in the recent data set update." Under the new framework, Candid positions racial justice grantmaking, defined "as that awarded to address the underlying systems and structures that generate and reinforce racial inequality," as a subset of racial equity grantmaking.

Before the change was announced, Howard Husock, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, had criticized Candid's definition of racial equity grantmaking as favoring advocacy initiatives instead of programs that provide direct services, the AP reports. Husock told the AP the new definition was an improvement.

"The reality is there is inexactness in a huge range of terminology within the foundation sector," said PRE executive director Lori Villarosa. "The number of different ways funders decide what is arts, what is education, what is health, is often fuzzy."

(Photo credit: James Eades via Unsplash)