Salesforce has announced the inaugural grants of its Catalyst Fund, which will provide unrestricted funding to nonprofits led by people of color and other underrepresented groups.

The fund is designed to counter systemic racial inequities in philanthropic funding by redistributing the flow of money to traditionally underfunded groups, empowering leaders closest to the issues in their communities, and providing unrestricted funding to help drive solutions addressing inequities in education, economic opportunity, and racial justice. Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, joined the Giving Pledge in 2016.

In the first round of grantmaking, 20 nonprofits—located in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—will receive $100,000 each. The grants are targeted to smaller organizations that have an operating budget less than $2 million, are less than 10 years old, and are led by a person of color or another underrepresented community.

According to Salesforce, Black and Latinx nonprofit leaders receive only about 4 percent of philanthropic funding in the U.S., though they represent approximately 10 percent of nonprofit leadership nationwide. In addition, the unrestricted net assets of Black-led organizations are 76 percent smaller than those of their white-led counterparts, contributing to the systemic underinvestment in these communities.

“It’s important to assess who our grantees serve and what they do, but it’s equally important that their leaders reflect the communities they are serving,” said Salesforce senior vice president of philanthropy Rebecca Ferguson. “The [fund] aims to empower underrepresented leaders who are closest to the issues and can guide the best approach for their communities.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/fizkes)