Racial Equity

In this project we take racial equity to mean that ideal situation in which society’s systems and markets perform equally well for different racial and ethnic groups. It means that our educational systems work as well for African Americans as they do for Whites, that our justice systems works equally well, that our job training or business start-up systems work equally well, etc. Unfortunately, the data for most of our systems and markets show what we call disparities or gaps in racial equity – disparities on how these systems and markets perform for different racial and ethnic groups.

Community Philanthropy Can Help Achieve Racial Equity

Fortunately, philanthropy can help achieve racial equity and social justice, by investing in efforts that seek to close the gaps or disparities in how well our systems and markets work for different groups. Working intentionally on such a goal can be called social justice philanthropy. Our pathways to progress present opportunities for investment, promising practices, and examples of practitioner sites.