What is Black Philanthropy Month?
Black Philanthropy Month (BPM) is both a program and a month founded in 2001 by Dr Jackie Bouvier Copeland, with the support of Reunity. The program officially launches on August 1 each year and includes a year-round initiative. The program culminates in a multinational summit every August, the first of which was to commemorate the United Nations Year and Decade of People of African Descent.
BPM is the world’s only global Diasporan community coalition and movement to celebrate and empower black funding in all its forms, from philanthropy to venture and business investment.
The creation of Support Black Charities
Support Black Charities was created out of a desire of the black community to connect with black charities and nonprofits. Throughout her career, Anick Silencieux noticed how difficult it was to find black organizations if they didn’t have the word Afro, Black, Caribbean or African in their names. She started making a list of all of the black organizations that she found. This list grew in size. She then had an epiphany; ‘why not make this list public?’ One thing lead to another, and SBC was officially born in 2018.
How the partnership between Black Philanthropy Month and Support Black Charities came to be
Support Black Charities came across Black Philanthropy Month while doing some outreach and research. SBC is always looking to partner with organizations in order to build up its directory; they do this by reaching out via social media. That is how Anick became an ambassador for the BPM movement in Toronto, Canada.
Anick caught onto BPM in 2019 and has been a vocal and devoted ambassador for the cause ever since. This partnership is perfect, as SBC’s mission aligns perfectly with BPM’s objective of pushing funding equity for black-serving organizations. The two organizations have fueled each other’s growth. BPM’s summits were first confined to the U.S. and Africa. The scope and range of this grew and now they have summits in Canada, Brazil and South America.
Give 8/28
Give 8/28, previously known as Giving Black Day, takes place every year, on August 28th. It was created by the Young, Black & Giving Back Institute as a culmination of Black Philanthropy Month. It is the only day dedicated to promoting financial support for black-led and black-benefitting organizations. Seeing as this only happens in the U.S, Anick aims to bring it over to Canada.
How you can help support organizations like Black Philanthropy Month?
You can help organizations via virtual volunteering; help organizations run virtual events. You can also become a skilled volunteer; willingly contribute whatever skills you have- writing, accounting, graphic design and any other skills you may have- to an organization. Alternatively, you can indirectly support by raising awareness about the movement on Social Media, engaging with content about the movement and contributing financially to B3 (Black-led, Black focused, Black serving) organizations!
How Black Philanthropy Month is helping charities and changing the world
Black philanthropy plays a vital role in the health of the black ecosystem. There are three pillars to the community: People, organizations and businesses. Black philanthropy fosters relationships between these pillars; black organizations support black businesses, which in turn support the black community. Black Philanthropy Month celebrates and empowers black funding in all its forms, supporting the organizations that give back to black people and fight for black causes.
The role of SBC leading up to and during Black Philanthropy Month
SBC wants to give every black charitable organization the spotlight during black philanthropy month. They have launched a free plan that organizations can use to leverage
SBC’s audience. This audience includes black-owned businesses that are looking to contribute to the movement. They encourage businesses to come to the directory and to find organizations to collaborate with.
For more information please refer to our page on Black Philanthropy Month. Here we outline the history, as well as upcoming events related to BPM!