Friday, March 29, 2024

Follow

Contact

Does the Philly United Way have a Ferguson problem?

Philadelphia. October 5, 2017 Category: FeaturedMediumPeople

Disclosures

This is a guest post by Diversified Community Services' Otis Bullock.
Lately, I have been concerned with the direction of our regional United Way’s leadership.

The United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey does not have a single person of color on its executive leadership team. Not one. People of color represent less than a quarter of UWGPSNJ’s massive regional board of directors. With its mission to end generational poverty, you’d think the United Way would do better and I know it can.

Consider these numbers from the My Brother’s Keeper initiative:

  • While 36.1 percent of Philadelphia’s youth live in poverty, Black children make up 20.4 percent of that number with Hispanic children coming in second at 9.4 percent.
  • Approximately 2,900 children in Philadelphia are homeless, 78 percent of them Black.
  • More than 66 percent of Black children live in a single female-headed household while more than 58 percent of Hispanic children live in a single female-headed household.
  • Research shows that a child living in a single female-headed family is nearly five times more likely to be poor than a child living in a married family.
  • Seventy two percent of the 10- to 18-year-olds in the juvenile justice system are Black.

These are all issues that the United Way seeks to address when its asks us to donate generously.

Three years ago, Derwin Dubose wrote a piece for the Nonprofit Quarterly regarding the nonprofit sector’s general lack of representation and how “the glaring disparity in nonprofit leadership bears a striking similarity to Ferguson,” where Michael Brown was killed. In Ferguson, two-thirds of the city’s population were Black, while “whites served as mayor, five of six city councilors, six of seven school board members, and 50 of 52 police officers.”

If UWGPSNJ’s mission is to eradicate generational poverty, and its biggest beneficiary is a largely Black and Latino population, why is it that there are so few people of color represented in United Way’s leadership? This is what Dubose calls the “Ferguson Problem.” I just never expected one of Philadelphia’s biggest philanthropic leaders to suffer from it.

From our Partners

I’m also surprised as the UWGPSNJ states in its own core values that it “promotes a culture of inclusion and seeks talented staff from all backgrounds.” Yet recently, we watched UWGPSJ part ways with its only person of color in an executive leadership position, leaving the executive team 100 percent white. Despite its rhetoric about inclusion, UWGPSNJ is currently moving backward.

People of color have been effectively relegated to being recipients of charity instead of being empowered to improve their own circumstances. The corporate and private donor class should not find this acceptable.

But all hope isn’t lost. There are two very important ways to get our local United Way to turn it around. First, funders have to lead the way. Donors must demand nonprofit diversity even of the United Way. Secondly, UWGPSNJ must aggressively go beyond the rhetoric of inclusion and aggressively recruit people of color as candidates for its executive staff and membership to its board.

UWGPSNJ is currently looking for a new CEO. Maybe it can start there.

Trending News

A City of Neighborhoods and the Challenge of Affordable Housing ImpactPHL Perspectives
From Bars to Belonging: Overcoming the Housing Crisis Facing Returning Citizens Ryan Moser
Monday Minute with Jean Pierre Brice Monique Curry-Mims
Monday Minute with Tara Felicia Jones Monique Curry-Mims
Skin In The Game Andre Simms

Related Posts

January 12, 2024

Delco Businesses Hit Snag in Quest for Equitable County Contracts

Read More >
October 18, 2023

Educators, students, and parents turn out to improve lives

Read More >
September 20, 2023

What Black professionals and professionals of color hope for from Philadelphia

Read More >