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African Immigrant Innovation in 21St Century Giving

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African Immigrant Innovation in 21St Century Giving African Immigrant Innovations in 21st Century Giving A US Diaspora Giving Project (U-DAP) Study Volume 3, January 2014 by Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome, Ph.D., U-DAPU- Principal Researcher and Jackie Copeland-Carson, Ph.D., U-DAP Director with Una Osili, Ph.D., U-DAP Senior Advisor, Indiana University Published by the African Women’s Development Fund USA with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation For more information, contact the study’s authors at [email protected]. Cover Credits: Cover design by Kula Addy. Photo of Ebusua Club of Northern California's Summer Ball Community Fundraiser on August 17, 2013 for American nonprofits serving Africa. Ebusua Club is a Ghanaian-American community service organization with chapters throughout the US. Cover photo by Jackie Copeland- Carson. For more Ebusua Ball 2013 photos, see Victor M. Samuel Photography here. TABLE OF CONTENTS (Click on any heading to advance to a particular section of the study.) Executive Summary ......................................................................... i Acknowledgments ........................................................................... vi Foreword ....................................................................................... viii 1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 1 Understanding Local Philanthropy in a Global World ...................... 2 Methodology.................................................................................... 4 A Cross-Cultural Analysis ............................................................... 5 Diagram 1: Cross-Cultural Model of African Diaspora .................... 5 Limitations of the Study ................................................................... 5 2. 21st Century Africa in America ......................................................... 8 Immigrant Legal Status ................................................................. 13 African Immigrant Social Issues .................................................... 15 3. African Immigrant Giving Contemporary Trends………………………………. ............................................... 17 Hyper-Extended Families .............................................................. 17 Patron-Client Networks ................................................................. 18 Voluntary Associations .................................................................. 19 Giving Circles ............................................................................... 23 Harambee/Cause-related Events .................................................. 24 In-Kind Volunteerism ..................................................................... 26 Religious Institutions ..................................................................... 30 Formal Philanthropic Institution ..................................................... 32 African Diaspora Institutional Philanthropy .................................... 34 Social Enterprise and Innovators .................................................. 40 Digital Giving ................................................................................. 45 Scale and Scope of African Immigrant Giving ............................... 46 Women in African Immigrant Giving .............................................. 53 Challenges to US African Immigrant Giving .................................. 55 4. Conclusion: Towards a New Vision of America’s African Giving………………………………. .................................................... 59 Bibliography .................................................................................. 66 Appendix ....................................................................................... 80 Executive Summary Study Context, Purpose and Framework African Immigrant Innovations in 21st Century American Giving is an in- depth analysis of the giving of today’s African immigrants, especially the majority of Africans who are from indigenous sub-Saharan ethnic groups identified as black in a United States (US) context. This is the third study in the US African Diaspora Giving Project (U-DAP) designed to advance understanding of the giving traditions of US African-descent ethnic groups. Our hope is to deepen knowledge of the diversity of America’s rich civic leadership and contributions. U-DAP originated from the advocacy of the Pan-African Women’s Philanthropy Network (PAWPNet), a national coalition of diverse African- descent women and their allies devoted to advancing all forms of giving in the African diaspora (Copeland-Carson 2012). With critical support from PAWPNet, and funding from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the African This study is the third Women’s Development Fund USA (AWDF USA), a public foundation segment in the multi-year, committed to supporting African US African Diaspora Giving women’s development, published a Project (U-DAP) to document monograph overviewing US African immigrant philanthropy’s cultural and advance the values, history and practices philanthropy of America’s (Copeland-Carson and Okome diverse African-descent 2013). groups, starting with the U-DAP has also included public billions of dollars in outreach to raise awareness of donations and volunteerism African diaspora giving throughout the US, including a public campaign by African immigrants. to promote Black Philanthropy Month (BPM). Recognized by the United Nations, BPM is an annual celebration of black giving created by PAWPNet in 2011. A successful BPM 2013 campaign co-led by The Giving Back Project, Black Gives Back, the Community Investment Network with AWDF USA brought U-DAP’s research to millions, increasing awareness of the diversity and global dimensions of black giving. This current study is the collaboration of the three scholars, Drs. Copeland-Carson, Okome and Osili, who have written most of the research in the emergent African diaspora philanthropy field over the past 15 years. i There is a well-established movement and field of black philanthropy in the US that primarily focuses on the giving traditions of the “historical” diaspora, that is, the voluntary sector traditions of black Americans who are the descendants of US African slaves from the 17th through 19th century. Despite the 3.7 million foreign-born African-descent people who make up the country’s black population today, less is known about the giving traditions of foreign-born blacks such as African, African-Caribbean, Afro-Latin, Afro-European and Afro-Asian groups that also comprise today’s black American community. Although there have been notable efforts to examine and promote giving of Latino and Asian diasporas, there is comparatively little effort to study the philanthropy of America’s African diaspora. The first two U-DAP studies established the broader context of African immigrant giving in the development of US black and American philanthropy more generally, as well as a related, emergent Pan-African movement (see Copeland-Carson and Okome 2013 and Copeland-Carson 2012). African Immigrant Giving in 21st Century America builds on our prior identification of ten key African immigrant giving social structures and delves more deeply into the amount and dynamics of this understudied but critical component of American giving. We use a cross-cultural model of giving recognizing that private finance for the public good has different values, forms and dynamics worldwide that also influence the giving practices of US immigrants. This study moves beyond standard notions of community and giving to include diaspora approaches that may not more explicitly be seen as “philanthropic” from a conventional or strictly mainstream Western point- of-view. We recognize that Africans—like everyone else in our increasingly global world--are creating novel practices including giving that mixes and matches traditions from the new and old worlds. Organization of the Study The study is organized into four core sections, including: 1. Introduction Beginning with a foreword by Dr. Una Osili, Director of Research at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the introduction situates our research in the context of the emerging field of African diaspora giving and describes the study’s goals, objectives, methodology and limitations in detail. 2. 21st Century Africa in America ii The US African immigrant community grew almost 200% the last 20 years and is now almost 30% of the African-American community. Understanding the basic demographics of this growing, largely black population is a prerequisite to understanding any aspect of its socioeconomic or cultural practice, including philanthropy. This section overviews the US migration patterns and social issues that define the African immigrant community as a context for understanding its giving patterns. 3. African Immigrant Giving: Contemporary Trends Analyzing the statistical data and the ten key African diaspora forms of giving, this section attempts to estimate the amount, motivations, challenges and opportunities of African immigrant giving. We use a mix of data including primary data from multilateral agencies, the research literature, popular press, social media and Giving Stories collected by us and others to piece together what we think is the most comprehensive picture of US African immigrant giving today based on the data available. 4. Towards a New Future for African Diaspora Giving As will become evident, the primary data about African immigrant giving is limited and it is an obvious constraint in this study. In the study’s
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