Giving

Wenda Weekes Moore, who has served on numerous national boards and foundations, including the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Association of Black Foundation Executives, and chair of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, sees many African Americans donating money to community organizations where they also volunteer.

Giving back is a notion instilled in Moore by her father, who earned scholarships to attend medical school at Howard University. As soon as he established himself as a physician, he started a scholarship fund at Howard to help others. “My husband [attorney Cornell Moore] and I have tried to model for our children the incredibly important principal of sharing: sharing time, because that is so valuable, and sharing resources,” she says. “We are very concerned and committed to education, because we know that’s the key. It’s not about giving fish, it’s about teaching people to fish.”

Giving of Time, Sharing of Resources

It’s hard to talk about philanthropy in Minnesota without mentioning the generosity of Native Americans. Consider the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community, which has donated more than $75 million since opening Mystic Lake Casino in 1992. Last year, it gave $18 million to help Native people in Minnesota and beyond, while also making an array of donations for economic development, the environment, health, education, and Native culture.

Individual Native Americans also give generously to their community and beyond. Recently, the Fund of the Sacred Circle at the Headwaters Foundation for Justice in Minneapolis launched a campaign to raise money for community-building efforts. The drive raised more than $2 million. Joy Persall, executive director of Native Americans in Philanthropy, was proud to discover that although the majority of the funds came from outside the Native community, the majority of donors were Native Americans. For her, it’s a vivid example of the strength of philanthropy in her community.

“We give because it feels good and because it’s the right thing to do, because we care for each other. It’s about caring for family and community, and caring for the earth and for the world. It’s about sharing our resources,” Persall says. “It gives us life and it’s just the base of our culture. It’s our life’s way.”

For many Native American people, sharing resources with others is a constant in good times and bad. “It’s part of our culture that we give back,” adds Persall, who has childhood memories of her family sharing their surplus garden produce.

Gomez explains that giving in the Latino community stems from people’s deep commitments to their faith and family, which generally means one’s extended family. Consequently, Latinos willingly give their time and money to organizations that help others learn English, develop new skills, and advance their quality of life.

“We so often see the importance of helping our families realize the American Dream,” Gomez says. “If we are serving a person as part of a family, we seek to add value to the entire family. By seeing the world more holistically, we help advance the achievement of the goals for our community.”

So often, this type of giving occurs quietly—and unacknowledged—as communities of color help each other and work to benefit our society at large.