Funder Spotlight: How the Hill-Snowdon Foundation Supports Black Lives
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Black Lives Matter Rally in Washington D.C., August 2020. Jelani Photography/shutterstock
IP Funder Spotlights provide quick rundowns of the grantmakers that are on our radar, including a few key details on how they operate and what they’re up to right now. Today, we look at the Hill-Snowdon Foundation in Washington, D.C., and its strong and steady dedication to racial justice.
What this funder cares about
Though founded in the 1950s, Hill-Snowdon Foundation (HSF) partnered with the Tides Foundation and developed more formal policies and grantmaking procedures in the late 1990s. And in 2004, it became a fully staffed foundation. Among these transformations was a new focus in grantmaking “grounded in a philosophy of justice and fairness for some of the most vulnerable members of this society, low-income families—particularly low-income youth of color and low-wage workers.”
HSF has several grantmaking programs and initiatives that are all grounded in the practice of community organizing and social justice:
Its Economic Justice program area works to address income inequality by “promoting family-supporting and community-strengthening jobs.” HSF’s Youth Organizing program helps “low income youth of color build the power to influence critical policy decisions,” and encourages multi-generational organizing. The foundation also supports civic engagement through its Fund for D.C. program, which “provides general support grants to base-building, community organizing groups in the District of Columbia”
Why you should care
While many foundations issued new statements and strategies in support of racial justice in 2020, HSF has been a champion of this work for a long time, and is still leading the way.
More than 50% of HSF’s overall grant portfolio comprises Black-led organizing groups. This grantmaking is animated by the belief that the Black community needs to build the necessary institutional and political power to thrive in this country. Hill-Snowdon Foundation’s Executive Director Nat Chioke Williams helped take the lead in the foundation’s young Making Black Lives Matter Initiative. Initially a three-year grantmaking and strategic co-funding initiative, it is now a mainstay of the foundation, seeking to “maximize this historic moment to begin building long-term institutional and political power for Black social change and racial justice.” In 2020, HSF announced its commitment of $5.5 million over the next 5.5 years to support Black-led organizing and movement infrastructure.
And Williams himself has never been one to mince words about this moment. During a time when conservative politicians and commentators breathlessly attack critical race theory (or rather, their misrepresentation of what CRT is) as some existential threat to the country, Williams says: “The myth out there is that this is regular Joes fighting for regular Joes, but what we are up against is so well funded and so well organized.”
Where the money comes from
The late Arthur B. Hill established the Hill-Snowdon Foundation in 1959 in New Jersey with several thousand dollars in assets, primarily Johnson & Johnson stock. He served as a trustee until his death in 1983. Born to homesteaders in Oklahoma, Hill first took a job as a pharmaceutical sales rep with the company. On a fortuitous sales trip, he met a senior manager of J&J, which was fast becoming the nation’s largest medical products company. Hill moved his family to Chicago and rose to the position of vice president of sales. And when the company went public, Hill took stock options in lieu of pay during the war—a wise decision, indeed.
Today, the foundation is steered by next-generation family members, including President Elizabeth Snowdon Bonner, Hill’s great-granddaughter. The board is mostly family, but there are a few trustees from outside, as well. Until recently, all of the foundation’s funds came from investments in J&J stock. The board has since diversified its portfolio by shifting funds to socially responsible investment stocks. In 2017, assets stood at approximately $39 million. HSF gives out about $2 million annually.
Where the money goes
A typical grant ranges from $25,000 to $35,000. Some programs give priority to certain regions, including the South and the D.C. area, but giving is national. Across its programming, recent grantees have included Black Organizing Project Membership Center in Oakland, Los Angeles Black Worker Center, Jews United for Justice, and Assata’s Daughters in Chicago, which was founded in 2015 on the heels of the death of Eric Garner. To learn more about the types of organizations Hill-Snowdon supports, learn more about its 2020 grants.
Open door or barbed wire?
The foundation has an extensive website, including strategy documents, staffing and leadership, program information and, as we always like to see, full lists of grants. HSF does not accept unsolicited proposals, but it invites organizations whose values align with its own to make contact through its inquiry form. On the plus side, organizations that actually receive a grant from HSF will find a foundation dedicated to eliminating some of the barriers that philanthropy sometimes imposes. Hill-Snowdon Foundation aims to get the resources to organizations when they need it, with as few restrictions as possible, and over an extended period of time.
Latest big moves
In 2020, HSF launched Democracy’s Promise 20/21, which awarded $520,000 in grants over two years to 11 grassroots organizations working to strengthen the promise of American democracy. The initiative was launched in response to a crossroads in the American political landscape with the 2020 presidential election, the Census and the beginning of the redistricting process across the country.
One cool thing to know
The foundation engages in interesting strategic partnerships, and staffers spend about half of their time working with fellow funders. One such team-up is with Grantmakers for Southern Progress (GSP), an organization in Georgia that describes itself as a “growing, diverse and expanded base of partners that include national foundations, regional foundations, labor unions, individual donors and community foundations, coming together with regional leaders to share and discuss the opportunities, challenges and best strategies for supporting structural change and advancing progress in the South.” HSF also works with other D.C.-area philanthropies, including the Meyer Foundation and the Weissberg Foundation, in support of community organizing and racial equity in the region.
