Coastal Community Foundation receives $1M from Facebook for grantmaking to Black communities and Black-led nonprofits

Earlier this year, we announced that Coastal Community Foundation would be taking bold action to address racial injustice and inequities across our region. In addition to ongoing work through our advocacy, investment, grantmaking and scholarship programs, we are pleased to announce a new partnership today with Facebook that significantly advances our goal to create more equitable communities.

CCF is one of 20 community foundations in the United States to receive $1 million from Facebook to manage grantmaking programs supporting Black communities and Black-led nonprofits. CCF will award funds over two years to nonprofit organizations and programs in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties supporting innovation, creativity, and resiliency in Black communities. Preference will be given to Black-led organizations.

CCF uses the Association of Black Foundation Executives’ definition of a Black-led organization: an organization with a primarily Black Board of Directors, executive leadership and/or staff, and that primarily serves Black people.

Funds from the Facebook grant will also support these four specific initiatives:

  • The Lowcountry Unity Fund of Coastal Community Foundation — a grantmaking program established after the Emanuel AME Church massacre that supports efforts in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties that advance racial equity or that address structural racism.
  • The N.E.W. (Neighborhoods Energized to Win) Fund of Coastal Community Foundation — a grantmaking program created in 1991 to support low-to-moderate income neighborhood groups in the Lowcountry that address key issues in the neighborhoods and strengthen residents’ leadership skills.
  • Institutional support for Black-led nonprofits — collaborate on a new targeted effort with regional institutions aimed at capacity-building and lending structural support to organizations and grassroots efforts led by people of color.
  • Black Giving Circle — seed funding to create an endowed fund at Coastal Community Foundation for Black-led giving.

“To be chosen as a leading, equity-centered organization in the United States trusted with managing this new program is a high honor for our organization,” said Darrin Goss, president and CEO of Coastal Community Foundation. “But more than anything, it should signal to Black-led organizations that have too often been overlooked that a new era has in fact begun. We should expect to see many more corporations following the lead of Facebook, to support the vibrant work already happening in our communities to make our world more just and more equitable.”

“We’re excited to work with Coastal Community Foundation to help bring much needed funding to nonprofits that are serving and supporting the Black community in the Charleston region,” said Marcy Scott Lynn, Director of Global Impact Partnerships at Facebook. “We’re providing funding directly to Coastal Community Foundation to build on their track record of supporting Black-led nonprofits and ensure that people locally are making the decisions about where these dollars are most needed and can have the most impact.”

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