Black Dallas businesswomen keep philanthropy on the forefront

A group of Black women in corporate Dallas has directed giving to Black communities since 2018, but now, they say, their work is especially vital. 

That’s because funding for nonprofits is increasingly scarce and government directives have chilled giving focused on Black communities, putting extra stress on small nonprofits that help them with everything from workforce training to childcare. 

“Where we are today in this country, where things are starting to roll back and funding is at an all-time low, you have organizations like ours helping those who are losing funds and who are being overlooked for one reason or the other,” said Kenya Rodgers, co-chair of The Village Giving Circle. “It makes it more important than ever that we thrive and continue to grow.”  

The women of The Village Giving Circle have directed over $2 million to more than 30 nonprofits since they started nine years ago. The Village has about 40 members.

The goal has always been to bring more Black women into the philanthropic space to help North Texas nonprofits that serve Black populations, but it’s not just the money that grantees value — it’s seeing successful women present major donations in a way that encapsulates the culture of giving they grew up around. 

“For these women to come together and say, in my words, ‘We are going to do some parenting and mothering in a very corporate kind of way, but we put some shine on it that represents and reflects who we are,’ is very, very meaningful to me,” said the Rev. Lael Melville of the Melville Family Foundation, which has received several grants from The Village. 

Black-led nonprofits were less likely to receive foundation grants and general operating support than other nonprofits between 2016 and 2023, according to recent research from Candid, a nonprofit data provider, and ABFE, a Black philanthropy group. Large Black nonprofits temporarily got more funding between 2020 and 2022, but that has since declined. 

There are more than 2,500 active giving circles globally, according to Philanthropy Together. Members of giving circles typically recommend grantees and contribute money to nonprofits that align with a shared mission.  Other giving circles in Dallas include Orchid Giving Circle, a group of Asian women, and the Hispanic100 Giving Circle of women. Orchid and The Village are housed in The Communities Foundation of Texas. 

Shonn Brown and co-chair Lisa Montgomery saw a need for a philanthropy group focused on helping Black communities when they served on the board of The Texas Women’s Foundation. After a brainstorm session at a La Madeleine restaurant in 2017, seven other women joined them at Brown’s dining room table to help start The Village. 

When they launched in 2017, they broke the website with $60,000 of donations in two hours. 

“There were many times that I sat around those board rooms and I was the only person who looked like me,” said Brown. “I knew that I was not unique in terms of my want to give back, and in folks who looked like me who wanted to do that, so I wanted to find them.” 

Brown is the general counsel and chief compliance officer for building materials company Heidelberg Materials North America, was named in the Top 500 Business Leaders in Dallas by D CEO Magazine and spent more than 20 years as a trial lawyer. Montgomery started her career in finance, later owned a special events company and now owns several McDonald’s. 

When they distribute funds, they’re often in sleek dresses and slacks with a touch of pink. 

The women picked the name The Village because their communities felt like villages growing up with how much giving went on — they didn’t all come from much, but whether it was within families or churches or local gatherings, giving was always core. 

“We saw our grandmothers do it, we saw our aunts do it, we saw the neighbor down the street do it,” said Brown. “They all had a hand in collective philanthropy, but we didn’t call it that.” 

The Village’s main focus areas are food insecurity, helping the elderly, the arts, education, homelessness and maternal health, said Rodgers, who is vice president of human resources at Fidelity Investments.  

To thrive in school, some students need support outside of the classroom but don’t come from families who can afford help. The Village grant recipient At Last! hosts a residential program that gives students tutoring, technology, leadership instruction, food, dental care and more. 

The nonprofit is one of seven recipients of this year’s $120,000 in grants from The Village. Shortly before At Last! opened its program in 2021, The Village was one of the first outside groups to give the program a grant. 

At Last! requires a lot of money for qualified academic coaches who help teach students “how to learn,” said CEO Randy Bowman.

“It only gets funded if somebody like The Village giving circle says, ‘That’s consistent with our values. We too want to deliver children out of poverty,’ ” Bowman said. 

Grants have been hard to get, said Bowman. Grantmakers have told him high demand and economic uncertainty make it challenging for them to cover the program’s costs. 

That has made The Village even more key for him. Over 95% of elementary school-aged residents of At Last! improved their grades within two semesters, Bowman said, and four students who finished 6th grade as a resident scholar have received college scholarship commitments. At Last! expects to break ground on a second house this fall. They currently have the capacity for 16 resident scholars, and the new house will have room for 82.

Money from The Village has supported The Melville Family Foundation’s goal of giving out 1 million meals. The women have helped the foundation give out food, when lines of cars snake around the street as grocery prices soar. 

“When it hits the majority, it causes devastation in the minority,” said Melville, the charity’s co-founder. 

The Melville Family Foundation also focuses on education and helping people find well-paying jobs. 

Times are challenging for nonprofits across the country amid economic uncertainty and a pullback in federal funding for grants and social services. Many Black-led nonprofits are small and receive less funding, which makes financial challenges more acute. 

On top of that, President Donald Trump’s move to cut federal funding for what is considered diversity, equity and inclusion left many nonprofits that support programs in Black communities with even fewer federal funding opportunities.  

In grant applications, The Village asks nonprofits how they’ll continue operations if they don’t receive the grant. 

“We used to see, ‘Well, we have this grant coming in, this grant coming in, this grant coming in,’ ” said Montgomery. “We’ve seen that dwindle, so sometimes we are the option.” 

Black nonprofit leaders have also said that grantmakers are more hesitant to explicitly talk about focusing on Black communities and Black-led organizations, according to Candid and ABFE. 

At a time when advocating for diversity is discouraged, Brown said, The Village encourages it. Grant recipients must serve populations that are at least 55% Black and even though CEO’s don’t have to be Black, the group considers board diversity. 

The Village funds a combination of smaller nonprofits in their early days and those that are more established. 

“One of the things that I realize is how important exposure is, because organizations that we weren’t familiar with are being highlighted,” said Montgomery. 

She noted that one nonprofit, Dallas-based Abide, which serves new and pregnant mothers, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants after The Village funded their first full-time midwife with a $50,000 grant in 2022. Abide works to combat racial disparities in maternal mortality and infant health. Maternal mortality has become a greater focus for The Village as more research shows maternal mortality rates are far higher for Black women than other racial groups. 

The Village also wanted to make sure they were meeting different levels of need. While they help groups focused on deep poverty, they also support organizations that help those in “the middle” climb the income ladder. 

For example, recipient I Am a Golfer Foundation teaches golf and leadership skills to young people in Southern Dallas and helps students get internships and college scholarships. 

Another helpful feature of The Village’s grants is that they can go toward general operating support, which Black-led nonprofits are less likely to receive than other nonprofits, according to Candid and ABFE. Many funders give grants for specific programs. 

Verna Jones, co-founder of Under 1 Roof, which helps house homeless people, said getting about $65,000 from The Village in overall support over the last several years has helped the nonprofit provide starter kits with blankets and supplies to families and individuals exiting homelessness. 

An image of the first check Jones received from The Village is on display for visitors entering the nonprofit’s building. It’s often a conversation starter — she wants everyone who walks in to know that the money came from a group of Black women. 

“To be able to say that we’re getting funding from The Village is really big, and it definitely lends credibility,” said Jones. “For them to still be in this fight all these years later — kudos to them.”