Kellogg Foundation Commits $75-Million to Battle Racism

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced last week that it will give $75-million over five years to fight racism, a commitment it is calling the most ambitious ever by a philanthropy to promote racial equity.

The money will support efforts to reduce gaps in economic opportunity, education, and health care for members of minority groups and to raise awareness about the effects of racism.

Approximately 119 nonprofit organizations in 29 states and the District of Columbia have already been awarded money through the grant program, called “America Healing.” The foundation will continue to accept proposals and will announce the next round of grants this fall.

Grants will support a range of activities that include storytelling and documentation of local racial histories, outreach to the news media, and efforts to influence practices and policy in areas such as education and health-care availability.

For example, the Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League is receiving a two-year, $150,000 grant to develop a school curriculum about race riots and teach children about conflict resolution. The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, in Dearborn, Mich., is getting $100,000 over four years to improve relations between Arabs and other Americans, and the People’s Grocery, in West Oakland, Calif., is getting $10,000 to organize people to demand better access to healthy food.

Large charities such as the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza are also receiving support.

Fighting ‘Complacency’

Officials from the Battle Creek, Mich., foundation said the new program on racial equity was a natural outgrowth of the fund’s focus on vulnerable children, a disproportionate number of whom belong to minority groups.

In 2007, trustees decided they would commit to turning the fund into “the most effective antiracist organization we can become,” said Fred Keller, a Kellogg trustee, at an event announcing the grant program.

Gail Christopher, the Kellogg fund’s vice president for programs, said improved race relations and the election of the country’s first black president haven’t wiped away the challenges facing blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities, who she says have less access to health care and education than whites.

“Unfortunately, we’re lulling ourselves into a complacency that says we might be in a post-racial era, and we’re not by any stretch,” she said.

The fund will work with consultants to evaluate the program’s effectiveness and will share lessons from its grant making, an effort Ms. Christopher called “relatively uncharted water.”