Mapping Philanthropy - Where's the Analysis?

BMA Funders Map

The map at the right is from the Black Male Achievement web site and shows grant making focused on men and boys of color, and Black men and boys in specific.  It's a great resource and I hope more donors and recipients find ways to show this type of information.

I wrote about this in 2016  and have written other articles on this blog and the Tutor/Mentor blog, focused on philanthropy and funding of non-school tutor, mentor and learning organizations that serve youth in high poverty areas.

The screen shot that I posted above shows the level of information available on this site. In this case the number of grant makers and name and number of Illinois organizations who received grants in 2015.

Since I focus on organizations who provide long-term, muti-year support, reaching kids when they might be in elementary or middle school, then staying connected through high school, it's important that funding be repeated to these organizations on an on-going basis, focusing on building strong organizations, not on specific projects or outcomes.

I also focus on high poverty areas where this long-term support is most needed and I use map overlays to show where poverty is concentrated.

Thus, I'd like to find stories showing how people are studying the BMA data, to show if funding is reaching enough of the programs who are doing work in this sector, and continuing from year-to-year.  That might require that more people plot funding on sites with demographic overlays.  I don't think I see this on the Foundation Center maps.

For instance, in 2015, 78 grants totaling $2.9 million were made in Illinois, to nine (9) Chicago area organizations. 63 of these grants went to Chicago Jesuit Academy (49) and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School (14), totaling $2.165 million.  If you look at my list of Chicago tutor/mentor programs you'll find many in high poverty areas serving minority youth. 

This should prompt stories saying "We need more comprehensive funding data!" and/or "We need funding to reach more programs."   I don't know if those stories are being written.

Distressed Communities index

I've written some stories focusing on distressed communities, with maps showing where they are most concentrated. Large numbers of minority youth live in many of these areas, so the foundation giving maps should show a broader distribution of grants than what I see for 2015. 

This broader distribution needs to be happening every year if we want good programs to be continuously operating in more of the places where they are needed.

Who's writing about this?

If you are doing this type of analysis, using BMA Funders data, or some other philanthropy-tracking resource, please share links to your stories so people reading this article can expand their understanding by reading what you are also writing.