In the summer of 2020, Crystal Cubbage wrote more grants than she ever did in any other given cycle. That year, the pandemic and George Floyd’s death consumed the public’s consciousness, unleashing a racial reckoning like no other. Like other private sectors, the philanthropy world pledged billions of dollars toward racial equity.
“I was skeptical,” said Cubbage, the founding executive director of the Philadelphia Learning Collaborative. “I was right. I didn’t get a single grant advertised for a Black-led organization.”