Rev. Charles Myricks grew up attending Arlington Church of God. He still remembers how every Sunday before service, his father would take his money and his checkbook out of a shoebox he kept in the kitchen and would sit down at the table and write out his tithe.
“I just remember that, because he’d always do it smiling,” said Myricks, who now serves as the senior pastor at the East Akron church. “I grew up in a house that honored and was joyfully a part of supporting the life of the church in every way, including physically.”
There’s a long tradition of giving and mutual aid in the Black church. In his 1889 book “The Philadelphia Negro,” W.E.B. DuBois said the Black church deserved special study, writing, “Without wholly conscious effort the Negro church has become a centre of social intercourse to a degree unknown in white churches even in this country.”
As Myricks explained, the church was an opportunity for Black people to invest in an institution at a time when they had few opportunities to do so. In turn, the church invested in them.
“We could see the life of the church [as] a blessing in our individual life. We could see the strength of the church blessing our families,” he said. “I think our giving was in gratitude, but it was also with the realization that we were building up something that would bless our families as well, and us as well.”
Strong history of giving in the Black community
For many Black Americans, that culture of giving that started in the church has spread to other aspects of their lives. According to a 2012 report from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, nearly two-thirds of Black households give to charitable causes, and they give 25% more of their income per year than whites. This is despite Black families having considerably less wealth than white families.
Giving back was a large part of Lauren Marsh’s upbringing as well, and, like Myricks, it began in the church.
“Not only were we making sure that we were able to continue to operate the church effectively with our funds, but we were also empowering our community. We were feeding them through the food pantries. We were giving back school supplies and things of that sort,” said Marsh, who serves as the president of Akron Urban League Young Professionals. “Watching my parents be active with their volunteerism but also with pushing their finances in order to give back made me feel like I needed to be connected to the same thing.”
Recent efforts launched in response to 2020 protests
The Akron Community Foundation hopes to amplify that commitment to giving with the Black Giving Collective Fund. Launched in August 2023, on the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech, the endowment fund was created to benefit causes important to Akron’s Black community.
The idea for the Black Giving Collective came on the heels of 2020’s racial justice protests, when organizations large and small began firming up their commitment to diversity and inclusion, the Akron Community Foundation among them.
Tracy Carter chairs the fund’s advisory board and also sits on the Akron Community Foundation’s board.
“They were very intentional about having some uncomfortable conversations about what’s happening in the nation and even locally, and how is it that we can better leverage this community asset, the community foundation, to be more inclusive and welcoming to the African- American community,” said Carter, who joined the board that year.
She said this led the board to evaluate every aspect of the foundation to make sure they were being inclusive and were serving the Black community to the best of their abilities–from governance and hiring practices to vendor relationships and funding.
“Through all of that conversation, we said we think we’re right for advancing an initiative to be more intentional about inviting and welcoming African Americans to be part of our foundation through our grant making and also our fundraising capabilities,” Carter said.
Black Giving Collective Fund sets fundraising goals for 2024
Currently, Carter is focused on selecting the inaugural board for the Black Giving Collective Fund and hitting the fund’s $50,000 goal by March 31, which the Akron Community Foundation promised to match. Once the board is set, Carter said they will establish their funding priorities.
“To be effective, we need to focus on a few things and do them exceedingly well, and so that’s the discussion and debate among that initial board about what it is we will invest in,” she said.
Before the Black Giving Collective Fund was launched, the initial advisory board met with close to 150 Black people around Akron from various walks of life who represented different interests. It asked them how they define philanthropy and what causes they are passionate about. That collaborative approach is something Carter plans to continue as the fund grows.
She met early on with the Akron Urban League Young Professionals, who shared a different approach to giving than older generations, one grounded in activism and social change.
“I’m excited by that because to do activism well, you need philanthropy,” Carter said. “So to me, they’re not separate. You need money to make activism and money to move mountains, make change in people’s lives.”
Marsh, of Akron Urban League Young Professionals, wants to redefine philanthropy and remind people of her generation and younger that giving back doesn’t always mean giving big. It also means volunteering, networking and giving what you can.
“It doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars. It doesn’t honestly have to be hundreds of dollars. Sometimes it’s just the amount of money that you’re able to spare to still empower while still continuing to go on with life,” she said.
“By putting our money, our time, our talents, our treasures in certain spaces, I believe that we’re able to assist our neighbors,” she said “We’re able to assist our community and just change all the systemic problems and issues that we’re having.”
[Editor’s note: The Akron Community Foundation is a local funder of Signal Akron. See all of our supporters here.]
