Non-Profits, Grant Money, and White Saviors: Poverty Pimping in North Omaha,
Part 2
by Schmeeka Simpson
To continue the discussion of: Non-profits, Grant money and White Saviors: Poverty Pimping in North Omaha, printed in the Nebraskans for Peace column titled: “Because the System isn’t Broken”; I will further explore the “hardly discussed, colonialist, racist, predatorial, capitalistic origins and continuing practices of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC), largely ran by the white noblesse, and the harms that have been perpetuated by their existence around the globe and how that has trickled down to North Omaha.”
Let’s get into it.
Non-profits in the U.S. founded in Colonialism
- “Although charitable, educational, and religious organizations are thousands of years old and some in the United States were founded in colonial times, the concept of “nonprofit organizations” as a unified and coherent “sector” dates back only to the 1970s. They vary enormously in scope and scale, ranging from informal grassroots organizations with no assets and no employees to multi-billion-dollar foundations, universities, religious bodies, and healthcare complexes with thousands of employees or members.”
- “Prior to the Civil War, individuals, not organizations, did most charity work. However, in the face of accelerating industrialization and accompanying social ills, such as increased poverty and community breakdown to facilitate the flow of labor and violence, local organizations (generally headed by the community elite), developed to assist those seen to be “deserving” of assistance, such as widows and children. These charities focused on individual poverty rather than poverty on a systemic level.”
In the pre-Civil War era, charitable entities were primarily comprised of private individuals and organizations run by the elite (or noblesse) of the community. The pre-Civil War era is to be foundationally understood as the era of the legal enslavement of African peoples and their descendants for perpetuity. This era denoted the widespread centurial government-sanctioned discrimination and genocide of indigenous and cultural ethnic peoples throughout the United States. It took place between the 17th century until, well... now, depending on your perspective, especially considering slavery was only officially outlawed in all 50 states on February 7, 2013, and many Native tribes still suffer disenfranchisement as revenge for defending themselves against colonization.
Since slavery, genocide, and discrimination were legally enforced, fiercely protected, and enthusiastically celebrated as a societal, religious, and economic necessity throughout the U.S., it’s highly unlikely that oppressed/enslaved people considered no better than animals were allowed access to these resources. How many enslaved people do you think were running legal charitable organizations in the pre-Civil War 1600s? How many indigenous peoples do you think were considered “community elites” and allowed to oversee local community organizations? Very much like the origins of welfare, food stamps, Section 8, FHA loans, the Homestead Act, and other funding for the poor/working class in the United States, these resources were officially only available to certain whites, for a very long time. Even the church of the Quakers, a notable ally to the abolitionist movement, was a future 501c3 in the making, with no leadership even until today that reflects the racial makeup of the population it claimed to serve.
The stereotype is of the downtrodden Black population that is good enough to be the help and beg the white saviors for help but never good enough or equal enough to be in key decision-making roles in these allied organizations, especially concerning our own communities. It was not until the 1900s, with the establishment of the NAACP in 1909 and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASALH) in 1915, that you start to get a hint of government-legitimized non-profit corporations being led by Black people.
Post-Civil War, Racist, and Discriminatory Philanthropies
In 1874, the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (later renamed the National Conference on Social Welfare) was established by members of private charities, organizations, religious agencies, and public officials to discuss “mutual concerns.” None of these organizations were established by Black or Indigenous people, and no Black, Indigenous, or marginalized groups were invited to the table to discuss the mutual concerns seriously.
- “Many consider the Peabody Education Fund, established in 1867, the first nonprofit organization in America. Its main goal was to help integrate poor white and formerly enslaved people in the South and assist in the rebuilding of the educational system after the devastation of the Civil War.”
Does anything sound familiar? Since the inception of the Nonprofit model, funds raised and designated for the community that needs them the most have been intentionally mismanaged.
This begs the question, Was the money ever going to go to the formerly enslaved? Or were the formerly enslaved just used as a cover to get the money?
How often can we ask these questions even today?
Is the real goal of the non-profit the enrichment of the community, or is it a vehicle to raise money for private gains and agendas? Maybe the reason why non-profits are not working themselves out of a job is that the downtrodden community is what keeps them employed, rich, and in power.
After the Civil War, charitable organizations officially became vehicles of capitalism to protect the wealthy’s riches and extract from the poor.
- Broadly speaking, a foundation is a nonprofit corporation or a charitable trust that makes grants to organizations, institutions, or individuals for charitable purposes such as science, education, culture, and religion.
By 1955, these ludicrously financially successful coalitions of non-profits, started by predatorial capitalists, had amassed 7.7 billion dollars from individuals, foundations, and corporations. By 1978, NPO funding had increased to $39 billion in 1998. In the last year of the available data reported from the American Association of Fundraising Counsel Trust for Philanthropy, non-profits had amassed a whopping $175 billion dollars through charitable giving of the poor masses, from individuals to foundations and non-profit entities to consumer-funded corporations.
Today, according to the last IRS count, foundations have accrued resources of around $500 billion and only give around $33.6 billion annually. There are 837,027 non-profits, excluding religious organizations, {Side Note: the culpability and complacency of religious organizations in slavery, sexism, racism, child sacrifice/abuse, predatorial behavior, capitalism and colonialism; on a global scale, under the guise of a non-profit organization or charitable entity, is another topic for another day.), but my point is… imagine thinking these organizations as a whole care about the poor, as they get insanely rich.
- “In the early 1960s, Foundations grew at 1,200 per year, and financial magazines routinely promoted foundations as tax-shelter tools.”
Since their beginning, the foundations that fund the non-profit industrial complex mainly do so to protect their assets and further their interests. This is the very definition and example of “poverty pimpin,” replicated through the business model of almost every corporate entity, whether non-profit or for-profit. These organizations also do everything in their power to avoid taxes. These taxes fund government assistance programs, roads and infrastructure, public schools, etc. If the rich refuse or find a way not to pay their taxes, the tax burden is left to the poor in the name of charity.
It’s expensive to be poor because the poor fund their own exploitation through charitable giving to corrupt agencies and so, therefore, literally fund the work that perpetuates poverty.
Non-profits used to stifle the Revolution movement
- “From their inception, foundations focused on research and dissemination of information designed ostensibly to ameliorate social issues- in a manner that did not challenge capitalism.”
- In the early 1900s, the Rockefeller Foundation “identified research and information to quiet social and political unrest as foundation priority.”
The explosion of NPOs in the 1970s was a direct response by the colonial OGs (Original Gangsters) to successfully tame the revolutionary movements of grassroots organizations, civil/human rights and Vietnam activism, and the collective movement of the people to directly overthrow the United States government.
Please consider this timely quote made by the Rockefeller Foundation in the late 1800s/early 1900s, in the light of the current Mexican immigration situation of 2024 being perpetuated as the 21st century downfall of the United States.
“The danger is not the combination of capital, it is not the Mexican Situation, it is the labor monopoly, and the danger of the labor monopoly lies in its use of armed force, its organized and deliberate war on society.” — Fredrick Gates, Rockefeller Foundation
On a national level, also consider the fact that both Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King were both assassinated once they started to immerse themselves in the grassroots movements that dissented against war, capitalism, modern slave labor, and corrupt government agendas, which transcended race.
Making America Great Again in the eyes of the elite and wealthy, who fund government agendas and direct the U.S. social consciousness through non-profits, foundations, grant money, and a system that only supports a white savior model, also support agendas that disenfranchise and limit the freedoms of everybody else (Google Project 2025). The problems of the United States were not and never have been about a Mexican invasion, immigration, communism, welfare, etc. The pushback has always been against the empowerment of the people against the corrupt capitalistic government that feeds off the poor like leeches to sustain and feed the rich. All else are excuses designed to stifle movement and thwart real systemic change, with the nonprofit industrial complex at the core of squashing citizen dissension.
- “For instance, foundations, particularly Ford, became involved in the civil rights movement, often steering it into more conservative directions.”
- “Early in 1967, the Ford Foundation made grants of several hundred thousand dollars to the NAACP and the Urban League. A few months later, the [Ford] Foundation gave one million to the NAACP and the Urban League to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s new National Office for the Rights of Indigents.”
- “Robert L. Allen, as early as 1969, warned of the co-optation of the Black Power movement by Foundations. Allen documents how the Ford Foundation’s support of certain Black Civil Rights and Black Power organizations, such as CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) helped shift the movement’s emphasis- through the recruitment of key movement leaders- from Black Liberation to Black Capitalism.”
Why would a charitable, non-profit organization dedicated to uplifting marginalized communities through its philanthropy and supportive resources steer anybody fighting for their rights in any direction but through the leadership of the people they claim to support? How is this not colonization repeated through the benign neglect of the people’s needs while reaping their resources? Who is truly benefitting from these resources, then? The people or the organizations?
On a global scale the Non-profit Industrial Complex has committed atrocities such as funding forced sterilizations for agendas supporting population control, colluding with secret government agencies, providing research to empower think tanks that control entire countries and their resources, and using poverty as an excuse to promote propaganda, encourage community dissension and to disenfranchise and incarcerate throughout the world.
“The NPIC functions as an alibi that allows the government to make war, expand punishment, and proliferate market economies under the veil of a partnership between the public and private sectors.”
The trickle-down effect of a global predatorial system is a local predatorial system. Omaha is not exempt from the damaging impacts the wealthy have made in the name of charity and change. For example, Laws were created in our state legislature that effectively criminalized community daycare providers, which removed children from the care of their community and pushed them into new Head Start programs funded by the wealthy. The professionalization of non-profit leadership on a national scale has damaged grassroots organizations in our city, set up these organizations for failure and, in some cases criminal liability. Funding has been denied to a leader of a grassroots organization trying to help empower returning citizens because of her own previous incarceration. Large amounts of funding have repeatedly been given to organizations that talk a good game but show little to no results.
What are possible solutions to this grave problem? How do we stop the NPIC from taking advantage of the communities it claims to serve? Do we stop giving? The answer could be simple, but requires donors to do their due diligence. Start researching what agendas the non-profits and for-profit entities we support subscribe to locally and nationally, including universities and religious organizations. Start exploring our own motives for giving; is it a tax write-off that motivates us to give, or do we want to see change? Start partnering with individuals and organizations doing the grassroots work in their communities and are directly connected to the people we say we care about.
Start realizing that the system isn’t broken but working exactly how it was originally designed. Once we get into the mindset that a system that isn’t broken can’t be fixed, we can start to generally have conversations that center on dismantling oppression in all of its facets and start transforming our society.
REFERENCES:
Simpson, Schmeeka. Nebraskans for Peace Report: Because the System Isn’t Broken. https://www.nebraskansforpeace.org/jan-feb-mar-2024-non-profits-grant-money-and-white-saviors.html
Hall, Peter Dobkin. “Historical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizations in the United States.” The Jossey&Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2016, pp. 3–42. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119176558.ch1
INCITE! The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Duke University Press, 2017
MADEO. “Mar. 16, 1995.” Eji.org, https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/mar/16. Accessed 27 May 2024.
Carten, Alma. “How Racism Has Shaped Welfare Policy in America since 1935.” The Conversation, Aug. 2016, http://theconversation.com/how-racism-has-shaped-welfare-policy-in-america-since-1935-63574
“Our Mission.” Blackquakerproject, https://www.theblackquakerproject.org/about. Accessed 28 May 2024
“About.” NAACP, 15 Feb. 2023, https://naacp.org/about
ASALH – the Founders of Black History Month – Association for the Study of African American Life and History (Est. 1915).” Asalh.org, https://asalh.org/. Accessed 28 May 2024
February. “22 Black-Led Nonprofit Organizations Making History.” Bonterratech.com, https://www.bonterratech.com/blog/black-led-nonprofit-organizations. Accessed 28 May 2024
BL. “There Is a Long and Proud History of Nonprofit Organizations.” EAC Network, 16 Aug. 2022, https://eac-network.org/there-is-a-long-and-proud-history-of-nonprofits-organizations/
West, Earle H. “The Peabody Education Fund and Negro Education, 1867-1880.” History of Education Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 2, 1966, pp. 3–21. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/367416. Accessed 27 May 2024
“What Is a Foundation?” Candid Learning, 20 Mar. 2018, https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/what-is-a-foundation/
INCITE! The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. Duke University Press, 2017
Project2025.org, https://www.project2025.org/. Accessed 28 May 2024
Mullen, Matt. “Shays’ Rebellion.” HISTORY, 12 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/early-us/shays-rebellion