Celebrating Black Philanthropy with Maryse Pearce

We’re joined by Maryse Pearce, activist, philanthropist, and Program Manager at the Stonewall Foundation. During her time in graduate school, Maryse held fellowships at Unbound Philanthropy, a foundation that supports immigrants and refugees in the US and UK. She also joined the Stonewall team in 2019 with nearly a decade of experience in LGBTQ+ advocacy and organizing.

NICOLE: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about the work you’re doing at the Stonewall Community Foundation?

MARYSE: My background prior to coming to Stonewall, a little over a year ago, was primarily in LGBTQ+ advocacy community organizing policies, and I was really excited about the opportunity to work at Stonewall and to support LGBTQ+ movements. As program manager, I manage our scholarships. There's one scholarship that we currently administer that is for lesbian college students, and we have a couple of other scholarships that we fund and provide support for. I manage our RFPs, I do a variety of other things to support our grantee partners. Last fall, we were contacted by a clothing company in the city that had clothing that they couldn't sell. It was either slightly damaged or it had been on mannequins or things like that. So for several months, we helped them get those donations to various shelters that support their youth.

Over the course of, maybe, four months, we turned over $50,000 in clothing donations to three different shelters in the city. So everything from that to helping orgs, introducing orgs to other funders or other foundations, to capacity building and leadership development programs for partners, that’s sort of what I do in a nutshell.

NICOLE: What does the word ‘philanthropy’ mean to you?

MARYSE: I think of the literal meaning of the word: love of people, love of mankind, but I think in actuality it blends with power, and I think that it is about the ways in which we, either individually or collectively, use and wield power for good or for the betterment of our communities and for issues that we care about. So I think that philanthropy is about wielding power and harnessing power for good.

I think that philanthropy is about wielding power and harnessing power for good

NICOLE: Black Philanthropy Month is an annual event that highlights the need for more philanthropic investments in black communities. So there was a recent report released by the Ms. Foundation that found that the total philanthropic giving to women and girls of color is just 0.5% of the total 66.9 billion given by foundations. How does this number match your experience in the philanthropic sector?

MARYSE: I think, unfortunately, that statistic isn't that surprising. What we hear from a lot of our grantee partners is that it's really hard to get a foot in the door with a lot of foundations. When I was in grad school, I actually wrote my master's capstone on the philanthropic support of arts organizations of color in New York City. So I did a lot of research on just what the landscape looks like, and the majority of foundations are not the easiest to access, right? They don't have a website. They don't list their grantees. They don't make it public or clear on how, if at all, to get funding, and so much of it is about who you know, and obviously, that is really tied to power, and so organizations that are by and for women of color, queer women, trans women, they’re at such a disadvantage.

I think that one way that we try to combat that in our work at Stonewall is by being really proactive about supporting organizations that are not just working with communities of color, but that are led by people of color. We really firmly believe that people who are affected by issues are the only ones with solutions and are actively prioritizing them, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We really firmly believe that people who are affected by issues are the only ones with solutions

NICOLE: Do you think initiatives like Black Philanthropy Month could potentially help alleviate this giving disparity?

MARYSE: I think that when we think of philanthropy, a common perception is that it's about the wealthy giving a handout to the poor.

There's this kind of assumed dynamic about who's giving and who's receiving, and the assumption is that they look very different. I think that what we have at Stonewall is that people with less money give more, give at a higher level as a percentage of their income and also that there are so many ways you can make a difference without being part of the 1%. Whether that's through a giving circle or other ways to pull resources collectively, or even just becoming a monthly donor of an organization that means a lot to you, at $5 or $10 a month. There are so many ways that you can actually make a difference in your community.

There are so many ways that you can make a difference without being part of the 1%

NICOLE: What would be your advice for Black folks, women, non-binary and genderqueer individuals who want to start their own organization or their own collective or project that relies heavily on donations and investors?

MARYSE: I think one piece of advice I would give is to not overlook funding, to not overlook your communities, right? I think there's this misconception that only wealthy white people are donors and benefactors. There's so many resources and riches within our community, whether that is people donating money or donating time or other skills. Those are things that I would not overlook or undercount, and then as for accessing bigger foundations, I mean, honestly, sometimes that is something that we here at Stonewall are also still figuring out.

I think that huge amounts of funding from major foundations, like a Ford Foundation or a Rockefeller Foundation, are kind of everyone's goal, but they're often smaller foundations, local foundations like Stonewall, that are focused on really a specific part of the community. There are foundations that focus on your other parts of the country and other cities, smaller foundations that are focused on arts organizations or whatever your niche is, there's often someone funding it. I would start there. I think it rarely hurts to reach out and send an inquiry for a phone call or let's go site visit. Those things don't always lead to funding opportunities, but they can and they have.

This interview has been edited for length or clarity.