Black Philanthropy Initiative Announces $2 Million Campaign to Invest in Local Black Communities

The Black Philanthropy Initiative (BPI) has announced a 3-year, $2 million fundraising campaign to significantly increase support to Black communities in Forsyth County. Most of the funds raised will be directed toward BPI’s annual grantmaking programs, with the remaining to its endowment to ensure that grantmaking funding will be available for years to come.

BPI is the only local funding initiative that is 100% Black-led and explicitly focused on strengthening Black communities. The initiative is led by an advisory committee of volunteers who honor the strong and longstanding tradition of Black giving and are committed to transforming Black communities in Winston-Salem. BPI is uniquely positioned to address the most pressing issues that Black residents face because of deliberate and systematic underinvestment.    

BPI Advisory Committee Chair Tiffany Waddell Tate notes, “This historic campaign will help us accelerate Black-led social change in Winston-Salem, significantly increasing our investments in Black students, organizations, and families. We can’t wait to be able to expand our support for more community-led solutions and create lasting change for future generations.”

Through collective giving, grantmaking, and community engagement, BPI ensures local organizations have what they need to advance racial equity and respond to community needs, particularly those in our local Black communities.  

BPI offers three types of grants to community partners working to strengthen and empower local Black communities: Advancing Equity in Education Grants, Building an Inclusive Economy Grants, as well as Impact Grants to support organizations with smaller programming budgets.

For more information or to learn how to support the campaign, visit bpiws.org/campaign

About BPI

The Black Philanthropy Initiative (BPI) is a 100% Black-led initiative of The Winston-Salem Foundation launched in 2003 that explicitly, not exclusively, focuses its grantmaking and programming on needs identified in the local Black community. Since its founding in 2008, BPI has awarded almost $800,000 in grant funding to local organizations that are building a better future and transforming lives in local Black communities.