Introduction

This guide is intended to help philanthropic institutions broaden their donor bases, services, and programs by reaching out to diverse communities. The guide shares and explains the experiences of several institutions that have done so, and focuses in particular on subsectors of communities, including the African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American communities. Examination of this topic is timely: As these groups collectively emerge as a larger presence in the cultural landscape of society, vibrant, forward-thinking communities have an opportunity to absorb, adapt, acknowledge, and embrace their emerging affluence and civic voices.

In the 1990s, several community foundations, private foundations, and regional associations of grantmakers began exploring and piloting new programs, services, and activities to create meaningful relationships with diverse communities. Some entered into this work because of local political and community pressures, and some took advantage of national funding initiatives. Many felt the need to hear from a more diverse range of community voices and to reflect a greater range of interests, needs, and assets in their community planning. Most wanted, and continue to want, to increase community resources by diversifying the sources of financial assets available to invest for the public good.

Engaging Diverse Communities is written primarily for those who work or volunteer in institutional philanthropy-private and family foundations, private and public foundations, corporate giving programs, community foundations, and the various service organizations that support the philanthropic field. It is a guide to the explorations the institutional philanthropic field has made to identify, attract, and invite participation by individuals from culturally defined communities. This is not a handbook with explicit instructions on how to succeed with your outreach efforts. Strategies and programs are still evolving; learnings are iterative.

While this guide offers an overview of the histories and traditions of philanthropic practices within diverse population groups, it concentrates on marketing, outreach, structural, and program strategies the field has tried, although not fully tested. It contains information based on the formal research and explorations of several publications and projects, including the Council on Foundations' Cultures of Caring: Philanthropy in Diverse American Communities project, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation's Emerging Funds in Communities of Color, the Ford Foundation's Changing Communities, Changing Needs Initiative, and the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers' New Ventures in Philanthropy initiative. Additional sources are listed in the Resources section of this guide. You will recognize many of these strategies as adaptations of basic fundraising principles and marketing practices. Success in this particular context is dependent on nurturing each new relationship over time. Your explorations and experiments will contribute to this body of knowledge as the field adapts to and serves more effectively our multicultural communities-the communities of our children and our future.

Engaging Diverse Communities begins with some general observations about our increasingly diverse nation and the practices of philanthropy within and across the African American, Asian American, Latino, and Native American communities. General principles for diversity and inclusiveness work are next, followed by descriptions of specific outreach and marketing activities and a discussion of philanthropic practices within each of these four groups. The book concludes with a list of resources, including organizations that have worked with these issues and tried many of the activities described here.

A NATION OF DIVERSITY

Census 2000 puts our nation's diversity into context. In 2000, the United States was comprised of the following populations:

Whites/non-Hispanics	69.1%
Hispanics	12.5%
African Americans	12.1%
Asian Americans	3.6%
Other (single or multiracial)	1.9%
Native Americans	.7%

Growth rates within certain segments of these populations and the impact they may have on specific communities and neighborhoods is particularly noteworthy. The Census Bureau has projected that by the year 2050 approximately one-half of our country's population will no longer be white and of European ancestry. This growth in non-white populations can be credited not only to larger families and higher birth rates among these populations, but also to immigration.

Latinos are the fastest growing population and are now virtually equal in size to African Americans for the first time in United States history. (Native Americans remain the fastest growing population solely based on birthrate.) It is difficult to get a complete picture of these various communities because of the multiracial categories the census introduced in the last decade. The census projects that by 2050, Latinos will comprise as much as 25 percent of the total United States population. And, though small in proportion, there is a growing multi-racial and multi-ethnic population, which suggests that multiple cultures increasingly influence values and political views. Clearly diversity is no longer paradigm of black and white.

Taken as a whole, these four racial-ethnic populations have distinguishing factors that should be considered when designing outreach programs. First and foremost, these populations are extraordinarily dynamic. While the percentages of non-English-speakers remains high among Latinos and Asian Americans, the number of bilingual and monolingual English speakers continues to grow within succeeding generations. Younger than the white non-Hispanic population, these diverse populations still experience high rates of poverty, but rates of those entering professions and starting new businesses are also high. The Census Bureau estimated that in 1999, the average annual household income of various racial/ethnic groups was:

Whites (non-Hispanics)	44,366
African Americans	$27,910
Asian Americans	$51,205
Hispanics	$30,735
Native Americans	$30,784

And those living below the poverty line consisted of:

Whites/Caucasian (non-Hispanic)	7.7%
African Americans	23.6%
Asian Americans	10.7%
Hispanics	22.8%
Native Americans	25.9%

As these statistics indicate, it is clear many people of color have still not attained the income levels of the majority population. Many still live in poverty. Nevertheless, there are several signs of emerging wealth and purchasing power. In the Asian American community, for instance, there is a "pooling" phenomenon at both ends of the income spectrum. Emerging affluence in African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American communities tends to derive from entrepreneurial activities. Rising household income is consistent with the growing number of individuals graduating from college and entering and flourishing in the legal, medical, and investment management professions. In one study of Asian Americans and Native Americans alone, the Census Bureau reported that between 1987 and 1992, the number of businesses owned by these groups increased 61 percent compared to 26 percent for all United States firms. Furthermore, their gross receipts increased 159 percent compared to 67 percent for all.

Geographic distribution of these diverse populations does not necessarily correspond with national averages. In 1990, more than half of all Native Americans lived in six states: Alaska, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Washington. The other three populations discussed here are much denser in urban areas, particularly such gateway cities as Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. The Minority Business Development Agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that by 2025, the "minority" population will exceed the white non-Hispanic population in California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Other populous states, such as Florida, New York, Illinois, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia will not be far behind.

DANGEROUS GENERALIZATIONS

Gross generalizations about groups with whom you are less familiar are dangerous, no matter how well intentioned. They can perpetuate stereotypes and unrealistic expectations, even if these are less offensive than those that have come before are. It is useful to realize that many individuals from the diverse communities discussed here would find it insulting that the philanthropic field would "lump" them together. Many individuals do not identify themselves with the monolithic racial and ethnic categories assigned to them.

Even so, this publication relies on some generalizations. First, all four racial-ethnic groups have been isolated from much of the larger mainstream civic discussion on philanthropy and, consequently, have created their own philanthropic structures and practices. Although these structures and practices differ from each other as much as they differ from those of the mainstream, there are some similarities across the various groups. This guide offers advice on where and how these structures and practices are similar and different from each other and from those of the mainstream. Second, it is important to have an overview of the philanthropic structures and practices of all four communities, especially when you are not sure where to start.

Background information can reduce fear of the unknown, of making a mistake, or appearing foolish, and this achievement in itself can begin to catalyze action. If you keep in mind that individuals are individuals, you can use the generalizations in this guide to get started.

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