The Equitable Giving Lab, intended to bring an equity lens to philanthropy by measuring funding for under-resourced groups, is being launched by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The venture received anchor funding of $3 million from google.org.
The plan is for the lab to provide information about charitable giving to nonprofits focused on the LGBTQ+, BIPOC, military veteran, and women’s and girls’ communities. It will be the first resource to measure charitable contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations to these organizations, including trends over time.
“The Equitable Giving Lab will serve as the gold standard for understanding the current funding landscape and where gaps exist. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the movement for racial justice, brought renewed attention to vast disparities among diverse populations. Measuring the scale of under-investment in specific communities is the next step needed to better align resources with society’s most urgent needs,” said Una Osili, Ph.D., associate dean for research and international programs and Dean’s Fellow for the Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy, both at the school.
The Equitable Giving Lab will be a source for publicly available data about charitable giving to organizations focused under-resourced communities. It is intended to help nonprofit leaders, journalists, researchers and the public understand giving patterns to these organizations. The Lab will also better equip donors and funders who want to prioritize equity and inclusion with data to inform effective strategies and to create greater impact.
The Women & Girls Index at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, part of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, will serve as the model for creating and updating similar indices for the LGBTQ+ community, racial and ethnic groups, and military veterans over the next few years, and will be incorporated into the Equitable Giving Lab. Officials hope that in addition to informing practice, data from the indices will help scholars of nonprofits and philanthropy apply an equity lens to their research.
“While there is growing awareness of the equity gaps in philanthropy, there is a significant lack of research on this topic,” said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., the Eugene R. Tempel Dean of the school. “Most philanthropy data is in aggregate form; the Equitable Giving Lab will bring a more nuanced lens to this information.”
