STRATEGIC OVERVIEW

National Black United Fund (NBUF) was founded in 1972 as a black philanthropic institution to enhance the quality of life and empowerment of the Black American community. The founding conceptual framework for NBUF’s mission was to provide a viable, systematic, and cost efficient mechanism for Black Americans to make charitable contributions to Black American organizations engaged in social change, development, and human services.

NBUF’s founding objectives were focused on the areas of health, education, children, criminal justice, economic development, discrimination, and other systemic needs that shaped the quality of life for Black Americans. NBUF’s logo tagline, especially for Black Americans, captures the essence of its mission: “The Helping Hand That Is Your Own.”

Historically, NBUF and its 22 affiliates have generated charitable revenue by participating in employee payroll deduction campaigns, including federal, state, and local government employees as well as corporate employees. The national office of NBUF provides administration, management, research, advocacy, and technical assistance for its local affiliates, and grants are distributed by the affiliates to local community-based organizations and institutions serving the Black American community. During the past 28 years, NBUF has provided a fund-raising model at local and national levels for ethnic and “non-traditional” charities. NBUF was the first Black American organization to be included in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), giving Black American federal employee contributors a choice in their annual payroll deductions campaign for their charitable gifts that was unprecedented at the time. It became a model for reform in other government and corporate employee campaigns, from which NBUF and its affiliates benefited.

The reform of these charitable marketplaces, and NBUF’s inclusion in them, authenticated the feasibility of NBUF as a model for Black American self-help. No less significant in this reform was the inclusion of hundreds of other “non-traditional” charities in CFC, and in other government and corporate employee payroll deduction campaigns.

Since NBUF’s birth, it has provided a national platform for a philosophical dialogue to define the challenges and goals for diversity, democracy, and ethnic self-help in the charitable and philanthropic sectors. Over the years, NBUF has furnished technical assistance and training in professional fund-raising standards and accountability systems. It has helped to create new precedents and models for democratic access and diversified fund-raising workplaces. It has provided consistent leadership in the national discussion of reform of charitable fund-raising, and private and corporate philanthropy. It has pioneered the field of modern black self-help and philanthropy.

At the ground level, the benefits of NBUF’s reform efforts have been concrete and significant. Since its inception, NBUF and its affiliates have provided millions of dollars in grants and technical assistance to over 3,000 community-based organizations and institutions.

The beginning of the 21st century now presents a renewed challenge for NBUF to implement these goals on a new and broader scale. This strategic mandate requires the expansion of NBUF’s mission and a restructuring of its operations, resources, and priorities. To be sure, it will be necessary for NBUF to move beyond exclusively charitable fund-raising and “pass-through” grant making, to creating a broader model for a viable Black American philanthropic institution. In sum, NBUF now seeks to expand its mission, increase its capacity to support the expanded mission, and reach new Black American and philanthropic audiences.