Gift Details

The Asheville Black Women’s Fund is rooted in a vision where Black women are free to thrive and are resourced to follow their calling. Our gift-making initiative gifts funds directly to the recipients.

What is the process and the gifted amount?

Launched in 2023, thirty-four Black women living and working in Asheville will receive gifts of $36,000 for 3 consecutive years ($108,000 total per person). The Fund is sharing this capital without strings or restrictions. Recipients will use the money as they desire and prioritize.

Who is eligible?

Black women living and/or working within the City of Asheville. There is no project or community effort required to receive these funds. The gifts are not based on past accomplishments or sweat equity.

Why is the Fund’s focus on Black women?

These meaningfully-sized gifts to resource Black women are guided by the knowledge that centering Black women can be a contribution to solving centuries of systemic exclusion, extraction and exploitation.

The gifts are open to all Black women in Asheville regardless of income. Black women are dually impacted by systems of economic racism and gender discrimination. Though they are often economically denied pathways towards wealth, Black women continue to provide for their families and communities.

Why a gift-giving rather than a grant-making approach?

This offering began with a discernment process, exploring questions like…

• What is needed to support Black women’s wellbeing now?
• What barriers to accessing capital do Black women encounter?
• What models in philanthropy exist for redistributing wealth to individuals?
• How do individual grantmaking programs rely on charity-rooted mindsets and reproduce white saviorism?
• How do competitive grant-making programs harm communities?
• And how is white supremacy embedded in the systems we have to share abundance?

Traditional philanthropic strategies focus on funding nonprofit organizations. This tends to prioritize overall endowment spending over the economic wellbeing of those in communities, specifically historically marginalized communities.

How are you incorporating trust and solidarity into the process?

The Fund has chosen to move away from traditional charity as a form of solidarity. While grantmaking is designed to achieve outcomes defined by funders, we believe Black women know how best to use these resources. Resourcing Black women has far-reaching effects. Anything is possible, but this depends on having a solid financial foundation and the opportunity to heal from the persistent devaluation of Black women’s lives.

Are the names of the recipients public?

No. ABWF is choosing to honor recipients’ privacy. A benefit to using the gift tax exemption as a strategy for philanthropy is to center the recipient (rather than the donor) in decision making. Recipients of gifts do not need to be publicly shared through this model, protecting their privacy.

How are giftees selected? Is there an application process?

Giftees are selected by a Wisdom Circle, composed of six Black women who live and/or work in Asheville. There is not an application process for this Gift.

The Wisdom Circle is intended to disrupt the hoarding of decision-making power that often comes with wealth. Instead, decision-making power is being shared with Black women.

Are there any requirements placed on the Giftees when accepting this gift?

No

What if a giftee moves?

Anyone selected as an ABWF giftee will receive the funds even if they leave the Asheville area during the gifting period.

What support does the giftee receive?

All Giftees have access to support from ABWF’s Support Doula, who provides wellness support to Giftees.

How long will these funds be available? 

The giftee selection process will be completed by Spring 2025.