Lina Hope
The names Tatyana Aliyah Brooks and Khadijah Muhammad have become haunting symbols of a pervasive, systemic failure. For many, they are headlines that briefly flickered across news feeds before fading into the background of a national consciousness desensitized to tragedy. However, for the Black women, girls, and femmes who comprise their community, these are not isolated incidents of interpersonal violence. They are the frontline evidence of a sustained, structural crisis: an epidemic of anti-Black gendered violence that is actively fueled by institutional neglect, state abandonment, and a precarious philanthropic landscape.
The Anatomy of an Invisible Crisis
The violence facing Black women and femmes is multifaceted, spanning domestic abuse, stalking, forced disappearances, and systemic criminalization. While the public often focuses on individual perpetrators, advocates argue that the true architect of this violence is a society that normalizes the erasure of Black female bodies.
When a Black woman is killed or goes missing, the response from the state is frequently characterized by apathy. Families are left to conduct their own investigations, navigate a legal system that often views them with suspicion, and manage trauma without institutional support. The burden of care—the "labor of responding"—inevitably falls back onto the shoulders of Black women themselves.
These organizers, healers, advocates, and survivors function as a shadow social safety net. They build communities of care, support survivors of domestic violence, and act as doulas and protectors. Yet, as they perform this vital work, they do so with dwindling resources, often operating in a landscape where organizations with billions in assets hesitate to provide long-term, unrestricted funding.
The Philanthropic Void: A Chronology of Withdrawal
The crisis of resources reached a critical inflection point in 2020, following the strategic pivots of major philanthropic institutions. For years, the NoVo Foundation stood as a singular pillar in the gender justice movement. Its commitment was not merely monetary; it was structural.
The NoVo Foundation’s Dominance and Departure
In 2013, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) recognized the NoVo Foundation with an Impact Award, citing its unique understanding that "solving the most intractable problems in the world requires mass mobilization."
At its peak, the foundation’s footprint was unmatched. Data from that era reveals that NoVo accounted for an staggering 96% of the sector’s gendered violence prevention funding. Specifically, it secured 37% of all domestic funding dedicated to women’s rights and services, with a concentrated focus on Black women and femmes.
When the foundation announced a fundamental shift in its funding strategy in 2020, the impact was immediate and devastating. The "unraveling" of these large-scale commitments created a void that smaller, under-resourced grassroots organizations could not fill. When institutional funders pull back, the consequences are predictable: Black feminist infrastructures weaken, mutual aid networks are stretched beyond their breaking points, and the collective safety movement begins to shrink.
Intersecting Systems of Harm
Black feminist movements have long warned that gendered violence cannot be analyzed in a vacuum. It is inextricably linked to a web of broader systemic issues:
- Economic Violence: The lack of access to stable, living-wage employment keeps survivors tethered to abusive partners.
- Housing Instability: Without safe housing, women are unable to flee domestic violence, leaving them vulnerable to further harm.
- Healthcare Inequity: Disparities in maternal mortality and mental health access ensure that trauma remains untreated.
- State Violence and Criminalization: The systems designed to "protect" are frequently the same systems that criminalize Black women for defending themselves, or that ignore their reports of stalking and harassment.
These are not separate silos of policy; they are chapters of the same story. As Russell Roybal, Executive VP and Chief Impact Officer at the NCRP, noted in a recent statement: "Reproductive access, gendered violence, and LGBTQ+ rights are not separate stories. They find each other at the margins and intersections of the work and the hurt."
Supporting Data: The Cost of Divestment
The correlation between philanthropic divestment and the rise of vulnerability is becoming impossible to ignore. Research into the "NoVo void" suggests that when institutional money moves away from grassroots, survivor-led organizing, the following trends emerge:
- Diminished Legal Advocacy: Grassroots groups that provided court accompaniment and legal support for Black survivors have reported a 40% reduction in capacity since 2020.
- Crisis Response Gaps: Mutual aid organizations that fill the gap when police fail to respond to reports of domestic violence report that they are now turning away more survivors than they are able to assist.
- Fragmented Infrastructure: Small, local nonprofits that previously relied on multi-year grants from major foundations have been forced to return to "grant-seeking mode," diverting time from service delivery to fundraising.
The data confirms what activists have long claimed: safety is not merely the absence of violence; it is the presence of resources. When those resources are stripped away, the most marginalized among us pay the highest price.
Official Responses and The Path Forward
The NCRP’s recent stance highlights the urgency of the moment. By reframing safety, dignity, and joy as "birthrights" rather than privileges, the organization is calling for a paradigm shift in how philanthropy views its role in social justice.
"These are stories written on bodies that have been policed, punished, and politicized for daring to exist outside of someone else’s control," Roybal stated. This sentiment is echoed by organizers across the country who are calling for a "re-investment" in Black feminist infrastructure.
The path forward, according to these advocates, requires three key actions:
- Long-term, Unrestricted Funding: Philanthropy must move away from short-term project grants and toward multi-year, unrestricted funding that allows organizations to build sustainable infrastructures.
- Survivor-Led Decision Making: Funding decisions must be made in collaboration with the people closest to the pain—the survivors and the organizers who are already doing the work on the ground.
- Holistic Funding Models: Recognizing that gendered violence is inseparable from economic and reproductive injustice, funders must support organizations that take a multi-pronged approach to community safety.
Implications for the Future
If the current trend of philanthropic divestment continues, the implications for Black women and femmes are dire. We are witnessing a contraction of the safety movement at a time when the threats—ranging from the erosion of reproductive rights to the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation—are increasing in intensity.
The silence that follows the death of a Black woman is not merely a failure of media coverage; it is a failure of policy and resource allocation. To reverse this, the philanthropic sector must acknowledge its role in sustaining the infrastructures of care that prevent violence.
The story of the "NoVo void" is a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on the whims of private wealth for public safety. As we look toward the future, the challenge for advocates is to bridge the gap between this current crisis and a future where safety is guaranteed by community power and institutional accountability. The lives of Black women and femmes depend on it.
Until these systemic issues are addressed with the urgency they demand, the names of those lost will continue to serve as both a memorial and a mandate: that the work of protecting, honoring, and investing in Black women is not a charitable option—it is a fundamental necessity for a just society.
Pevita Pearce
Jia Lissa
