Long before philanthropy formalized intermediaries, movements relied on stewards. In the abolitionist era, networks collected funds to sustain newspapers, legal defense, and underground organizing. During the Reconstruction era, community-based funds protected Black political participation when law was weaponized. Throughout the Civil Rights Movement, philanthropic foundation, the Garland Fund’s critical resourcing enabled battles against lynching and segregation, while trusted fiscal hosts routed money to local organizers when mainstream institutions refused. In the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis, pooled funds sustained direct action while government and philanthropy hesitated.
Designing for Accountability
These keepers of resources were not neutral administrators; they were the sowers of possibility. Their legitimacy flowed from proximity to wisdom, harm, and consequence. It informed them about who they were most accountable for. Community-rooted philanthropic intermediaries now inherit this legacy. Our ability to live in that bequest requires thoughtful design and practice. Borealis is proud to be part of the legacy of Black philanthropy, sowers of possibility building on that lineage.
Those of us who work in community-rooted intermediaries are not endowers, nor are we always the final signatories on grants. We are administrators, translators, bridgers, narrative holders, and strategists with lived experience. We interpret need and move capital. For us, the question— “accountable to whom?”—has never felt murky or abstract. It has always been about community.
Like many of our intermediary peers, I arrived to the philanthropic sector through organizing, community work, and proximity to harm, which later became proximity to capital. With that, the longer I sit in this work, the more I find myself underlining accountability as a priority and a compass.
As the grounds beneath us shift, here are some questions that our organization, Borealis Philanthropy, has grappled with over the past several years:
As risk increases, how do we ensure that we are acting as a shield for our grantee partners, our donors and the people they both want to thrive? What systems do we have to move capital urgently and equitably in moments of crisis? What slows down our processes—and why? For example, according to ABFE’s 2024 research report on Black voices in corporate grantmaking, more than half of surveyed Black-led nonprofits said they felt pressure to tone down the racially specific language they used to describe their work. Additionally, NCRP’s 2025 report