W.K. Kellogg Foundation is the 11th largest foundation in the U.S. and is arguably a household name. Will Keith Kellogg, founder of Kellogg’s, bequeathed his entire fortune of $66 million to “to promote the health, happiness and well-being of children” – all children, regardless of race, sex, creed or nationality. Racial equity therefore has become one of the three core principles at the Foundation, alongside community engagement and leadership.
The company is one of the biggest food companies in the world. (Photo illustration by Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
GettyA recent analysis commissioned by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation quantified the loss. Closing the racial equity gap means creating almost $3 trillion in additional gross domestic output by 2050 – more than enough to educate every child. This will require preparing every working age person to participate in the economy
As a foundation dedicated to racial equity, it soon realized that it as an institution needs to transform to truly embrace the principle. “In the 1990s, the Foundation started with diversity and inclusion efforts. But what transformed our culture was our board of trustees’ 2007 commitment to making the Kellogg Foundation ‘an effective antiracist organization that promotes racial equity’,” said La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO, who joined the Foundation in 1987.
The Battle Creek Small Business Loan Fund—alongside Battle Creek Unlimited, the Miller Foundation, the Kellogg Company, Consumers Energy Foundation and others – launched in June 2018 with an initial $1 million investment from WKKF, and matching local investments 2:1, up to $10 million. Since then, 9 businesses have been loaned $1.5 million — one of them the first Burmese restaurant in the town of Battle Creek.
W.K. Kellogg FoundationAn important point for them is that they are on their own journey, and they don’t expect their grantees to do all the work. Over the past decade, staff composition has changed from 24% to 44% people of color; and their combined senior leadership and board is now 50%. La June’s advice to other foundations or philanthropists committed to a similar journey is that “ you have to be ‘all in’ — fully committed to attempt a change on this scale. It is a journey, not a destination. It is something you work toward continually — and you cannot underestimate the role of leadership in making that happen.”
La June Montgomery Tabron (middle) has been driving the foundation's dedication to racial justice since 1987.
W.K. Kellogg FoundationIn terms of their program-related investments nationally and internationally, they also take a systemic racial equity lens. Within impact investing, the strategy is to drive more capital to communities of color. “Children are at the heart of everything we do. But we know that children live in families and families live in communities. If we want children to thrive, their communities need to be equitable places of opportunity. And in too many communities that is simply not the case,” explained La June. Compared to grants, impact investing can mobilize more private capital to close the racial equity gap more quickly.
The Kellogg Foundation launched an Entrepreneurs of Color Fund in Detroit in 2015 with a $3.5 million investment alongside the JPMorgan Chase. The Fund now stands at $22 million and growing. More than $7.5 million in loans has boosted 68 businesses led by entrepreneurs by color in Detroit.
W.K. Kellogg FoundationBy 2050, people of color will represent half the total population in the U.S.. Racial gaps in health, education and economic opportunity still persist. The Foundation is working towards addressing these systematic inequalities, and it demonstrates how a strategy ought to look inward and outward to deliver sustainable change. It also demonstrates the potential of philanthropy and impact investing to transform historical structures of inequalities - with an audacious vision.
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