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Closing the Racial Wealth Gap

A group of Black men sit at a table with one man leaned back in his chair while he smiles at the camera.

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In January 2022, prices in the United rose at an annual rate of 7.5%, the fastest pace of inflation in 40 years. As Americans continue to grapple with increased costs, a report from the Pew Research Center found that the public’s top concern is to strengthen the economy.
To further investigate how this difficult economic period has impacted racial and ethnic minority populations, NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health conducted a national survey that looked at a number of critical issues affecting people, from finances, to housing, healthcare, safety and neighborhood conditions.
According to this report, Black, Latino and Native American adults faced higher amounts of serious financial problems than their white counterparts. Even more, the report said between just 14% to 19% of Black, Latino, and Native American adults received gifts or loans worth $10,000 or more from parents or older relatives compared to 38% of white adults. Additionally, 4% of Black adults, 8% of Latino adults, and 20% of Native American adults report they do not have access to a bank account at all.
Despite financial struggles, the report found that many minority families have high aspirations for their children’s academic and professional futures. The “overwhelming majority of households with children under 18 believe their children will graduate from college, and “most households” believe that their children will be financially successful in the future, the report said.

Robert F. Smith’s Commitment to Investing in Communities of Color

In 2017, Robert F. Smith was the first African-American to sign the Giving Pledge, a movement started by a group of philanthropists to encourage billionaires to invest the majority of their wealth into causes that benefit the common good. In his pledge letter, Smith wrote how “generations of African-Americans” paved the way for his success, and emphasized the importance of giving back to causes that uplift Black communities nationwide. As part of the pledge, Smith committed to give half of his net worth to organizations that support communities of color.
Since then, Smith has supported numerous initiatives that aid underserved families and students. He is founding director and President of Fund II Foundation, a grantmaking foundation that donates to organizations working towards positive societal change. With a mission to “preserve the African-American experience”, the Foundation has gifted almost $40 million towards cultural preservation efforts since 2014.

By investing in Black communities, Smith hopes to build the future generation of leaders who can grow and maintain generational wealth. In addition to his leadership with Fund II Foundation, Smith supports The 2% Solution, an initiative that encourages companies to invest 2% of their profits over the next 10 years in communities that have been systematically held back by the racial wealth gap. By investing “reparative capital” into the financial infrastructure of communities, companies can play an impactful role in securing economic justice for Black Americans and other minorities, Smith said at the ninth annual Forbes 400 Summit On Philanthropy. “The deprivation of capital is one of the areas that creates a major problem to the enablement of the African American community… The first thing to do is put capital into those branch banks to lend to these small businesses to actually create an opportunity set… drive it into these small businesses, which employs 60%-plus of African Americans.”

Learn more about Smith’s efforts to build generational wealth for underserved communities.