About The Exhibit

Comprised of highly-innovative presentations featuring a dozen vignette stories and more than 50 black-and-white images, The Soul of Philanthropy exhibition showcases philanthropic musings across generations. A robust offering of talks, panel discussions, and public forums accompanies the exhibition and allows groups to explore a broad range of topics that ignite a movement of conscious philanthropy by empowering a generation of Americans to recognize their power and responsibility to give back.

Inspiration for the exhibit comes from the award-winning book Giving Back: A Tribute to Generations of African-American Philanthropists by Valaida Fullwood and photographer Charles Thomas Jr.

Groundbreaking in focus and depth, Giving Back: The Soul of Philanthropy Reframed and Exhibited presents stories of generosity among Americans of African descent. Centuries-old cultural customs and beliefs about giving, though rarely acknowledged as “philanthropy” in Black communities, have long been an integral and transformational force in lives and communities throughout American society. Photography, poetry, and prose weave vivid stories and reveal the long and unsung legacy of Black philanthropists – from generous donors of wealth to ingenious givers carving a way out of no way.

Both the exhibition and book explore the African American philanthropy experience and giving traditions grounded in faith, mutuality, responsibility, and social justice. Voices and visages spanning ages and generations illuminate transcendent truths and elicit new thinking about philanthropy.