The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation (MRBF) offers a clear example of what values-driven
philanthropy can look like in practice.
As a 72-year-old family foundation with approximately $170 million in endowment assets, we
have consistently extended our spending beyond the traditional 5% payout rule. For the past
two decades, our approach has reflected a deliberate commitment to increase resources in the
South—boldly and consistently—in the face of systemic harm.
MRBF’s mission is to build power to advance racial equity across the American South. As
coordinated attacks on voting rights, bodily autonomy, and the ability to live full, dignified lives
have escalated, our response has been to increase support, particularly for efforts targeting
Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, trans people, migrants, and those systemically
denied economic opportunity.
From 2005 to 2017, our average annual grantmaking was $6.8 million, in line with a 5.5%
spending policy designed to provide steady support and fiscal stewardship to our grantee
partners. But when communities needed more—and movements called for increased
investment—we responded. From 2018 to 2024, our annual grantmaking more than doubled to
an average of $14.3 million. In 2020, we acted quickly in the face of compounding crises.
COVID-19 emerged as a global pandemic, disproportionately affecting people of color. At the
same time, worldwide attention to state violence against Black people spurred a national
reckoning with systemic racism, following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and
Ahmaud Arbery. To support our partners’ uprisings, mutual aid, and urgent calls for changes, as
well as overlapping democracy and economic crises, we spent 13.46% of our endowment that
year.
In March and April of 2020, MRBF accelerated outstanding grant payments and provided every
grantee with $10,000 in unrestricted support. By June of that year, the Board approved a
formal increase in the annual spending rate to 11% for an initial three-year period, which has
since been extended through 2026.
These measures resulted in nearly $25 million in total spending—the highest in MRBF’s
history—and reflect the Foundation’s unwavering commitment to reparative, community-
centered philanthropy in times of profound disruption and transformation. By intentionally
spending rather than growing our endowment, we expanded our impact, reflecting the
Foundation’s belief that in moments of urgency, values-driven philanthropy must act boldly.
Also, in 2020, the Foundation deepened its commitment by extending grants to ensure every
grantee partner received at least two years of general operating support—without requiring
additional applications, reporting, or staff recommendations. We extended all active grants by
one year, accelerated outstanding payments, and converted all project grants into unrestricted
funding. We suspended reporting requirements, converted 20% of loans into grants, and
eliminated interest on loans through to maturity.
In total, we deployed $4 million in mutual aid through our partnership with the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, $5 million in democracy protection resources, and an additional $250,000
to community-based mutual aid organizations.
These are the bold steps that put 13.46% of our endowment, in 2020, directly into the hands of
Southern leaders navigating multiple crises, to organizations and networks that bridge racial,
ethnic, economic, and political divides in pursuit of a more just and joyful future for all.
Key to our success, too, is a belief that durable change requires sustained investment,
relationship-building, and mutual accountability. MRBF has historically supported organizations
playing pivotal roles in Southern states through multi-year general operating grants, with many
grantee partners remaining in the Foundation’s portfolio for more than five years. We’ve
suspended traditional spending policies and made bold financial decisions that defy white
supremacy culture and scarcity thinking. And still, MRBF has preserved its core
endowment—proving that values-aligned investment is not only possible, but powerful.
And MRBF’s commitment goes beyond grant dollars. We’ve activated every lever of
philanthropy to shift systems and stories, including devoting resources toward market-rate
investments: program-related Investments (PRIs) to build community wealth; narrative strategy
and communications support to shape public discourse and amplify community wisdom; funder
convenings and aligned investments to attract co-investors and seed a broader ecosystem; and
internal equity work and operational learning to ensure we model what we fund.
The strategies are Southern, but the stakes are national.
In recent years, we’ve witnessed the rise of authoritarian politics, book bans, anti-Black
violence, transphobia, and coordinated disinvestment in public institutions. The South has
responded—with labor strikes, mutual aid, abortion access defense, climate organizing, and a
deep refusal to cede power or dignity. MRBF has been by our grantee partners’ side through
every challenge. Our grantmaking has reflected solidarity.
For our peers in philanthropy who need evidence, the path is clear. The time is now. The South
has the strategy. Let’s match it with the resources it deserves.
