Black Philanthropy Exhibit Marks 10 Years with Return to Charlotte

It was 18 years ago that Valaida Fullwood set out to tell the story of Black philanthropy in Charlotte. Fullwood had launched the New Generation of African American Philanthropists [NGAAP] in 2006, tired of misperceptions about giving in the Black community.

“I was working in philanthropy as a consultant … and I was frustrated and lamented the absence of Black stories in philanthropy and the fact that, when we were included, it was solely on the ‘in need’ and the beneficiary side,” she recalled.

“Advancing the idea that we only have our hands out or looking for a hand out, that Black people don’t give. I’d heard that expressed in a variety of ways and was just frustrated by it and ticked off by it, frankly, and wanted to lift up another story because I personally knew and had witnessed and experienced and benefited from Black philanthropy.”

This racist narrative especially frustrated Fullwood because she knew that the data told a different story: Black households donate a higher share of their wealth than white households, giving 25% more of their income annually than white households.

And so in 2007 she set out to share that story in a creative and personalized way, leaning on her penchant for storytelling and engaging with community. She approached Charles Thomas, then the education director at The Light Factory, about putting together a book that could pair the stories of local Black philanthropists with his poignant portraiture and other photography.

The pair released their first joint project, a book titled Giving Back: A Tribute to Generations of African American Philanthropists, in 2011, but what they hadn’t envisioned was the way this one-off would evolve into an exhibit that continues to thrive and have an impact nearly two decades later.

Having premiered at Johnson C. Smith University in 2015, Fullwood and Thomas’ Giving Back: The Soul of Philanthropy Reframed and Exhibited has since traveled to 35 cities nationwide, changing the narrative and often inspiring the launch of localized giving circles and philanthropic funds within a respective city’s Black community.

On July 15, the exhibit celebrated its CLT Homecoming with an opening at Charlotte Museum of History (CMoH), where it will run through Oct. 19. As they’ve seen occur naturally in so many communities where the exhibit has shown, Fullwood’s NGAAP Philanthropic Collective is capitalizing on the moment to establish a new fund centered on racial funding equity, with a goal of raising $12 million.

We talked to Fullwood and Thomas following the mid-July opening to hear about the new trust as well as their thoughts on the homecoming exhibit and what it’s accomplished over its decade of countrywide showings.

Queen City Nerve: You both are widely considered to be community leaders in Charlotte, though perhaps more so for your work in consulting and community engagement rather than visual art. How much does art, be it creating or curating, play into each of your identities and your other work?

Charles Thomas: This project started while I was in the midst of my photography career working at The Light Factory. It very much aligned to me creatively at the time. I can understand now, every day I’m not wearing photography or art as how I’m doing my day-to-day work [as Charlotte Director with Knight Foundation]. At the same time … this is another component of the work I do.

What’s been beautiful the past 10 years for the exhibit in the 35 cities that it’s traveled to is that, in each of those cities, it’s not only been an artistic piece but it’s been a community engagement and civic engagement piece. It’s something that’s galvanized our community to tell their stories but also to take action. In several cities, they’ve created funds to support Black-led nonprofits or support the Black community philanthropically.

So this resonates with the work I do today with a strong focus from the Knight Foundation in the Historic West End. It is about advancing community economic mobility for a community that has been left out. And as a part of that, it’s still narrative storytelling, as well as ensuring access to capital and resources for those who are proximate to the issue. That’s what Giving Back: The Soul of Philanthropy is about: Black folks telling their own stories and then Black folks seeing themselves.

Valaida Fullwood: I definitely identify as a creative; it’s been core to who I am since I was a little girl and loved to draw and create. I would say that, around 2006 or so, after I’d been involved in a lot of civic initiatives here in Charlotte on a broad scale, I remember saying to somebody, “I really want to do something where I can lean more into my creativity.” And this idea landed on me a few years later and it really has been a tremendous vehicle for my multiple interests.

My moniker is being an “idea whisperer,” so I’m always having ideas, and being able to bring them in and lean into my culture, Black culture, has been a gift in terms of this project.

Read more: Black Philanthropists’ Storytelling Initiative Provides New Platform (2020)

How closely have you all stayed attached to the exhibit wherever it is at any given time?

Valaida Fullwood: We follow it. We’re closely tethered to it. And again, we approach it as a civic engagement initiative, and to some degree as a consultancy in terms of advising and guiding the development and presentation of the exhibit. Early on, when we were seeking funding for the exhibit, we got advice from the program officer at the Institute of Museum and Library Services — which funded this 10 years ago and also is under threat under the current administration at the moment — and their advice was, “Yes, the exhibition is nice, but the programming, the community engagement and public programming is key. That’s the real opportunity.”

So we’ve always looked at the exhibit as being a vehicle for civic engagement to advance conversations and explore themes and topics around how culture, faith and art influence and shape how and why people give. And we’ve seen that play out in the various cities.

The new CLT Homecoming iteration of the exhibit at Charlotte Museum of History includes some new additions, such as The Souls series that highlights some of Charlotte’s leaders in giving in the hallways leading into the original. What are your thoughts now having had a chance to visit the new exhibit?

Charles Thomas: I was just blown away. I’m always in awe of each of the communities, how they interpret the exhibit. It’s just for me as an artist, it’s just like, “Wow.” Valaida plays a big role in the artistic direction of each of the exhibits, I get to come and see how people have interpreted it. We try to hold to certain exhibit standards, if you will, that Valaida holds to branding and all that, but the way [CMoH] uses the rotunda, the way they use visual displays, the audio/video that’s there — which is an intentional part of the exhibit so that it engages all of us in different ways that we hear, see, and touch things — just how they laid it out, I thought they did a great job.

I really appreciated the lead-in of the honorees of our local philanthropists. Those photographs were taken by Alvin C. Jacobs, so those were not taken by me, and this has occurred in all of our communities where a local photographer matches the work or responds to the work that we’ve created and then creates their own local stories. In Detroit, they had like 90 portraits, and they had a whole wing dedicated to their local exhibit in philanthropy. In New Orleans, it had the curation … that represents their own community and culture. There are stories of how people give. I had never heard of rent parties and there are ways they talked about philanthropy that I’ve never heard of before.

Valaida Fullwood: That’s always a treat with every city and each exhibition. We have our core Soul of Philanthropy content that Charles and I created, and seeing how it is installed and how the local exhibition designer chooses to use their space to present the content is always a lovely surprise, because no space, no gallery is the same and just the level of creativity around that is wonderful.

And then to see how they bring their localized content and the stories they want to share and complement the core philanthropy content is wonderful. Seeing it here in Charlotte with familiar names and people, being a part of those 10 local honorees, was wonderful. Again, a joy to witness every time.

We’re celebrating 10 years of the exhibit with this homecoming. Charles mentioned that he didn’t expect this to have such longevity when you all started it. What does it mean to you for it to be a decade later now and knowing all the impact that this has had across the entire country and to see it back in your hometown?

Valaida Fullwood: It’s super significant and important. Over the last decade, since it opened at Johnson C. Smith in 2015, we’ve learned a lot, and we want to applaud some of that learning here in Charlotte. So Charles and I have witnessed how the exhibit has been a catalytic force to launch new Black funds, new Black giving circles, new initiatives to advance philanthropic work and to advance Black communities in other cities.

Seeing that and how folks are taking stories that have roots here in Charlotte with two Black creators here in Charlotte, we wanted to bring it home to not only celebrate that 10-year milestone and the successes of the past 10 years but also to create something that is really new here in Charlotte to ignite community interest and engagement around creating a new trust. So our philanthropic collective, NGAAP, has been around for 19 years now, and we truly recognized over the last five years since the pandemic what an important role we play in Charlotte and a vacuum that we are filling.

And serving as a volunteer-based group and operating as we have, we’ve seen the imperative to bring infrastructure and create an entity that can have longer range impact and that can be sustainable particularly around racial funding equity.

So we intentionally celebrated this homecoming as part of a civic engagement strategy to build awareness around NGAAP and its work over the last 19 years as well as generate civic and cultural pride around the Soul of Philanthropy and how it’s ignited a movement in other communities around Black philanthropy and inclusive philanthropy, and to generate support and buy-in for establishing the new trust, which we envision as the region’s first Black-founded, community-rooted, public philanthropy trust.

There’s a reason and purpose for this exhibition beyond the celebration of the 10 years and elevating Black philanthropy. We really want to leverage it, as we’ve observed in other cities, to create something new here in Charlotte. Both Charles and I have often said that the gratification and the attention and the publicity we’ve received over the last decade is wonderful, but it really means nothing if that work doesn’t lead to change here in Charlotte, given our commitment to this community and our vision and hopes for this community. So this exhibition is meant to launch that and create something new and sustainable and powerful here in Charlotte.

So what’s the next step? Where do you go from here in pursuing that goal and launching the trust?

Valaida Fullwood: Well, one, the exhibit carries on … It’s going to Akron, Ohio after this. But here in Charlotte, there’s a series of community programs. We had our first [on July 19] at the Stratford Richardson Y in collaboration with West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition. So there are a series of programs and gatherings and events at the intersection of Black philanthropy and neighborhoods and community building, faith and religion, the arts, with young kids and the next generation of givers, and a whole host of programs all leading toward building buy-in and pride and dollars to establish the new trust.

So we’ve had the great benefit of receiving nearly a half-million dollars from [the W.K.] Kellogg Foundation in support of our developing and establishing the new trust. Our goal is to raise an initial $12 million to establish the new trust and we’re currently working toward that. And again, this exhibition and the community engagement is a key element as we work toward it over the next few years.

Anything else you want to mention about the goals of this homecoming and what you want folks to take away from this showing?

Valaida Fullwood: Our hope is that while the exhibition may inspire people, our real hope is that it encourages people to lean into their generosity and giving, especially now, and to be empowered, to see themselves as philanthropists, as being able to affect change and shape the future with their giving and generosity. It doesn’t have to be big dollars. You can just bring your full self, what financial resources you have to give, as well as your identity, your time, your talent, your gifts, to the work. So that’s the bottom-line message, and I think it’s the message we need now more than ever in the current political and social environment.

Charles Thomas: One of the pieces that is important in this whole journey is to share our stories. Especially in these times where it feels like communities are seeing their stories and their histories are being erased or being disappeared, if you will, that it’s critical that another piece of this is: I know we all want to be humble about giving, humble with how we serve, but one of the things that challenged me as a part of this exhibit was when people either didn’t show up for their portrait or didn’t want their portrait taken, they were being humble.

I think in this day and age of the attention culture and everything that we have, it’s really important that especially those that are really servant leaders that are really leading the work, that their story is uplifted. Otherwise, other narratives will take over.

The Soul of Philanthropy: Homecoming exhibit is included in general admission at Charlotte Museum of History through Oct. 19, 2025. Visit charlottemuseum.org for more information on the museum or new-philanthropists.org for more info on Valaida Fullwood’s organization, the NGAAP Philanthropic Collective.