This document discusses poverty in America through statistics and analysis on topics such as income inequality, wealth distribution, education disparities, the criminal justice system, and funding biases that disproportionately impact minority communities and the poor. It argues that current civil rights narratives and the majority of charitable resources focus on upper-middle class issues rather than addressing the systemic roots of poverty. The document advocates for connecting people, resources, and technology to better serve those in need.

1. A Guide to Understanding
Poverty in America
Andrew Sears
Executive Director
TechMission

2. Dominant Civil Rights Narrative:
The Great White Savior
People of Women Disabled GLBT Environment
Color 70’s-80’s 80’s-90’s 90’s-00’s 00’s-10’s
60’s-70’s
Upper
80% of benefits and effort
Middle
Lower 80% of need
• Assumes that all injustice for these groups has already been addressed
• Disproportionate effort focused on upper class issues rather than the poor

3. Change in Income Distribution
(1947-1979)

4. Change in Income (1977-1994)
1977-1994
Source: Economic Policy Institute

5. Change in Income

6. Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/

7. Tax Cuts for the Richest 400 Americans were $18 billion
(or 26% of the budget of the US Department of Education)
Source: http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3090

8. Top 1% in the USA Receive 75%
of Benefits of Economic Growth
• The poorest 50% globally have 1% of wealth
• Richest 2% own half the world’s wealth
Sources: http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/
http://newsmine.org/

9. Decreasing Minimum Wage
Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/

10. Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/

11. The USA spends more on its military
than the next 15 countries combined
Welfare accounts for only 1 percent of the US federal budget

12. Why Health Care and Social
Security Are Issues of Justice
Source: http://www.businesspundit.com/wealth-distribution-in-the-united-states/

13. Changing Trends in Imprisonment
Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

14. Mass Incarceration in America
• There are more African Americans under
correctional control today than were
enslaved in 1850
• More African Americans cannot vote today
(due to felony laws) than in 1870
• The imprisonment rate in the USA is the
highest in the world at 4 times the world
average
• The Black imprisonment rate is 6.4 times
that of Whites 14 times the global
average
Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

15. Injustice & Unwed Teen Births
National Center for Health Statistics, 1999
http://www.beverlylahayeinstitute.org/articledisplay.asp?id=2573&department=BLI&categoryid=datadigest

16. High School Graduation Crisis
 Only 50.2% of Black and 53.2% of Latino students
graduate compared to 73.4% nationally
◦ Graduation cuts chances of poverty in half and boosts
income by 49% from $19,169 to $28,645
◦ Dropping out increases changes of imprisonment by 350%
◦ Being held back a grade in school more than doubles
chances of dropping out of high school
◦ Black and Latino youth represent 58% of all students who
drop out although they account for less than 32% of
student population
◦ Only 38% of moms under 18 receive a diploma by age 22,
compared to 89% for those with no children
 For Black men not graduating high school
◦ 60% spend time in prison by their mid-30‘s
◦ 72% are unemployed
Sources: Urban Institute‘s Education Policy Center,
http://www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2010_01_22_FS_DiplomaAttainment.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/20/national/20blackmen.html

17. High School Graduation Rates
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
White Asian/Pacific Hispanic Black American Indian Low Income
Islander
Source: http://www.urban.org/publications/410934.html

18. Importance of College
 Only 30% of low-income Black and Latino
students go on to college compared to
78% of high-income White students.
 A bachelor‘s degree decreases chance of
being in poverty from 12.3% to 2.5% and
increase their income by 80% from
$28,645 to $51,544.
Source: Urban Institute‘s Education Policy Center

19. Education and Income
1979-1993
Source: When Work Disappears

20. Education and Unemployment
http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/minorities_less-educated_workers_see_staggering_rates_of_underemployment/

21. Wealth Inequalities by Race

22. The Problem:
Social Leprosy
―Eleven o‘clock Sunday morning is the
most segregated hour in America.‖ – MLK

23. What Does the “Tech” Mean in
TechMission Corps
 TechMission‘s values are Jesus, then
Justice, then Technology
 Start with: What are the needs of the
―poor‖? Resources & people
 TechMission uses ―Tech‖ to connect
resources & people to the poor
◦ We are the nervous system in the Body of
Christ

24. Church Giving & Missions
$390 Billion
Missions Global Budgets of
Ministry Christian Organizations
to the Poor
Down from
21% in 1965
Sources: Empty Tomb
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
* US government‘s non-military discretionary budget is $350 billion

25. Christian Volunteering: Serving Inside
Church vs. Outside Community
22.1 million FBO volunteers in USA
Value of FBO Volunteers= $58.2 billion
2.2 million volunteers
serving outside
Community = 10%
Value = $5.2 Billion
20 million volunteers
serving inside
congregations = 90%
Value = $52.3 Billion
Source: Volunteering in America, 2009
A study by Lester Salamon of the Institute for Policy Studies of Johns Hopkins,
only 7-15% of volunteering through churches helps the larger community
Source: Corporation for National and Community Service

26. TechMission’s Focus & Other
Lower Class Culture Nonprofits
White Black Latino Asian
Upper
Middle
Lower Leadership and clients

27. The Systemic Barrier: Funding Bias
and Indigenous Organizations
 Indigenous = race, class, gender &
culture of community being served
◦ Most effective organizations
 Funding Dilemma for Indigenous Leaders
◦ Secular funders often have a bias against
lower-class culture and faith-based
organizations
◦ Christian resources are disproportionately
distributed to White middle & upper class
Christians

28. Funding Bias: Non-Whites Make Up 52.4%
Of Poverty But Non-White Led Nonprofits
Only Receive 3% of Funding
120%
People of Color White
100%
94% 86% 83.5% 97% 47.6%
80%
60%
52.4%
40%
20% 16.5%
14%
6%
3%
0%
Foundation Foundation Board % of Nonprofit Leadership % of Total
Presidents Members Leadership Receiving Poverty
http://www.slideshare.net/rosettathurman/race-matters-in-nonprofits-promoting-diversity-in-our-profession and Foundation
http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/executive_transition_survey_report2004.pdf
Funding

29. Why Does Only 3% of Foundation
Funding Go to Nonprofits Led by People
of Color?
• Percent of nonprofits that are led by people
16.5% of color
• Up to half could be removed by restrictions
8% on funding faith-based organizations
• Rest removed from cultural bias of different
3% cultural and class values
Statistics are explained in the attached spreadsheet at:
www.urbanministry.org/fundingbias

30. Religious Restrictions =
Racial Bias
 Literacy test for voting in the 1950‘s has
been replaced with religious tests for
funding today
 How it works
◦ About 2/3 of Black-led nonprofits are in churches
or other faith-based organizations
◦ About 2/3 of White-led nonprofits are secular
◦ Not funding faith-based organizations makes
White-led nonprofits twice as likely to get funded
Statistics are explained in the attached spreadsheet at:
www.urbanministry.org/fundingbias

31. How to Get Funding from
Foundations
 Be White
◦ 97% of foundation funding goes toward White-
led nonprofits
 Be Culturally Middle Class
◦ Estimated 95% of leadership of nonprofits is
culturally middle class
 Be Male
◦ While 58% of nonprofit executives are
women, the median nonprofit income led by a
man has twice the income of a nonprofit led by
a woman
Sources: http://www.aecf.org/upload/publicationfiles/executive_transition_survey_report2004.pdf &
http://greenlining.org/publications/pdf/339
The class statistic is explained on a previous slide

32. TechMission’s Vision:
Connecting People to the Poor
$18.17 trillion: $390 billion: $58.2 billion:
Combined incomes of Combined budgets of Value of Faith-Based
Christians globally Christian orgs globally Volunteers (USA)
UrbanMinistry.org Tens of
Millions Web Visitors
ChristianVolunteering.org:
Millions of Volunteers
City Vision College:
Tens of thousands of Students
TechMission Corps:
Thousands
of Interns
$100’s of Millions
Sources: Listed above and International Bulletin of Missionary Research

33. Ezekiel 37:1-6
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought
me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the
middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me
back and forth among them, and I saw a great many
bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very
dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones
live?‖
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know." Then
he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to
them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is
what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will
make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I
will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon
you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in
you, and you will come to life. Then you will know
that I am the LORD.' ―

34. Ezekiel 37:7-14
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was
prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came
together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on
them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of
man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they
may live.' ― So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath
entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast
army.
Then he said to me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we
are cut off.‗ Therefore prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the
Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves
and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of
Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I
open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in
you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you
will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares
the LORD.‘‖