Black Harvest, LLC is a New York City -based for-profit philanthropic consultancy that works with left-of-center to far-left groups. The owner is Tynesha McHarris, a co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund. ¹

The company helped create the left-of-center Amalgamated Foundation’s Wealth Organizers Network, a program designed for racial-minority wealth advisors that allows them to collaborate and steer money to further “social and economic justice.” ²

In September 2021, the company signed an open letter published by the Groundswell Fund which called for white people to give substantial resources to nonprofit groups controlled by racial minorities. ³

Background

Tynesha McHarris founded Black Harvest, LLC in June 2020. ⁴

McHarris spent more than 15 years advocating for “racial, gender, and youth justice” in social movements, organizations, and philanthropic institutions. She has worked with the left-of-center groups Movement for Black Lives and Grantmakers for Girls of Color and is a co-founder of the Black Feminist Fund. Previously, she worked at the left-of-center NoVo Foundation of Peter Buffett, where she developed a $90 million portfolio for supporting girls of color in the United States, which was the first of its kind in the philanthropic sector. ¹

Before joining the NoVo Foundation, McHarris worked as director of programs at the Brooklyn Community Foundation. ⁵

Activities

Groundswell Fund Letter

In September 2021, Black Harvest, LLC co-signed an open letter released by the Groundswell Fund that called for the transfer of resources from white people to nonprofit groups controlled by racial minorities. The letter said that the protests and riots in the wake of the police-involved killing of George Floyd in 2020 presented an unprecedented opportunity for philanthropy to dismantle white supremacy in both the United States and the philanthropic world. The letter claimed “the cornerstone of racial equity is sharing resources and decision-making power in a way that fundamentally supports the self-determination of people of color.”  The letter called for a “significant transfer of resources” into institutions controlled by racial minorities that are accountable to other non-whites. One of the groups cited by the letter was the Movement for Black Lives. The letter claimed that representation by racial minorities was important because they could highlight the issues that are important to non-whites. ³

Latin America

In June 2022, Tynesha McHarris, on behalf of Black Harvest, LLC, co-wrote an article supporting an international feminist movement to counter what they called the authoritarian right. The article complained about how then-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro attacked women’s rights by opposing abortion and rallying evangelical Christian voters. The authors claimed that feminist movements want “more freedom, more justice, more choice.” The authors also claimed that “feminist social justice” movements, especially those led by women of color, were underfunded. ⁶

Wealth Organizers Network

Black Harvest, LLC helped create the Amalgamated Foundation’s Wealth Organizers Network. The Wealth Organizers Network is the first-of-its-kind network for racial minority advisors in the philanthropic and financial sectors. The network provides a place for the advisors to collaborate and steer money toward movements that advance “racial and gender justice.” The program began with twenty advisors joining the inaugural cohort at Amalgamated Foundation and participating in a twelve-week virtual program. The Wealth Organizers Network stands for “community-building, reparative resource allocation, ending racial capitalism, shifting power dynamics, and redirecting wealth to communities that have long been harmed.” ²

1. “Tynesha McHarris.” Fundamental. Accessed June 3, 2024. https://www.fundamental-inc.com/tynesha-mcharris.
2. “Wealth Organizers Network.” Amalgamated Foundation. Accessed June 3, 2024. https://amalgamatedfoundation.org/wealth-organizers-network.
3. “An Open Letter: Groundswell Fund.” Groundswell Fund C3, September 8, 2021. https://groundswellfund.org/updates/open-letter/.
4. “Black Harvest, LLC.” New York Department of State. Accessed June 3, 2024. https://apps.dos.ny.gov/publicInquiry/EntityDisplay.
5. “Tynesha MCHARRIS.” Emergent Fund, April 20, 2022. https://www.emergentfund.net/advisorycouncil/2022/4/20/tynesha-mcharris.
6. Shifman, Pamela, and Tynesha McHarris. “The Right Hates Feminists Because We Want Freedom.” openDemocracy, June 21, 2022. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/feminist-movements-fascism-francia-marquez-brazil-colombia/.