Funding withdrawals foil Where are the Black Designers? festival

Where are the Black Designers? has been forced to postpone its upcoming The Spaces Between conference until 2027 after sponsors withdrew upwards of $67,000 in funding in the wake of US president Donald Trump's DEI executive orders.

The non-profit organisation, which advocates for Black creatives in the US and the UK, was set to take over London's EartH arts centre this weekend with its biggest event to date, featuring two days of talks, workshops, a maker's market and a club night.

But in the past month, four different sponsors pulled their financial support at short notice, creating a "major funding loss" of more than $67,000 (£50,000) that was impossible to recover from, according to organisers Mitzi Okou and Roshannah Bagley.

"We're heartbroken to share that we've made the difficult decision to postpone The Spaces Between festival," Where are the Black Designers? (WATBD) wrote in a social media post announcing the decision.

"When we booked EartH in 2023, there was still strong momentum behind organisations like ours. But this year, fundraising has been significantly harder than for previous events."

"Rise of authoritarianism" impacted funding

The organisers attribute the sudden drop-off to the changing political and economic climate, especially in light of Trump's executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes.

"The rise of authoritarianism and government executive orders has led many companies to pull support from communities," WATBD's statement said.

After the orders were signed in January, several companies that had initially promised funding for the festival became increasingly unresponsive, Okou told Dezeen.

Among them were many organisations that had previously donated thousands of dollars to WATBD in the years following the Black Lives Matter movement, when the non-profit was first founded.

"Our same contacts were just not answering our calls," Okou explained. "But we were still confident because we've done events where, weeks before, money just flows in and people are like, yes, yes, yes."

"Literally, in a matter of weeks, we raised tens of thousands of dollars at the time, no problem," Bagley added. "We'd be on a call with a partner and within 10 minutes, they were like: 'yes, we'll give you X amount'."

But since the start of the year, the organisers said, many of their partners at these companies cut off communication before ultimately pulling funding in the month before the event.

"Either they would string us along, just for them to say no," Okou said. "Or they would just ghost us, or come up with new excuses like 'it doesn't fit in our timeline' when the same person that said that used to donate money like it was nothing."

"Seeing these consistent patterns that I think aligned with the consequences of these DEI orders, we just started to realise that it wasn't us."

Companies cutting internal and external DEI programmes

Previous WATBD sponsors include Google, Mailchimp, Netflix, Spotify and Squarespace. But the organisers say they don't want to point the finger at any specific partners.

Employees at some of these companies, who volunteer with WATBD, have confirmed that they have cut both internal DEI programmes and funding for external initiatives following Trump's executive orders.

"They were being very honest and saying: 'if you're going to try and get money from the company, get it from a different branch in another country because at least in the US, it's a no'," Okou explained.

"I didn't realise how many of the companies we were talking to are working on government contracts," she added. "It's just so crazy how that care for community initiatives can switch so fast."

But according to Bagley, who looks after WATBD's UK operations, the problem isn't limited to US businesses.

"A lot of these companies we work with, they're global," she explained. "They have global teams, so that does reverberate. And I think it will continue to do so, sadly, in the next few years before things get better."

The Spaces Between festival is now set to take place in 2027, with more or less the same programme and curation. The long lead time was designed to give those companies, which cited timing difficulties around annual budgeting, the chance to free up the funds.

DEI orders are costing jobs

WATBD isn't alone in feeling the effects of Trump's DEI order. Some Black creatives saw their jobs revoked immediately when the directive came into effect, Okou claims.

"I knew a few people at [a major tech company] who were Black in tech, and as soon as it rolled out, their jobs were just completely eliminated," she said.

Other community organisers, including Queer Design Club co-founder Bex Brooker, have also gotten in touch with the WATBD team to share that they have faced similar struggles to procure funding in recent months.

"What's happening to us is not an isolated issue," WATBD wrote in their announcement. "The work we all do, and the free and accessible experiences we provide, require emotional, physical and most importantly financial support."

"The reality is, none of us can continue if both governments and companies withhold the resources we need."

All imagery courtesy of WATBD.

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