Dr. Charles Walker, Jr. of Atlanta and Augusta, wants to track just how much Black Americans donate to political candidates — and to encourage support for candidates that advocate for Black people.
“We believe that if we track our fundraising, our donations to politicians that support our causes, we can be more impactful,” Walker said.
Walker spoke to the Chronicle shortly after returning from the National Policy Alliance conference in Washington, DC, which includes organizations representing African American officials at all levels of government. At the conference, Walker presented his proposal for a way to better measure the impact of Black political donations, an initiative he is hoping will launch officially around the new year.
The non-partisan platform would curate a list of politicians working on issues important to the Black community, let potential donors find people they want to support, and track the donations contributed to these candidates.
“The only thing we do not support is hate,” Walker said.
Walker has been connected to Augusta all his life — his family owns businesses here and he has an office here and travels to the city frequently. His father is former local politician Charles Walker, Sr. The idea of tracking Black spending is one he has been working on for 34 years, Walker said.
Years ago, that took the form of a phone number where people could call in to be connected to Black owned businesses. This new initiative is one Walker has been working on for about three years, he said. He already launched an effort through his company FotM Global to track Black spending on businesses, and direct it towards companies that support the community.
“For years we’ve been trying to figure out how to track that spending and report that spending, because we believe that what gets measured gets done,” Walker said. “And after George Floyd, we saw that the timing was right, we created the technology and partnered with several companies.”
This kind of tracking holds both companies accountable for what they spend in Black communities and Black people and allies accountable for where they spend their money, Walker said.
“So when you go to the voter wallet, every time you spend, you’re not spending frivolously you’re spending based upon your plans to conscious consumption,” he said. His new voter tracker will, he hopes, work similarly.
Walker is also hoping that NPA will help collect additional data on what Black Americans contribute in donations.
“We believe that voting at the ballot box is fine,” Walker said. “But we believe when voting, once is not enough. If you vote to donate to politicians, you can impact policy on a whole other level.”
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