For the second year straight, Bandcamp will donate 100% of its share of all sales made on the online music marketplace to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund next Friday (June 18), the day before Juneteenth.
Bandcamp’s share is 15% of digital and 10% of physical sales. The donation for the holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the U.S. will go towards supporting the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s ongoing efforts to promote racial justice through litigation advocacy and public education.
“We held our first Juneteenth fundraiser last year in response to the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the long-standing structural oppression, state-sanctioned violence, and daily racism faced by Black people and people of color, including many of our fellow employees and artists in the Bandcamp community,” Bandcamp co-founder/CEO Ethan Diamond wrote in a company blog post. “We’ve been inspired by and joined in the growing call for racial justice and equity, and have celebrated the many new reforms, practices, and policies that bring us closer to a world where Black people and people of color can thrive without fear of violence and oppression.
“At the same time,” he concluded, “we are nowhere near where we need to be, and there is still much work to be done.”
The fundraiser is part of Bandcamp’s broader philanthropic efforts. Bandcamp has waived its share of sales on the first Friday of every month since March 20, 2020 — now dubbed Bandcamp Friday — passing along all revenue to artists and labels. The Juneteenth fundraiser will replace this month’s Bandcamp Friday, and the next one happens on August 6, after which Bandcamp Fridays will continue through the rest of 2021.
In addition to organizing other fundraisers, Bandcamp now allocates $30,000 annually to partner with racial justice organizations.
In his blog post, Diamond also outlined a list of local racial equity organizations in Oakland, Calif., where Bandcamp is headquartered, including the East Oakland Collective, East Oakland Youth Development Center, Hidden Genius Project, Oakland Black Business Fund and Oakland Kids First.
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