I recently returned from DREAM. DARE. DO. in Chicago, the every-three-year (maybe more often now!) convening of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute.
Wow. I am still reeling from the experience. It was an intense two days of immersion in conversation about women’s leadership in philanthropy, where it is coming from and where it will be going in the brave new political climate of a Trump presidency.
The Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) sponsored this amazing conference, held at the Magnificent Mile Marriott in downtown Chicago. Led by Debra Mesch and Andrea Pactor, WPI is one of the biggest hubs for knowledge on gender and philanthropy.
While the Trump Administration’s attacks against women, immigrants, LGBT, and people of color continue, foundations and nonprofits are coming together to fund the resistance. The latest batch of grantmaking in this department: the Emergent Fund recently granted $330,000 to community-based organizations at the front lines of the resistance.
A project of Women Donors Network (WDN), Solidaire Network, and Threshold Foundation, the Emergent Fund is a way for donors to increase their ability to strategically collaborate, coordinate, and act quickly to support the movement. The fund seeks to supply communities and their allies with the resources they need to create the change our country needs to fight back against the dangerous policy goals of the Trump Administration.
Girls for Gender Equity received a $250,000 grant from the NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color
With grassroots activism on the rise across the country, we are seeing more and more funders step up to address populations who face multiple forms of marginalization, especially the combination of both gender and race.
Now, the NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color (the Fund), a collaboration of 16 foundations, has announced grants totaling $2.1 million, awarded to 28 non-profit organizations across the five boroughs.
These organizations are the ground-level hubs where young women and girls of color go in communities to engage in leadership development, health and employment advocacy, educational support, and help with community safety issues including violence against women.
The Sadie Nash Leadership Project received $100,000 in funding from the NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color.
“There’s a renewed sense of urgency, and a renewed sense of focusing on the biggest disparities for young women and girls. We find them localized around dimensions of racial and ethnic difference,” said Ana Oliveira, CEO of the New York Women’s Foundation, in a recent chat with Philanthropy Women about this new set of grants.
Oliveira described how The New York Women’s Foundation developed this multi-funder partnership that is granting this new money. “We began with our main partner, The NoVo Foundation, and said, ‘let’s come together and ignite a process with others.'”
The two foundations invited a host of their colleagues to join them in focusing on girls and young women of color, and many foundations took them up on the offer. The Ford Foundation came on board, as did other well-known and established progressive foundations, including the Surdna Foundation, the Schott Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, and the Foundation for a Just Society.
Communities foundations also stepped up and joined, including the New York Community Trust and the Brooklyn Community Foundation. Family foundations also came to the table including the Andrus Family Fund and the Cricket Island Foundation. Feminist Foundation allies the Ms. Foundation and Third Wave Fund also came on board.
“We’re just beginning,” said Oliveira, of the process of rounding up foundations to focus on young women and girls of color. “We are going to continue to invite colleagues in the foundation world to join our coalition. It’s more important now than ever.”
The Fund was initially launched by The New York Women’s Foundation and NoVo Foundation in 2014 as a way to increase philanthropic resources available to organizations that advance the leadership of New York’s girls and young women of color. The Fund also seeks to address longstanding barriers to opportunity for young women and girls of color at the structural level.
“We all want to get to the tipping point of supporting enough organizations that are helping women, that we can resolve economic and social injustice for women,” said Oliveira. “We want to make sure these organizations can do their work and grow. We want to make sure they are ready first responders in community fights for justice and equity.”
“If we want to create a world in which girls can live free from violence and discrimination, we must truly listen to them and follow their lead,” said Pamela Shifman, Executive Director of the NoVo Foundation, in a press release announcing the grants. “Girls and young women of color are the best agents in transforming their communities and it’s time we invest in their leadership. That’s exactly what these grants will do.”
The 2016 NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women grantees are:
Ancient Song Doula Services
$50,000
Arab American Association of New York
$60,000
Arab American Family Support Center
$60,000
Atlas: DIY
$75,000
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
$75,000
Black Women’s Blueprint
$75,000
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
$70,000
Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education
$100,000
Community Connections for Youth, Inc.
$75,000
CONNECT, Inc.
$85,000
DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving
$60,000
FIERCE
$60,000
Girls for Gender Equity
$250,000
Hetrick-Martin Institute
$70,000
Make the Road New York
$50,000
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
$60,000
New York City Anti-Violence Project
$75,000
Resilience Advocacy Project
$50,000
Sadie Nash Leadership Project
$100,000
South Asian Youth Action
$60,000
S.O.U.L. Sisters Leadership Collective
$80,000
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
$60,000
The Alex House Project, Inc
$100,000
The Audre Lorde Project, Inc.
$75,000
The Brotherhood/Sister Sol
$75,000
Turning Point for Women and Families
$50,000
Welfare Rights Initiative
$60,000
YWCA/The Young Women’s Christian Association Of The City Of New York $50,000
