ICYMI: 2023 Funder Pledge for Safety and Security
From Funders for Justice:
Why This Pledge? BIPOC-led groups on the frontlines of social justice fights face sustained attacks from well-resourced, powerful opposition forces, putting their lives and organizations at risk and compromising their ability to secure victories. Movement groups report digital, physical, and psychological security threats; politically motivated attempts to strip them of their nonprofit status; and political prosecutions for their constitutionally-protected activism. At the same time, the BIPOC, queer, trans, and migrant communities in which they organize are also under political attack, facing targeted surveillance and criminalization as well.
Sadly, these threats are not new. Social justice movements have always been met with vigorous and often violent opposition, dating back to this nation’s origins of slavery and genocide. In recent years as social justice movements have gained increasing visibility, these threats have gained reinvigorated steam.
The stakes are high, and the need is great. We believe that philanthropy’s failure to provide BIPOC-led social justice groups with robust, long-term support has made it nearly impossible for movements to build durable safety and security infrastructure. We have come together with a sense of urgency to align our giving and mobilize a robust philanthropic response that matches the scale, duration, and sophistication of the attacks BIPOC-led social justice groups face. We encourage our philanthropic colleagues to join us in taking the pledge.