Social Justice

From Northern California Grantmakers: 

From The Boston Foundation: 

The Latino Equity Fund at the Boston Foundation (LEF) today announced $375,000 in grants to 20 Latinx-serving organizations in Massachusetts. The grants, made through an open request for proposals in September, bring the total grantmaking from the Fund to over $1.8 million since 2013, with $692,000 being distributed this calendar year, making 2023 the largest giving year for LEF.

From Funders for LGBTQ Issues: 

Encouraging funders to increase their grantmaking to transgender communities requires shifting philanthropic culture to be more inclusive and supportive of binary and non-binary transgender and gender non-conforming people as employees, colleagues, and leaders within the sector. Yet transgender people remain woefully under-represented in philanthropy, and trans-specific professional and leadership development opportunities remain rare.

"Ongoing efforts to roll back social gains, such as reproductive and LGBTQ rights, have made one thing clear: Focusing on politics alone won’t create lasting social change. Political debates and legislation are too closely tied to the whims of the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Instead, what drives long-term shifts is culture — the public attitudes and narratives that underlie progress," said Ken Grossinger for The Chronicle of Philanthropy. 

"Nonprofit leaders perceive lobbying, as it is currently practiced and understood, as corrupt conduct that exerts undue influence to the detriment of fair, impartial, and effective policymaking. The popular imagination associates lobbying with dodgy deals in smoke-filled back rooms," said Alberto Alemanno for Stanford Social Innovation Review. 

Funders for a Ceasefire Now:

We are institutional funders, individual donors and philanthropy professionals who are heartbroken and grieving the tragic loss of life in Palestine and Israel. Between October 7 and November 19, more than 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza and 1,400 Israelis have been killed.* In Gaza, this includes over 5,500 children.  With every passing minute, we are losing more human lives - people with families and hopes, who once loved and dreamed.   

From The New School:

From Native Americans in Philanthropy: On November 21, at 1:00 pm (ET), join our moderator, Stephine “Steph” Poston (Pueblo of Sandia), NAP’s Chief Executive Officer, Erik R. Stegman (Carry the Kettle First Nation - Nakoda), along with esteemed NAP Partners, Lisa Jaguzny from Biodiversity Funders Group and Shannon Rudisill from Early Childhood Funders Collaborative, as they engage in a discussion on the significance of partnering across the field and how cross-sector collaboration can revolutionize the future landscape of philanthropy.

The US Department of Arts and Culture isn’t a real federal agency, but as the placeholder until the government actually makes one, we call on all colleagues in federal government, campaign staffers, and federal contractors to urge President Biden to demand an immediate ceasefire to end the genocide in Gaza.

"Across the country, students and teachers are heading back to school. Eager to reconnect, they are also ready to learn new concepts, discover unexpected insights, and be challenged by complex ideas," said Elizabeth Alexander for TIME Magazine.

But not everyone in American lecture halls or library stacks this fall will be allowed to learn and read freely. Due to recent bills and legislative efforts throughout the U.S., half our states censor the teaching of race and gender in public colleges and K-12 schools – especially any teaching that examines them in the context of our collective history. At the same time, books are being banned at the highest rate in our country since the American Library Association first began documenting those numbers. For students entering college, five times as many books are being challenged as when they started high school.

What will we sacrifice as a country by letting these bans stand? We cannot navigate our multicultural American society if we are operating from myth and stereotype instead of fact and shared experience – and its democratic workings slow when the education our students are taught is inaccurate and incomplete.