Month: February 2017

Announcing Winter 2016 Movement R&D Fund Grants

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump, our ability to respond strategically and urgently to meet the needs of the movement have never felt more pressing. We recognize the power and responsibility we have as donors and grantmakers to balance risk, strategy, and accountability in our collective fight for justice. It is in this spirit that Solidaire Network is excited to announce the results of our most recent Movement R&D Funding Cycle!

The “Movement R&D” Fund is designed to support upstart, innovative experiments in movement-building — making resources available for projects and ideas that might otherwise have a difficult time accessing traditional funding because they are untested or otherwise considered too risky for more traditional grant programs.

The list of Movement R&D groups below represent creative, innovative and important local models, as well as ambitious national efforts with an eye towards wide-ranging impact. The groups span from environmental justice organizing to mass criminalization to education and reproductive justice. Through these groups we are supporting the leadership of people of color, trans and gender nonconforming folks, indigenous people, formerly and currently incarcerated folks and their families, and youth.

In 2016, we piloted a new decision-making body over the Movement R&D Fund made up of a cross-class mix of current members and former grantees. Introducing formal cross-class decision-making into our Movement R&D Fund grant-making process is one concrete way to begin incorporating movement organizers into more formal relationships and leadership with Solidaire, better bringing our practice in line with our values by gaining the breadth and depth of wisdom and expertise offered by partners in the field.

Our Winter 2016 Movement R&D Grantees are:

1. 215 People’s Alliance – $15,000 – A new coalitional Philadelphia-based project focused on organizing communities fighting for education and racial justice and increasing movement participation in the local electoral process.
2. Anti Police-Terror Project – $25,000 – A crew of therapists, activists and organizers who go to a scene immediately following an Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) in the Bay Area who have begun training on their model in other regions and are exploring a statewide coalition to push back on Copley Press (Policeman’s Bill of Rights).
3. Campaign to End Youth Arrest in Florida – $20,000 — A statewide campaign led by the Dream Defenders to end youth arrest in Florida by 2022 by reducing their interactions with the Juvenile Justice system, the development and popularization of justice alternatives and building a grassroots movement to apply statewide political pressure.
4. Durham Beyond Policing – $15,000 — A local organizing project opposing the construction of a new $71 million police headquarters in Durham and demanding instead that money be reinvested into community needs for economic empowerment, self determination, and health that do not contribute to racialized mass incarceration or deportation.
5. Every Black Girl – $35,000 – A new Columbia, South Carolina based organizing effort that formed after the video of the young Black girl being assaulted by a white male School Resource Officer in her classroom went viral.
6. Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together – $20,000 — A group of formerly incarcerated Asian Pacific Islanders and their families in Washington state working to heal and undo internalized oppression on the personal, family, and community level, while organizing for long term change on the systemic level and planning a national gathering of formerly incarcerated API groups.
7. Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia – $20,000 — A new organization by renters for renters in Minneapolis’ most affordable, and most neglected housing — families of immigrants, people of color, the working poor, and single-parent households who are facing astronomically increasing rents and decreasing housing quality.
8. National Black Food & Justice Alliance – $35,000 – A new coalition of Black-led organizations working towards cultivating and advancing Black leadership, building Black self-determination, Black institution building and organizing for food sovereignty, land and justice.
9. National Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Coalition – $35,000 – A new national TGNC-led coalition to build long term sustainable infrastructure for TGNC movements to address state violence while centering the leadership of those most impacted including people of color, immigrants, youth and TGNC people living in the Midwest and South.
10. Prison Birth Project – $10,000  – Prison Birth Project (PBP) supports, encourages, and trains currently and formerly incarcerated mothers and trans parents to become community leaders within a reproductive justice framework.
11. To Nizhoni Ani – $25,000 — “Beautiful Water Speaks” is a native community and youth organizing effort in the Black Mesa region fighting coal extraction and pollution and lending support to newer organizations and efforts as well.
12. Wind River Native Advocacy – $20,000 — A Wyoming-based indigenous-led effort to build collaborative power among two tribes forced to live together on one reservation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as to increase Native American self-determination and self-governance.
13. Youth Rise Texas – $25,000 — A new Austin-based youth-led multiracial organization supporting young adults who have been impacted by the incarceration or deportation of a parent or caregiver.

Solidaire has benefitted much from the learnings of this process. We find ourselves in a new political landscape in 2017. Our hope is that this fund continues to be a pathway to move crucial resources to innovative, bold, and strategic work led by those most affected by the burning issues of our time. We see that reflected in these funding results and hope you do too!

Willa Conway, Member, Solidaire
J.F. Lyles, Groundswell Fund & formerly Southerners on New Ground
Braeden Lentz, Program Director, Solidaire