Today the Raikes Foundation announced nearly $1 million in funding to support the dismantling of anti-Black racism. The Black Leadership & Power Fund is separate from the foundation’s established strategies and provides unrestricted funding to organizations elevating Black leadership, bolstering Black political engagement and leveraging community-based organizing to advance anti-racist policy change across the nation.
“This extraordinary moment requires setting aside business as usual and fully living into our commitment to racial justice,” Dennis Quirin, executive director of the Raikes Foundation, said. “We hope to accelerate the great work already happening in these organizations, and to learn from them so that they can shape how we fund the movement for Black lives in the future.”
The Black Leadership & Power Fund is a direct response to the wave of activism sweeping the country in the wake of countless deaths at the hands of police officers, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and Elijah McClain.
“Right now, it is critical to fund to organizations centering the power and leadership of Black people,” Lindsay Hill, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said. “We pushed ourselves to think outside of our usual program areas and support organizations that are building the power needed to fully realize racial justice. We also felt it was important to reinforce our support of some of our current partners whose leadership in this fight is critical in this moment.”
The list of grantees includes:
The fund was created by a committee of Black staff members at the Raikes Foundation. Grantees were selected by the committee based on their work advancing racial justice, transforming youth-serving systems and in support of a robust, multiracial democracy.
