Creating Collaborative,
Transformational Change for All

A MEDITATION

The world we desire is rooted in love, justice, and abundance. To realize this vision, our funds pool resources and collaborate to create offerings directly benefiting Black organizers, queer and trans leaders, women and femmes, folks with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and so many more.

Collaboration and innovation are crucial components of effective philanthropic practice—and thus, to our work at Borealis. This meditation highlights what is possible when we think beyond our limitations, seek opportunities to work together, and move in direct response to what our communities are asking for. All of this, we believe, will lead us toward the world we deserve.

With that in mind, we excitedly invite you to learn more about how our funds are collaborating and innovating toward transformational change—and, in turn, to apply these learnings to your own work, and move into a deepened alignment with community.

The Movement-Defined Learning Project is a participatory learning and evaluation project designed to support communities in defining their own impact and success and reflect back their wisdom to resource and cultivate a culture of learning within their own institutions, and across the philanthropic sector.

• The Movement-Defined Learning Project is an invitation, a portal through which the philanthropic sector can better understand what movement actors require of us in this critical moment and for the long-haul.

The Black Disabled Liberation Project is an offering meant to challenge the historical lack of investment in Black disabled activists—and make clear how the philanthropic sector can center and resource their leadership, wisdom, and solutions moving forward. The funding initiative is the first and only of its kind.

Launching in 2025, Borealis Philanthropy’s BlackPrint Fellowship is specifically designed for and by Black leaders who have been directly impacted by policing and incarceration. This fellowship, emerging from the Spark Justice Fund and supported by the Fund for Trans Generations, is dedicated to nurturing these leaders not just as agents of social change, but as whole persons deserving of growth, development, and care.

The Black Future Newsstand is one such project of this kind—an expression of a media-system that cares for Black people, and a living antidote to the deep history of anti-Black media harm. A narrative concept, digital collection, and live exhibition featuring magazines, newspapers, and other forms of media owned and published by Black folks, the Black Future newsstand is an embodied afrofuturist that asks—What does a media that loves Black people look, feel, sound, and taste like in a future where reparations are real?

This year, the Racial Equity to Accelerate Change (REACH) Fund partnered with Research Action Design (RAD) to put forward the wisdom of racial equity practitioners—the healers, facilitators, coaches, and liberation practitioners who comprise the REACH Fund’s grantee cohort—in a new report: “Meeting the Moment, Keeping the Momentum: Stories of Racial Equity and Liberatory Practices from the Field.”

This is why Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color (ELLC) Fund directly invests in trans leaders who are organizing across movements and issues, through its Young Trans Women of Color (YTWOC) grantmaking program.

The Fund for Trans Generations’ Halo Academy envisions a philanthropic landscape where donors are deeply connected to the communities they serve, fostering empathy, accountability, and sustainable change.

• The Halo Academy aims to create a ripple effect, with trained donors becoming advocates for compassionate philanthropy, thereby influencing their peers and shaping the broader philanthropic landscape. It is a sanctuary where admitting ‘I don’t know’ is not only accepted but encouraged, free from any guilt or fear.

When Black Trans Femme leaders are supported holistically, they become powerful agents of change. The Flower Crown Project exists to nourish, develop, and also cherish and respect the brilliance and personhood of Black trans femme leaders. The project transcends traditional leadership development initiatives by cultivating a sacred space for its cohort.