Years ago, amidst escalating violence and division, Megan Ming Francis urged philanthropy to be clear on the world we’re committed to building.
“What does freedom mean to you? What does liberation mean to you? What does justice mean to you?”
At Borealis Philanthropy, our answers to these questions have become guides for our work. As an intermediary, we envision a beautiful future made possible by the alignment of those organizing for justice and those stewarding resources. In this new future, we are all able to experience sovereignty over ourselves, communities, and lands. We feel held with care by our neighbors and by the systems that we’ve co-created to serve us. Joy is abundant, and rest is no longer a luxury reserved for those with greater positional power.
And importantly, this future is situated within an inclusive and loving multi-racial democracy.
As we witness rising authoritarianism across our country and world, we’ve been reflecting on what this moment—one in which we just might be on the precipice of all we’ve hoped for and dreamt of—requires of philanthropy:
Fund organizing to fund democracy.
Preserving and perfecting our democracy will require actions that extend beyond voting; it is vital that we approach this pursuit in more expansive terms. True democracy relies on freedom—and thus, our strategies to defend it must include the resourcing of citizens at the forefront of movements for justice. Because justice and democracy not only inform one another; the latter hinges on the first.
Criminalization is an issue that underscores their entwinement. Increasingly, we are experiencing the criminalization of autonomous existence: of Blackness, queerness, transness; of migration, the pursuit and offering of life-saving and -affirming health care; and of peaceful assembly itself. And we then witness this criminalization further disenfranchise folks—remove them entirely from our practice of democracy. So, it is vital that funders urgently recognize that when we bolster any and all grassroots organizing for freedom and justice, we bolster democracy itself.
Just as funders for authoritarianism understand the reliance between dictatorship and the curbing of freedoms (see: Project 2025), so, too, must those of us who are working towards opposing ideals (namely: inclusivity, equity, and love).
LEARN MORE:
- Journalism is essential to accountability, truth-telling, civic engagement, and, thus, to democracy itself. The Racial Equity in Journalism Fund’s new report, Repair. Reimagine. Rebuild., outlines four scenarios for a more abundant journalism future—in which community-rooted journalism is queen—and the associated investments required from philanthropy.
- The movement to end state violence is unique, but deeply connected to all movements for equality and justice, both essential ingredients for an inclusive democracy. Every right fought for and won in the United States has come through mass protests and mobilization. Every right taken away and criminalized is enforced by police often with the use of surveillance, legal targeting, and violence. This toolkit, developed by the Communities Transforming Policing Fund, outlines how funders can—and must, as criminalization increases—support organizers for justice.
- As funders aiming to secure safety, self-determination, and freedom for all, the rising threat of surveillance is a serious threat to our democracy and cannot be ignored. The practice is more widespread than ever and continues to harm communities at the margins, as well as those fighting for justice and liberation. This toolkit, created by the Spark Justice Fund, provides grassroots wisdom and actionable guidance for funders on how to support organizers to dismantle surveillance.
Mobilize resources to BIPOC, queer, trans, and disabled leaders.
To fund audacious dreams, we must fund audacious dreamers, those whose radical imaginations are capable of expanding our very notions of freedom and democracy. At Borealis, our commitment is to resourcing those whose ideas and visions we trust most: Black, queer, trans, and disabled organizers. We know the well of wisdom in these communities runs deep because our existing systems (political, justice, housing, food, or otherwise) were never designed to serve them—and we believe the brilliance born of their lived and learned experiences is what will help us build anew. As it always has.
Take, for example, the many gifts from Black-led organizing throughout history. Over centuries of resistance and protest—from slavery abolition (the very first labor movement in the history of the U.S.) to the Civil Rights Movement to the Movement for Black Lives—Black organizers have helped our country live up to its founding ideals, paving the way not just for Black folks, but for every other civil rights struggle, including women’s rights, trans and queer sovereignty, and migrant and disability rights. Without the efforts of Black activists, our democracy would look incredibly different today.
And yet, Black-led and -serving organizations remain severely underfunded.
- Despite an uptick in resource mobilization in response to the racial justice uprisings of 2020, funding for Black communities still represents only 2.1% of philanthropic giving overall—and funds dedicated to racial justice comprise just 1% of overall grants distributed.
- A majority of Black-led and Black-benefiting nonprofits operate on less than $500,000 a year, with nearly one-third operating with just $30,000 a year.
The same holds true for our disabled, queer, and trans siblings, whose activism has—historically and through present day—led to greater inclusivity for all:
- For every $100 awarded by U.S. foundations in 2022, 4.6 cents specifically supported TGNCNBi communities and issues in that year. (Funders for LGBTQ Issues)
- Only 2% of total philanthropic giving is allocated for disability-focused initiatives, the majority of which goes towards disability services and support. Only 6% of these funds are granted to systems change or justice-oriented work. Intersectional giving is also low, with only one-third of disability-related grants going towards disabled and BIPOC-led work.
In this critical moment—and particularly in the face of targeted, fear-based tactics (including the repeal of affirmative action, and the recent Fearless Fund decision), philanthropy has an urgent moral obligation to fund communities who live and organize at the margins of our country’s existing power structures.
LEARN MORE:
- At Borealis Philanthropy, we view intersectional organizing (and thus intersectional funding) as a portal to freedom and equity for all. The Black Disabled Liberation Project—a new co-funding initiative of the Black-Led Movement Fund and Disability Inclusion Fund—has compiled grassroots wisdom, insights, and guidance for funders on a new resource hub.
- The leadership of trans women of color, while under-resourced, is particularly essential to building connected, inclusive, and powerful movements that leave no one behind. The Emerging LGBTQ Leaders of Color Fund’s Young Trans Women of Color grantmaking program offers a model for what supporting leadership at this intersection looks like.
- In addition to mobilizing resources to trans leaders, the Fund for Trans Generations offers wraparound support via long-term coaching, recognizing that folks whose very existence is being threatened require fellowship, care, and strategic guidance to sustain their work. This offering is a powerful model for funders; you can learn more about it here, and via an upcoming deep dive of the program on the Borealis blog.
Practice democracy within our own institutions.
There’s a really beautiful sentiment across movement that the pursuit of liberation is an individual journey as much as it is a collective one—and what this means is that we have to liberate our minds and ourselves in order to do the same in our practices, systems, and culture. Philanthropy must do more to ensure it is practicing democratic principles in its own work every day, at every level.
Democracy is about equity and inclusion. It centers the voice of the people in decision-making. And it requires deep intention. Philanthropy must bring this intention to its work—via participatory grantmaking, liberatory research methods, and other practices that center the wisdom of those communities our grantmaking aims to serve. And we must practice this, too, within the four walls of our own institutions, interrogating our staff composition for representation; the sharing of power; and ensuring equity for our staff.
LEARN MORE:
- Through conversations with grassroots partners—and a careful interrogation of their practices through a liberatory lens—the Black-Led Movement Fund and Communities Transforming Policing Fund recognized the need for a new and participatory impact, learning, and evaluation paradigm: one that centers our grantee partners’ definitions of progress, and generates learnings on how philanthropy can be more accountable to movement organizers. The Funds’ stewarded a participatory process to support grassroots leaders in developing a new tool—the result and process for which can be accessed on the new Movement-Defined Learning Project microsite.
- To arrive at a radically inclusive democracy, we must first practice the principles of this framework within our own institutions—but how? The Racial Equity to Accelerate Change Fund’s new report, Meeting the Moment, Keeping the Momentum, has compiled insights and case studies of racial equity practitioners who have worked across the nonprofit ecosystem to support organizations in achieving greater equity, inclusivity, and repair.
- Participatory grantmaking—in which decision-making power is transferred to the community—allows for more radical inclusion of voices in the grantmaking process and the democratization of how funding is offered to our communities while also elevating transparency about our grantmaking processes. In a new blog post, Beyond Dragonhood, we explain what, exactly—from committee composition to political education offerings—participatory grantmaking looks like for the Black-Led Movement Fund, Communities Transforming Policing Fund, Disability Inclusion Fund, and Fund for Trans Generations.
In this critical juncture, we must remember: philanthropy exists to experiment, act in abundance, and assume risk in ways that other entities—particularly our grassroots partners—are not. This moment belongs to philanthropy. May we recognize the power that exists in alignment, and act swiftly and collectively towards a new world.
To learn more about partnering with Borealis to align your giving with other funders across the philanthropic landscape, email Maya Berkowitz at mberkowitz@borealisphilanthropy.org.