In May, Borealis Philanthropy’s Spark Justice Fund (SJF) gathered our community in Birmingham for meaningful dialogue and shared experiences conducive to forging lasting connections, deep insights, and opportunities for strategic collaboration. Over three days together, panel sessions on the state of the movement, narrative power-building, and investment in leadership ignited flurries of questions, ideas, and new connections—and folks collectively strategized around dismantling unjust pretrial detention policies; reducing criminalization; and reshaping our approach to community safety and justice.
Recognizing the toll this work takes, we selected the serene Renaissance Birmingham Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa as our retreat location to ground it in our other intent: offering a space for rejuvenation and reflection. Knowing our community leaders rarely invest in themselves, we wanted to hold them in deep care by nourishing the body, mind, and spirit. We covered all meals and built-in wellness breaks and hyped each other up on the mics for karaoke.
And we grounded in place.
Convening in Birmingham was an intentional decision, one that holds profound significance for SJF’s work and mission. The city’s generations have witnessed pivotal moments in civil rights history, and thus, it carries a legacy of both organizing and resistance and symbolizes our ongoing struggles against injustices. We visited Montgomery, where we drew collective inspiration from the Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites—the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park—connecting our liberation from slavery and Jim Crow to the ongoing struggle against mass incarceration.
Over the past several months, the feedback we have received from grantee and funder partners about their retreat experience is a testament to the power of intentional, relationship-oriented, and place-based community engagement. Participants have shared with us that they experienced a deep sense of wellness and connection—both critical components to sustaining our movements—and also of ease, energy, and inspiration.
The event fostered valuable relationships among grantee partners and with funders, who praised the convening and suggested it as a model for others to follow. And so, we’re doing so. We are honored and excited to highlight the bars dropped during our convening’s panels—and are calling on our funder peers to come to the mic to name their commitments to continuous, responsive, and long-term funding for the movement ecosystem—including fellowship, joy, rest, and wellness for our leaders.
And remember: you can support a national network of organizers working for justice and freedom—and funder relationships and programming that look like this— by reaching out to us at sparkjustice@borealisphilanthropy.org.
Welcome to Birmingham
“Start with yourself. Take a break for a mental health break. You can’t be no good to anybody if you aren’t good.”
– LaTonya Tate
“In Alabama, local organizations are operating on less than $300K annual budgets. Less than 3% of philanthropic dollars go to the Deep South. Even with all of this, there is a strong culture of connection—deep, interconnected organizations with a movement focused on collective care. No one wins unless everyone wins.”
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– Tahirih Osborne
“Alabama has the deadliest prison system in the nation and in the world, and the jails are being used to house unwell and unhoused people.”
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“We are a place where the rest of the nation’s absolute worst nightmares are being test-driven and piloted.”
State of the Movement
“The government in Arkansas and the politicians really believe the people in the state are just not smart or educated and not aware of what is actually going on. They will twist clear signals of not voting on expanding jails and prisons in AR into ‘oh, they just didn’t want to deal with the tax; they weren’t saying no to the cages.‘”
– Sarah Moore
“These policymakers are talking to each other. Just look at the copycats. Look at Louisiana. Three legislative bills are being introduced. SB388 is an exact copy of SB4 from Texas. Another bill, SB279, attacking driver’s licenses in Louisiana, was introduced in Florida, which called for a state of emergency for immigrants. The third one, SB208, is similar to the one in GA attacking sanctuary cities.”
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“When we mobilize and when we organize, we tend to win.”
– Dauda Sausey
Flipping the Script on Criminality:
Narrative Shift to Build Power
“Instead of looking at the single pieces of each of them, Free Hearts looks at the person as a whole. The cohort work elevated me and allowed me to become a trucking/business owner who can hire people without worrying about their past. It is empowering being a part of an organization that sees you for who you are and having an organization seeing you at the next level.”
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“I live in a state where when you become a felon, you lose your natural birth rights. I live in a state where you can get your gun rights back faster than your other rights.”
– Halima
“I’m here as a directly impacted person to shift the narrative and not allow my past to determine my worth and what I can and can’t accomplish and be.”
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“You do not need a money bond to determine who is good and bad for ‘public safety.’ The powers in my state talk about this a lot. They hold the line on that point.”
– Allen
The Pipeline—and Challenges—of Leadership
“As a Black woman of trans experience, I am the movement. My birth was an act of resistance. I’ve always had to fight to exist, but now I’m fighting for everyone. If we lift the foundation for the most marginalized people, we lift the foundation for everyone.”
– Breonna McCree of Transgender District
“I am the frontline person. My job requires a tremendous amount of physicality. I’m often injured and sick. And I’m being asked to fill out a fund matrix. Funders are disrespecting their own ‘pillars and values.’ Funder requirements are making them sick. The work is making me sick. The wellness of Black leaders is what determines the sustainability of the movement.”
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“The funding model fulfills the scarcity model. Organizations are fighting over the same crumbs when there are billions of dollars. It harms our bodies and harms our own relationships in the community with other community members. Move out of scarcity and move into abundance. There is absolutely enough out there for everyone. And as you do that, you shift the world into liberation.”
– Tanya Watkins
“The way we move from surviving to thriving is by not giving Black trans leaders peanuts. Anytime funding is offered by certain funders, anytime it’s offered to Black trans organizations, the funding will often be cut in half because we’ve shown we can work with that. We deserve the right to live comfortably, to stand tall, and have a foundation that has our back.”
– Regina Livingston of Unspoken Treasure Society
“Having these moments to interrupt the rage is so critical. It reminds me exactly what I’m working for. Not only me but every Black person deserves access to joy. I want to be Black and weird in public. I have been able to feel like a human here, and I haven’t felt that in so long.”
– Tanya Watkins
Place, Power, Positionality:
What’s Needed from Funders
“Glad this conversation is happening and happening in Alabama. There is something about being on the land where over 12 million people were brought over here as slaves and built one of the most influential and strong cities and communities the nation has seen.”
“It’s hard to go where you’ve never been. It is so important to have a coach that can get you in the door.”
“The main asset is you—protect yourself, your energy, and your mission, and lean on the resources offered so you don’t have to expend your energy on them. If someone is doing it for you, use it.”
– Prentiss Haney