As we consider all that the 2024 election results may mean for our communities—namely, violence and harm of various formations, and the continued erasure of our fundamental freedoms—we are holding all of our partners in heart and mind with deep care.
We are also holding ourselves – and all of our peers in the philanthropic sector – accountable as we consider where we go from here.
Recent reports estimate that philanthropy’s combined assets total $1.5 trillion, an amount capable of funding a complete reimagination of our country. Our sector has an obligation to rise to meet the “urgency of now.”
Today, movement leaders and organizers continue—exhausted, grief-stricken, and angry, but never deterred. It is our duty to ensure they make it to tomorrow – to proactively resource grassroots organizers as they bolster and live into democracy as an emergent, necessary practice.
It is our duty to collectively co-create a world where we all share responsibility for one another; where our political, social, civil, and economic systems and institutions are representative of and responsive to communities; where we all have access to opportunity, autonomy, and joy.
We must act swiftly. And with certainty.
“Tomorrow is today … and there is such a thing as being too late.”
WHAT WE’RE UP AGAINST
Today, extremists sit on the Supreme Court, where they have undone critical protections related to:
At the state level, legislators are criminalizing the:
“Sea levels are rising, the Arctic is melting, coral reefs are dying, oceans are acidifying, and forests are burning.” Economic inequality is widening, while poverty is increasingly criminalized. Our carceral and policing systems are growing and inflicting greater harm than ever before. And we know these crises will only propel our movements.
WHAT WE KNOW IS POSSIBLE
Organizing never goes out of style.
Across the country, community-rooted organizers are stepping in to offer:
- Care coordination,
- Health screenings,
- Nutrition support,
- Housing support, and
- Much more for queer, trans, Black, and socially and politically oppressed people in under-resourced regions.
Borealis Philanthropy’s movement partners are ensuring that people experiencing houselessness have a voice in important policy decisions, and advocating to repurpose funding for harmful carceral systems into community resources. They are litigating against mass surveillance and its nefarious uses; advocating for the enforcement of fair labor standards; fighting punitive policies that criminalize reproductive outcomes, and advocating for state budget appropriations to support necessary communities.
But their vital efforts—in pursuit of freedom and justice for all—cease thriving without our resources.
Today we must mobilize resources in abundance, because the change we seek tomorrow demands it. We must fund community dreams and desires; power and possibilities. And we’ve got to do it across the whole ecosystem, from legislative advocacy to movement journalism; land stewardship to reimagining community safety; healing justice, and every space in between. And above all, it is time to act collectively, with the “cohesiveness and synchronicity” necessary to save our democracy and our collective lives.