The Racial Equity to Accelerate Change (REACH) Fund at Borealis Philanthropy is excited to announce the launch of our first-ever round of participatory grantmaking.

Our first step in the process is forming an experienced and informed Participatory Grantmaking Committee, and we’re seeking your help in identifying potential members. As a valued member of the Borealis community, you understand that enduring, transformative change takes all of us. That’s why we are turning to you to help us connect with movement leaders you believe should be at the decision-making table.

Why Participatory Grantmaking, Now?

Borealis Philanthropy envisions a whole, new world; one in which we share responsibility for one another; in which our political, social, civil, and economic systems and institutions are representative of and responsive to communities; and in which we all have access to opportunity, autonomy, and joy. 

At the REACH Fund, we know that expanding power and participation for all people requires philanthropy to play its part, acting in deep accompliceship, and swiftly resourcing those most impacted by systems of oppression. 

The REACH Fund advances this necessary social change by investing broadly across social change ecosystems with a focus on those who foster critical connections across movements and generations. In order to build power and take collective action, and nurture communities of care and solidarity, we must resource architects of new ways of being and working together: strategists, field builders, network weavers, healers, communicators, litigators, somatic practitioners, and more. This is how we co-create liberatory futures while we more rapidly dismantle harmful systems of white supremacy, anti-Blackness, ableism, transphobia, and other forms of domination and oppression. 

Participatory grantmaking helps us achieve our goals while ensuring those closest to the work guide how resources flow to movements and that innovative, community-led models are prioritized. 

Who We’re Looking For

We are assembling a committee of leaders deeply embedded in movements, particularly those advancing:

• Black-led movement organizing
• Disability justice
• Queer and trans liberation
• Migrant and refugee issues
• Power-building and cross-movement solidarity  

Ideal candidates could include:

• Liberatory tech and data strategists building and expanding tools that return control of data to communities, and training organizers on counter-surveillance.
• Mutual aid ecosystem builders scaling mutual aid during crises, creating opportunities for cross-regional learning, and building/sustaining systems rooted in care and reciprocity.
• Storytellers, cultural workers, and media creatives using narrative disruption to shift culture and spark collective action.
• Community of practice organizers infusing power-building, political analysis, and shared narrative strategies into existing networks of fellowship and kin.
• Healers, somatic practitioners, and movement chaplains centering collective care, grief support, sustainability, and other mental health supports in organizing spaces.
• Land stewards, climate justice organizers, and agrarians rematriating land through land back initiatives, cooperative farming, and environmental restoration.
• Health workers, doulas, reproductive justice advocates, and disability justice practitioners committed to expanding accessible, community-defined health care. 

Do you fit or know someone who fits this description?

Have questions about the REACH Fund’s call for participatory grantmaking committee members? Sign up for a 15-minute session to learn more and get your questions answered.

What’s Next?

Later this year, we will launch a Request for Proposals focused on practitioner-led organizing—honoring the breadth of strategies that make social change possible.

At Borealis, we know that real change happens when we invest in the entire ecosystem—those working for safe communities, disability justice, Black liberation, and more. Thank you for being part of this work and for helping us build a grantmaking process that reflects our shared values.