Borealis Philanthropy Awards $1.95 Million Through Its Disability Inclusion Fund to Support Cross-Movement Collaborations

At Borealis Philanthropy, we know that movements are strongest when we organize together across communities, issues, and identities. That belief is at the heart of the Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) Collaborative Grants Pilot Program: a new initiative designed to resource powerful, cross-movement collaborations that advance disability justice and strengthen our collective future.

This initiative is a direct response to what organizers have long made clear: the work of disability justice is deeply connected to other movements for justice—and collaborative efforts need sustained resourcing. Through this new grantmaking initiative, DIF awarded grants to 13 projects to deepen their cross-movement work. Together, these organizations are leading efforts that span community organizing, legal advocacy, arts and culture, mutual aid, education, and policy—meeting urgent needs while building long-term infrastructure for access, care, and collective power.

Learn about each partnership below:

• The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and Free the People ROC are advancing disability rights and decarceration by combining legal advocacy, policy work, and grassroots organizing. Based in Rochester, New York, and linked to national advocacy, their work connects community-led efforts with legal strategies to challenge the systems that criminalize and marginalize disabled folks.
• The Black Deaf Project, the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, and Atomic Hands are uplifting Deaf communities of color through an exhibit highlighting Deaf history, culture, and social justice movements, alongside monthly events, panels, and performances in California. The project will also feature a traveling STEM program for Deaf youth, expanding access and visibility while nurturing emerging leaders.
• Black Lives Matter Phoenix Metro, Mass Liberation Arizona, and Lotus Liberation are building a cross-movement collaboration that connects racial justice, disability justice, and decarceration. Through leadership development, grassroots organizing, and capacity building, the groups are working across Arizona to strengthen community-led alternatives to incarceration and expand systems of care grounded in accessibility and justice.
  
• Disability Culture Lab and We Testify are bridging disability justice and reproductive justice through a national storytelling project. Starting with an accessible digital toolkit, they’re sharing disabled people’s experiences with abortion and healthcare to bring the two movements together and push for a more inclusive and connected movement.
  
• Disability Justice Culture Club, Calling Up Justice, and One Free Community are joining forces to build a shared network for disabled organizers in California. By exchanging tools, spaces, and strategies, they’re supporting leaders at the intersection of racial, gender, and disability justice and creating a sustainable, care-based model for mutual aid, accessible events, and long-term organizing.
• El Grupo Vida and Living Hope Wheelchair Association, working across Colorado and Texas, are building cross-organizational capacity to support disabled immigrant families through mutual aid, education, and advocacy, so that families navigating both disability and immigration systems can access vital resources like healthcare, mobility support, and language services.
  
• HEARD and Deaf Hope are creating a justice-focused education program for Deaf youth to learn how to navigate conflict without involving police or school systems. Led by Deaf organizers with experience in survivor support and community care, the project gives young people tools to build accountability, healing, and safety in their schools and communities.
  
• The METAS Project is bringing together ten disability justice organizations to plan and host an in-person gathering that focuses on leadership, advocacy, and social change. Through regular planning meetings and paid participation, the project builds collective power and strengthens the role of disabled organizers in policy, movement strategy, and culture.
  
• PeoplesHub and Let’s Get Free: The Women and Trans Prisoner Defense Committee are strengthening the infrastructure of racial, gender, and disability justice movements by supporting disabled folks impacted by the carceral system through political education and leadership development, so they can organize, advocate, and help build community-based alternatives to incarceration and institutionalization.
  
• Project LETS and Nze Okoronta are developing peer-led mental health support services, advancing non-carceral crisis response, and expanding disability justice leadership training programs, so that disabled folks can lead community-based responses to mental health crises in ways that are people-centered and rooted in care.
  
• Sins Invalid, the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, and Crip Survival Network, are coming together to strengthen disability-led responses to crisis and disaster by combining cultural work, movement leadership development, and the creation of non-carceral community care infrastructure to ensure that disabled people are centered in disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts nationwide.
  
• SPM Disability Justice Fund and RAMPD are building long-term support systems for disability justice organizers by providing tools to navigate grant writing, strengthen digital security, and build sustainable operations through shared resources so they’re able to respond to urgent needs while also building for the future.
• Urban Jazz Dance Company and Deaf Spotlight are advancing Deaf arts and culture by increasing access to performance spaces and creative platforms for Deaf leaders, disabled culture bearers, and grassroots organizers across the country, ensuring that Deaf-led cultural work is seen, valued, and supported in the broader disability justice movement.

As disabled communities and the principles of disability justice continue to come under attack, Borealis Philanthropy stands firm in our commitment to frontline organizers fighting against injustice. We are grateful for the support of the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy and our broader donor tables, whose partnership makes our work possible. 

We invite funders to join the Borealis community to pool and distribute resources to the frontlines of intersectional movements for justice. To learn more about how to partner with us, please connect with us at nbrownbooker@borealisphilanthropy.org .