This year marks a decade of Borealis Philanthropy—a time for celebration, and also a time to reflect on lessons learned to better support those who are organizing us towards a limitless future. In 2026, Borealis will roll out a new programmatic structure which does just that—sharpens our strategies while amplifying our collective power and opportunity for transformational change. Below, we’re proud to share topline collaborative learnings from the past ten years that have informed and shaped our plans for resourcing movement continuity, strategic foresight, and continual evolution.
Beyond Silos: The Case for an Integrated Intermediary Strategy
Ten years ago, Borealis was born of emerging social justice movements that were expanding the contours of justice and opportunities towards more inclusion. Shortly following the United State’s Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, granting same-sex couples the right to marry, investments in queer and trans organizing slowed. Leaders representing intersectional movements approached three funder ally groups—Arcus Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund—about the need for greater resources for their work. These funders came together to launch the Transforming Movements Fund, establishing Borealis Philanthropy.
In the years since, Borealis has acted to anchor nationwide movements, from racial to disability justice. And, as an intermediary should, we’ve mobilized resources to the frontlines of movement while also serving as strategic partner and incubator for some of our sector’s most necessary iterations as we pace ourselves to meet the evolving needs of movement. In addition to moving millions, we’ve presented visions for new futures, elevated critical community wisdom, and expanded the notion of liberatory grantmaking.
To date, the majority of this work has been organized through pooled funds, which have emerged, blossomed, sunset, and evolved to meet both communities’ urgent needs, and the philanthropic sector’s corresponding commitments.
And still, even while these funds worked collaboratively on cross-programmatic offerings, we came to recognize the need to organize our work in ways that explicitly honor the interconnections across our work, and name what our grantee partners are building towards: a radically inclusive, fair, and representative democracy.
To fund and build more power in our next decade of existence, Borealis’ new strategy is grounded within intersectional pillars that advance social justice movements and leaders. These pillars are: :
- Race, Gender, and Disability Justice
- Community Safety and Justice
- Economic Justice and Inclusion
- Media, Journalism, and Narrative Change
- Movement Infrastructure
These pillars recognize our collaborative funding strategies, and point to what we believe are a blueprint for an inclusive multi-racial democracy in which the philanthropic sector at large must support as we experience heightened threats to public safety, challenges to basic civil rights protections, erosions of freedom of expression and the widening gap of social and economic inclusion.
Nothing About Us Without Us: How DIF Shaped Borealis’ Thinking on Cross-Movement Infrastructure
In 2020, foundation leaders across the country came together to form the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy, establishing the Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) at Borealis. The DIF was created to route critical resources to under-funded groups on the frontline of disability justice movements, and push the philanthropic sector to center disability across all aspects of its grantmaking and operations.
The work of disability justice is inherently intersectional. As a framework, disability justice heeds the values of intersectionality, cross-disability solidarity, and collective liberation, understanding, as Audre Lorde once wrote, that “we do not live single issue lives.” The DIF, since its inception, has acted in deep accordance with these values. It has prioritized intersectionality across its grantmaking, co-launched a one-of-a-kind initiative uplifting Black and disabled leaders, and mobilized resources towards joy and rest, reflecting the multifaceted and diverse nature of disability. It has also resourced disabled-serving organizations working across every aspect of life, from housing security to voting access, workforce opportunities, and health care.
Through resource mobilization and political education, the DIF has consistently demonstrated that when we fund across issues and identities, we strengthen the ecosystems that make movements more connected, resilient, and whole. To achieve true freedom and liberation, we must understand that ableism is inseparable from every other fight for justice. These lessons are woven into Borealis’ broader organizational ethos, and will carry forward in the continued vital work of the DIF.
More Than a Moment: The Enduring Legacy of FTG’s Community-Centered Model
Over the past decade, we have seen that philanthropy is strongest when it places decision-making power and resources directly into the hands of those most impacted by injustice. Trust-based philanthropy—in which our operations are streamlined, our decisions are guided by those with lived experience, and our relationships are rooted in care—ensures that movements have the capacity, support, and resources to tend to urgent needs while simultaneously building towards long-term visions. This is especially critical in today’s sociopolitical climate: while a record number of anti-LGBTQ bills—many targeting trans youth—have advanced across the country, only 20 cents of every $100 in U.S. giving supports LGBTQ communities.
Amid rising transantagonism and shrinking resources, Borealis’s Fund for Trans Generations (FTG) has shown what is possible when we center and listen to the communities we seek to serve. For nearly 10 years, the FTG has directed resources by following the lead of our grantee partners through a participatory grantmaking model and moving dollars to support our communities’ self-identified priorities: safe and affordable housing, leadership development, legal advocacy, mutual aid, and sanctuaries for health and wellness—as well as targeted programs to support at risk trans populations and geographic areas. Additionally, the Fund has supported grantee partners via long-term coaching, wraparound capacity building support, and cohort-based programming. This community-centered model has enabled our grantmaking to be both valuable and effective. And this rootedness in community has also shown us what movement needs most to endure: sustained, grantee-led support for programming, and also for fellowship, co-strategizing, safety, security, rest, and joy. The FTG’s approach will serve as a beautiful foundation for the next iteration of Borealis, and will also continue on as a fund to ensure flowing resources for trans communities during this crisis moment and beyond.
What Liberation Costs: Toward a More Inclusive Economic Future
Since our’ inception, Borealis’ grantmaking has been rooted in an understanding that localized solutions are how we win. From innovative decarceral strategies to community wealth building, housing justice, and labor rights, our grantmaking has aimed to defend against extractive practices, dismantle intergenerational inequity, and secure greater economic security for all. And yet, we never named this as an explicit funding priority of ours. Instead, we simply funded it, supporting partners like Life After Release, which challenges wealth extraction by addressing injustice in the criminal legal system in Maryland; Detroit Disability Power, which advocates for just public investment and equitable wealth distribution; and Pittsburgh-based SisTers PGH, which provides housing, employment, safety support and addresses the extraction and exclusion of for trans and nonbinary people from public investment.
As authoritarianism rises, it is critical to prioritize economic inclusion for our communities, because of the strong and persistent correlations between socioeconomic status and outcomes across health, education, and opportunity, all of which are essential to civic engagement. To ensure a fair, inclusive, and multiracial democracy, we must name and resource all that it requires.
Action Requires Infrastructure and Innovation: What Borealis Has Learned About The Movement Ecosystem’s Needs
A decade into this work, we’ve learned a critical truth: when funding goes towards organizing, advocacy and community services we achieve new horizons for justice, because the systems and policies that once maintained these discriminatory structures are weak under pressure. Yet, without dollars and vital resources to support essential, day to day organizational needs, access integrated learning and wellness, and strengthen internal racial equity practices, the frontline organizations and fearless leaders that make up our movement ecosystem risk losing their value, limiting their responsiveness, or further perpetuating harm in their communities.
Moving forward, Borealis recognizes that we can no longer be just a vehicle for distributing funds or supporting grantee capacity in isolation. In this critical moment, we must fully step into our role as a strategic actor in the multi-movement ecosystem: resourcing and designing shared infrastructure that enables greater coordination across movements, creating feedback loops to learn in real time, and influencing how the field moves—by modeling, convening, funding, and building alongside our partners.
Urgency to Response: How Borealis Built the SAFE Initiative on the Lessons of Rapid Response
As intermediary funders deeply rooted in communities, we know that grassroots leaders and organizations rely on additional infusions of resources to sustain their work during flashpoint moments. Rapid response funds support organizations and organizers to fend off threats, ramp up offerings for their communities, seize key advocacy opportunities, and sustain their individual and organizational health and wellness. It is for this reason that rapid response grantmaking has long been a cornerstone of our offerings at Borealis.
Earlier this year, as our country began moving through heightened socio-political instability, we understood the need for a pooling amongst our funds. As the scale of threats grew, we knew that in order to align the philanthropic sector, we had to align ourselves. Recognizing the ways in which the rollback of civil rights and liberties was directly impacting the day to day operations, wellness, and lives of those building towards racial justice, queer and trans rights, immigrant justice, disability justice, voting access, climate safety, reproductive rights, Borealis announced the Security, Action, and Freedom for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative, a cross-cutting pool of resources to support those facing safety and security concerns simply for defending communities under attack.
SAFE was designed to move dollars even more quickly with limited burden–practices that will be the standard for rapid response going forward. SAFE is movement-responsive, ensuring critical dollars for legal defense, cybersecurity, physical security, de-escalation training, and emergency operational support. By meeting these needs, Borealis was able to support over 50 (and counting) organizations, as a community-aligned intermediary, routing dollars to ensure the sustainability of the frontlines of movements for justice.