From the defunding of public media to the militarization of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., our democracy is facing dire threats. At the same time, those who have taken up the important work of defending it are experiencing increasingly complex and interlocking challenges, including:
- attacks on their safety and security;
- false, dehumanizing narratives;
- the dismantling of safety net supports;
- the criminalization of dissent; and
- the loss of essential funding.
At a point where their work matters most, those organizing for our freedoms are living in a state of continual crisis.
For ten years, Borealis Philanthropy has resourced these very people—those pursuing what is necessary in order for all Americans to hold and share power: racial, gender, and disability justice; community safety and well-being; and economic inclusion. Groups working towards these visions are essential to expanding opportunity and reshaping the arc of justice, thus making possible a truly inclusive multiracial democracy. And it is their efforts that have taught us a great deal over the past decade.
At Borealis, our greatest value lies in our ability to incubate, experiment, and iterate in ways informed by movements. In this way, we are not only a mechanism for donors to route money to the frontlines; we are a powerful learning and insight aggregator for our sector. As our democracy unravels and our movements face powerful resistance, we’re highlighting some of the strategies that we’ve had the honor to test over the years—strategies that we believe can offer frontline organizers essential support and hope in this critical moment.
- Ear-Marked Infusions for Joy and Restoration
The pursuit of justice requires the pursuit of self-determined and collective access to joy, because it is within joy that our communities are sustained long term. Recognizing the importance of rest, collective care, and community beyond traditional notions of “productivity” and “worthiness,” our Disability Inclusion Fund distributed joy grants, earmarked infusions to expand the capacity of grantee partner organizations to rest, reflect on movement strategies, strengthen community relationship-building, and access collective life-affirming experiences.
- Reimagining Grantee Reporting
At Borealis, our program teams are constantly interrogating our processes to ensure deep alignment with and ease for our grantee partners. After implementing participatory grantmaking processes, some of our team members became curious about what it would look like to apply a participatory approach to reimagining our impact and evaluation framework. By tapping into the wisdom and needs of organizers, could we design a new approach to reporting—one that centered their definitions of progress, generated learnings for the philanthropic sector, and created a product of potential benefit to their organizations? Our teams partnered with Social Insights Research to launch the Movement Defined Learning Project, a participatory learning journey shifting our approach to understanding impact. By reimagining our annual reporting through a grantee lens, our funds were able to be less directive, better understand what our partners need from us, and extend their capacity for powerful storytelling.
- A Rapid Container for Safety and Security Needs
At Borealis, we have long recognized security and defense infrastructure as a critical component of social change work. Earlier this year, as our country began moving through heightened socio-political instability, we announced the Security, Action, and Freedom for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative, a cross-cutting pool of resources to support those working on today’s most pressing issues, from racial justice to queer and trans rights, immigrant justice, disability justice, voting access, climate safety, and reproductive rights. This pot of funds was highly movement-responsive. Recognizing the ways in which the rollback of civil rights and liberties was directly impacting the safety and security of justice-based organizations, these dollars helped meet urgent needs like legal defense, cybersecurity, physical security, de-escalation training, and emergency operational support.
- Support for Narrative Power Building
Telling our stories—those of grief and marginalization, but also of wins and reimaginings—is how we secure greater love for our people, buy-in for our emergent ideas, and the political power necessary to create safe, joyful, and autonomous futures. That’s why we partnered with Resonance, a progressive communications collective, to provide narrative change support to grantee partners working to curb criminalization and develop alternatives to community safety. Over nine months, our partners participated in a peer learning and visioning space, where they developed new stories, language, and messages to deconstruct harmful narratives rooted in capitalism, ableism, and racism—and to put forward visions for a safe and just world. The trainings and dialogue helped groups consider narrative change as an essential impact of their work, and advance liberatory campaigns related to national security, militarism, and policing.
The days and years ahead will determine our ability to exist, thrive, and impart safe, healthy, and joyful ecologies to future generations. May we come together to meet this moment. May we win.
