The Democratic Development for Thriving Communities: Framing the Issues, Solutions, and Funding Strategies to Address Gentrification and Displacement report is the result of collaboration between the California Funders Working Group on Gentrification and Displacement , field leaders, and academics. It builds on previous work from the philanthropic, academic, and...
On July 20, 2015, NFG partnered with the California Endowment, Ford Foundation, Common Counsel Foundation, and Smart Growth California to convene a day-long meeting for 70 funders and practitioners working on gentrification and displacement issues in California.
Our goal was to deepen a shared understanding of the problems and solutions to the crisis of displacement affecting residents and small businesses in many cities in California due to gentrification. We also sought to lay the foundation for potential alignment on strategies addressing these issues.
We developed a...
Technologies for Liberation: Toward Abolitionist Futures is a new report by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice in collaboration with Research Action Design (RAD).
The report explores the ways the state and corporations in the U.S. are using...
On July 5, The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), Law for Black Lives , Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), and over 25 affiliates and allies released a new report examining the budgets of 12 city and county governments that reveals the extent to which local jurisdictions pour money into policing and incarceration, at the expense of community safety priorities such as infrastructure and social safety net programs.
The report,...
Communities United , Make the Road New York , and Padres & Jóvenes Unidos have just released a new report, The $3.4 Trillion Mistake: The Cost of Mass Incarceration and Criminalization, and How Justice Reinvestment Can Build a Better Future for All , detailing how the U.S.’s misguided criminal justice policies wasted $3.4 trillion over the last three decades that could have instead been used to more...
What will it take to win successful economic justice campaigns in the South? With many families facing chronically low wages and economic insecurity, an understanding and attention to the political economy of the South can help funders and field organizations develop successful intervention strategies.
This report was commissioned by the Society for Labour and Development (based in India), the Project of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ProDESC, based in Mexico), and the National Guestworkers Alliance, three labor rights organizations developing transnational strategies for organizing workers in low-wage industries. Economic globalization has created new strains on labor forces and communities, and the increasing mobility of capital (and with it the threat of exit, disinvestment, and job loss) poses unique challenges to traditional models of labor organizing.
The substantial...
The Democratic Development for Thriving Communities report is the result of collaboration between the California Funders Working Group on Gentrification and Displacement , field leaders, and academics. It builds on previous work from the philanthropic, academic, and organizing sectors to present a framework for philanthropy to consider in strategically addressing gentrification and displacement.
Project Phoenix: Connecting Democracy, Economy, and Sustainability was a year-long cohort collective learning program for funders exploring fronts ranging from local economies and climate justice to worker co-ops under the frame of a “just transition” or “solidarity economy” or “economic resiliency” or “new economy.” Learn more about it here.
What emerged from our year of learning together? What paths have we found for cross-sector philanthropic engagement around a broad set of interventions that are commensurate to...
This is a pivotal time in Native America. Opportunities are opening up as the result of improving economic standards, higher levels of educational attainment, and better health outcomes in certain regions; however, many of the challenges that have long faced our population still persist. For every major challenge and issue there are also efforts to make positive changes.
Native Voices Rising is a joint research and re-granting project of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Common...
By Larry Raphael Salomon, Julie Quiroz, Maggie Potapchuk and Lori Villarosa
This historical timeline attempts to capture, in one place, many significant moments, events, controversies and victories that have defined the racial landscape since the turbulent days following the LAPD/Rodney King beating verdict over two decades ago. When communities in Los Angeles rebelled, "race riots" exploded the commonly held myth that our nation had progressed from the explicitly unjust conditions that had defined earlier generations. And in the decades since, the...Dear friends,
Last night, like many across the world who were watching, we experienced deep disappointment in the decision by the St. Louis County grand jury not to indict Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenage boy, on August 9. Our thoughts are first with the family of Michael Brown and the community of Ferguson. It’s important to note that this case has never been about just one police officer. The spotlight on Ferguson has revealed with a renewed, sharper focus a deep divide in our society highlighting...
In response to a resurgence of interest in place-based grantmaking, the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions and Neighborhood Funders Group convened over 100 funders and leaders from the field in September 2014 for Towards a Better Place: A Conversation About Promising Practice in Place-Based Philanthropy. This conference report provides an overview of the discussions that took place at this conference, including:
lessons shared by experienced place-based funders;
key challenges and
In bayous, hollers, cities, and small towns across the American South, visionary leaders have long pioneered cutting edge, successful strategies to build lasting change in their communities and beyond. These leaders have the skills and expertise necessary to navigate an inclusive way forward for everyone in this era of unprecedented political, economic, and demographic shifts. Yet philanthropy—for reasons both mundane and profound—hasn't kept up. How can Southern and national philanthropists alike change this trend and help advance progress in the region and the nation overall?
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Why focus on anti-Black racism?...
“This is a time for you and for us to be fearless; to find ways and resources to fund organizing and base building.” — Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
Over the course of these past few weeks, marginalized communities have been relentlessly targeted and criminalized by the new federal administration. These include immigrants, with an executive order to begin building a wall along the southern...
article and photo provided by the Movement Net Lab
In tandem with the many movement networks of the last decade, innovative funding channels and configurations have emerged to support them. These changes are part of the shift from foundation-centered funding to a broader conceptualization of resources we call a living resource system . A living resource system provides a relationship-based approach to resources: resources are...
In July 2018, Neighborhood Funders Group and the Right To The City Alliance hosted a Funder & Field Convening alongside the Homes For All Member Assembly in Atlanta, GA. Grantmakers met with grassroots leaders to strategically align and move more resources to support housing justice efforts happening throughout the country. The convening included workshops on investing in long-term narrative shift, a funder tour through Atlanta with the ...
As the South Grows is an initiative of Grantmakers for Southern Progress (GSP) and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) to give philanthropists the tools they need to partner effectively with visionary leaders across the South. The initiative will produce a four-part investigative research and resource report series around place-based strategies for supporting structural change in the South. Through timely...
Across the country, resident-led institutions and their allies continue to build organizing strategies that address housing, displacement, and gentrification at the local, regional, and state level. Strategies and solutions to gentrification and displacement like rent control measures, passing local ballot initiatives for renter protections, developing community land trusts, and financing affordable housing has had some success, but the demographics of many communities are still rapidly changing.
At the center of these shifts, philanthropy continues to play a critical role...
By maisha quint, Libra Foundation; Cindy Alvarado, The Simmons Foundation; Claribel Vidal, Ford Foundation — members of the Funders for Justice Healing Justice Strategy Group
As we witness the ongoing health and economic crisis of the pandemic of COVID-19, and the simultaneous murders and violence by the state and White nationalists, and the glaring role of ableism in our nation, we must recognize that our country is being forced to reckon with...
