Giving Compass' Take:

• Crystal Hayling explains how Justice Funders works to create upstream solutions for justice problems both externally and internally. 

• Is your organization doing enough to address your internal upstream problems? How can funders help organizations evaluate and fix their internal social justice problems? 

• Learn about trust in social justice funding. 

As a domestic human rights funder, The Libra Foundation’s program areas — women’s rights, environmental justice and drug/social policy — all exist within the reality that your race shapes all of your experiences. Black women’s #MeToo experiences are compounded by racism, and therefore inherently different than that of white women. The Sacred Stone Camp was built to defend indigenous land and water because the Dakota Access pipeline was purposely re-routed through Standing Rock reservation when white, affluent communities rejected having it pass through their neighborhoods.

At the grantee level, we recently examined our Women’s Rights grants and strength tested our racial justice analysis.

What we found was that only a small number of our grantees were women of color-led organizations working to address intersecting forms of discrimination (based on gender, race, sexuality, immigration status, etc.) through organizing and movement building strategies that seek to affect systemic change.
As a result, the board approved new grants that expanded funding for Gender Justice organizations, which organize women — particularly women of color and low-income women — and marginalized communities to change structural power inequalities, support the leadership of women, and build social, political and economic capability and power. Adding Gender Justice organizations to our family of grantees deepens our focus on trust in women and communities to take the lead in organizing and advocating for a more just democracy that values the human rights of all.

The phrase “going upstream” is often used to describe getting to the source of the problem. But the problems aren’t just “out there.” Habits of inequality live within us and our institutions as well.

Yes, that means looking outside at who we usually fund, and finding more groups led by people of color, working intersectionally and building community power. And it also means looking internally to liberate ourselves and our organizations from assumptions and practices that undermine our effectiveness in advancing justice. We all have to keep searching for the ‘upstream’ in us.

Read the full article about social justice by Crystal Hayling at Medium.