A Pathway to a More Just World: 37 Ways to Give
In part three of our series on Reimagining and Restructuring, we’re sharing specific pathways for donors to invest in long-term reconstruction. This is not an exhaustive list and recommendations are limited by the IRS private foundation designation of Giving Compass’ parent organization (Raikes Foundation).
Read Part One and Part Two of this series.
COVID-19 and the Movement for Black Lives protests exposed the urgent needs felt by individuals, businesses, and communities across the U.S. in 2020. Nonprofits are serving as a stop-gap for an ever shrinking base of tax dollars for public aid while also leading the charge toward power-building in communities of color that is necessary to build interim structures and restructure systems.
Individual donors, at all income levels, have an incredible opportunity to not only support the immediate needs surfaced by these two events, but to help drive the work that dismantles the systems of oppression that fuel these crises. Below, we provide examples of giving strategies that center BIPOC and LGBTQIA leaders, build power in communities of color, and set society on a path of reimagination and restructuring for a just future. To view an organization’s full proposal and explore funding opportunities, please sign up with our partners at www.justfund.us, a platform that connects donors to grassroots organizations and leaders.
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The Facts:
What We Know
- The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population, yet nearly 25% of the incarcerated population.
- In 2017, Blacks represented 12% of the U.S. adult population, but 33% of the sentenced population. Whites represented 64% of adults, yet 30% of prisoners.
- The ‘War on Drugs’ implemented by President Richard Nixon to criminalize Blacks has a substantial impact on current imprisonment rates: Almost half of the incarcerated in federal prison are there for drug offenses, nearly two-thirds are people of color.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Frontline support for Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) protests: Includes logistics coordination, technical assistance, training video development, and safety trainings.
Organization: The BlackOUT Collective, which works in partnership with M4BL.
- Trauma-informed curriculum development for prosecutors: To create understanding of how the cycle of trauma feeds crime and to promote community-centered standards of safety, fairness, and dignity.
Organization: The Institute for Innovation in Prosecution
- Living wage and equal job opportunity provisions: To support individuals with judicial barriers to employment, housing, health, and wealth.
Organization: Resources, Justice & Management
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
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- Impact litigation and media advocacy: To change laws to make positive change for communities and influence the public dialog on issues related to the criminal justice system.
Organization: ArchCity Defenders
- Support, empower, and mobilize families and individuals impacted by the criminal justice system: Through local and statewide campaigns for justice and against human rights violations in prisons and jails, year-long fellowships, community organizing meetings, and advocacy and communications training.
Organization: Alliance of Families for Justice
- Voter turnout: To reach 70% of the eligible Black voting population through digital channels.
Organization: PushBlack
- Impact litigation and media advocacy: To change laws to make positive change for communities and influence the public dialog on issues related to the criminal justice system.
The Facts:
What We Know
- African-American and Latino residents in the U.S. have been three times as likely to contract COVID-19 and almost two times as likely to die from the virus.
- Communities at greater risk for COVID share social and economic factors that pre-date the epidemic including: Living in crowded housing, working in essential fields, inconsistent access to healthcare, chronic health conditions, and stress.
- From 2011-2016, Black women experienced roughly 42.4 deaths per 100,000 live births on average compared to 13 deaths for white mothers; American Indian/Alaskan Native women experienced 30.4 deaths on average in the same time frame.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Year-long trauma healing fellowship: To support well-being of leaders within movements for racial and economic equity.
Organization: Chicago Torture Justice Center
- Healthcare service outreach and enrollee education: To support individuals who are vulnerable to poor health and to address declining Medicaid enrollment in Louisiana.
Organization: Louisiana Center for Health Equity
- Support a movement alliance of 80+ labor unions, workers centers, community organizations, and advocacy groups: To require businesses to adopt protocols to protect 2.2 million frontline workers that must report to work in sectors that are deemed essential.
Organization: ALIGN: Alliance for a Greater New York
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Research on the cross-sector impact of COVID-19, outreach, and strategic communication to public, private, and community stakeholders to adapt to and plan for future cross-sector crises.
Organization: Georgia Budget and Policy Institute
- Unemployment insurance and health and safety protections advocacy: To center Black and Brown workers and expand and strengthen worker supports through permanent structural changes.
Organization: National Employment Law Project
- Expand affordable healthcare access and immigrant integration via collaborative, non-partisan efforts with community partners, health system leaders, and other key stakeholders in California’s Central Valley region.
Organization: California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
The Facts:
What We Know
- In 2018, only 31% of Black-owned small businesses received all the funding they applied for compared with 49% of white-owned businesses, 39% of Asian-owned businesses and 35% of Latino-owned businesses.
- As a result of coronavirus, 41% of Black-owned businesses closed between February and April 2020; that decrease for Immigrant businesses was -36%; Latinx businesses -32%; Asian businesses -26%. The decrease for white business owners was -17%.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Targeted outreach/training on wage theft and health and safety crime reporting for Latino immigrant workers and their families: Focused on exploitation related to COVID-19 and accessing public benefits for immigrant worker communities.
Organization: Manhattan Justice for Workers Collaborative
- Online classes to build job readiness skills: Includes English language courses, and financial and cell phone literacy for immigrant communities in New York.
Organization: Women for Afghan Women
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Advance structural change to pay, benefits, and job quality: To elevate the voice and power of low-wage essential workers through research and storytelling.
Organization: Brookings Institution
- Immigrant and refugee-led intercultural movement building at the local, regional, and state policy levels: To integrate We Are All Oregon communities into healthcare fields and address license requirements for those who have received their healthcare training outside of the U.S.
Organization: Center for Intercultural Organizing dba Unite Oregon
The Facts:
What We Know
- Prior to COVID-19, 10% to 15% of households reported being housing insecure. Particularly at high risk for eviction are Hispanic/Latinx populations who reported being almost two times as likely as whites of being evicted in the past three months.
- Between 22% and 57% of children are homeless due to domestic violence.
- Between 20% and 40% of homeless youth identify as LGBTQIA.
- Housing as infrastructure bolsters productivity and economic growth, connects low-income families to communities of opportunity, and promotes economic mobility.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Support meeting facilitation between the Duwamish community and the South Park Housing Authority: To prevent displacements and secure financial and emotional investments in the community.
Organization: Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition
- Stipends provision to homeless and formerly homeless fellowship participants for one year: To feed neighbors, run an outdoor closet, and connect the community to vulnerable residents in Baltimore.
Organization: North Avenue Mission
- Permanent housing for homeless transgender people of color in New York City: Includes comprehensive case management and access to multi-pronged resources.
Organization: Princess Janae Place
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Tenants rights advocacy at state and federal levels: Focuses on developing statewide renters organizations.
Organization: Arkansas Community Organizations
- Organize and build leadership and autonomy within communities that are prone to displacement: To address issues — location, shifting demographics, and gentrification pressures — before applications to rezone or plans to redevelop mobile home properties arise.
Organization: 9 to 5 Colorado
- Assist unhoused people in avoiding criminalization: To facilitate access to courts, political leaders, and Human Rights Monitors.
Organization: Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
The Facts:
What We Know
- On average, a family making the state median income would have to spend 18% of their income to cover the cost of child care for an infant, and 13% for a toddler.
- The gap between the child subsidy rate and the cost of licensed childcare exceeds $400 per month in nearly half of U.S. states.
- The national median annual wage for an early childhood educator is $28,750 with many eligible for public benefits targeting low-income families; the average for childcare workers is $20,320.
- Low-income Black and Latinx families are least able to afford child care. Indigenous and Latinx families are most likely to live in “child care deserts” and Black children more likely to be in lower-quality care settings.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Toolkit for early childhood educators, librarians, and parents: To support healthy, respectful racial learning in young children.
Organization: EmbraceRace
- Early Childhood Educator professional development, credentialing, and mentoring: To better equip caregivers and teachers in their interactions with children.
Organization: First Up
- Sustain early learning operations during the recession when there is an increased need for low cost childcare options: To help parents access the childcare payment structure in Georgia.
Organization: Scottdale Early Learning
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Education provider surveys and advocacy: To determine provider needs and fill resource and technical assistance gaps, and to advocate for systems change beyond immediate needs.
Organization: Quality Care for Children
The Facts:
What We Know
- Children who had low scores in the fall of their kindergarten year continue to lag behind their peers through 8th grade.
- In 2016, 82% of the elementary and secondary educator workforce was white in public schools. It is expected that students of color will be the majority of students (54%) by 2024.
- Non-white public school districts get $23 billion less than white districts despite serving the same number of students.
- American Indian/Alaskan Native students had the highest high school dropout rates [9.5%]; Hispanic [8%], Black [6.4%], white [4.2%] in 2017.
- Nationally, the 2017-2018 high school graduation rate was 89% for white students; 81% for Hispanic students; 79% for Black students and 74% for American Indian students.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- School-based support: To remove barriers for trauma-impacted students marginalized by poverty and race-based educational inequalities.
Organization: COR Inc.
- Expansion of community ambassadors organizers and student leadership development: Founded and led by African American and Latinx community members to work with the Allentown [Penn.] School District and local principals.
Organization: Cohesion Network
- Support STEM-based college preparatory programs and alumni platforms: For low-income high school students of color.
Organization: SMASH
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Transformative leadership development: To connect diverse organizers who will work to sustain resistance, advance racial equity, and shift culture.
Organization: Be Present, Inc.
- Training of marginalized youth to become civic leaders: To equip them with the skills to hold their schools and communities accountable for providing equitable opportunities across DC Public Schools.
Organization: Critical Exposure
- Teacher-led community platform: For discussion of emerging K-12 equity issues and policy prioritization for future union, district, and state decision-making.
Organization: Educators for Excellence
The Facts:
What We Know
- In 2018, the college admission rates for 18-to-24 year olds was 59% for Asian students; 42% for white students; 37% for Black students and 36% for Hispanic students.
- 51% of students from high-poverty public schools entered college in the fall [2015] following graduation, compared with a rate of 76% for low-poverty public schools. Persistence to graduation was even more stark with only 18% of students from high-poverty schools completing in six years compared to 52% of those from low-poverty public schools.
- Achievement gaps are strongly correlated with racial gaps in income, poverty rates, unemployment rates, and educational attainment.
Rebound:
Interim Support
- Economy-stable [COVID resilient] job training and placement connections: For individuals with low educational attainment, public housing residents, those who have been involved with the criminal justice system, and foreign-born New Yorkers.
Organization: Brooklyn Workforce Innovations
- Leadership development for Latinas: Focused on civic engagement, collective action and expanding the number of Latinas who receive postsecondary degrees.
Organization: Chicana Latina Foundation
- Education and Outreach Coordinator Support: To connect Black immigrant community members with tailored college access resources for undocumented students.
Organization: UnLocal, Inc.
Reimagine & Restructure:
Systems Change and Root Cause Remediation
- Equip Black and Brown community college students to run and lead equity campaigns: To advance efforts to unlearn internalized racism and oppression and engage peers through education and movement building.
Organization: Students Making a Change
- Comprehensive video-based career exploration tool for girls: Includes more than 11,000 video clips and highlights more than 600 women role models from a wide range of sectors with an emphasis on STEM, creating a pipeline of potential pathways to change the world.
Organization: Career Girls, in partnership with Black Girls Code.