Borealis Philanthropy

Mission

People-powered movements possess the ability to transform our communities and create a world that truly serves us all. Borealis Philanthropy was founded in 2014 in order to resource movements, with those most impacted by injustice leading the way. Borealis is co-powered by 30 staff and 10 board members, reflective of the communities and movements we support. Over the last six years, we’ve helped bring over $78 million to community-led change.

As a philanthropic intermediary, Borealis invests in leaders, organizations, and movements pursuing transformational change, and works with donors to support social movements in ways they may not be able to do on their own. Through our work with both funders and organizations, we aim to fundamentally shift power by investing in community-driven solutions.

Our grantmaking is rooted in our core values of trust, racial equity, responsiveness, curiosity, boldness, and being people-centered. We strive to provide multi-year, unrestricted funding, capacity building support, and rapid response funding to our grantee partners, with a commitment to centering the needs, experiences, and wisdom of organizations working on the frontlines.

We resource organizations and leaders who are boldly ushering in change through these collaborative donor funds:

• Black-Led Movement Fund
• Communities Transforming Policing Fund
• Disability Inclusion Fund
• Fund for Trans Generations
• Immigration Litigation Fund
• Racial Equity Accelerating Change Fund
• Racial Equity in Journalism
• Racial Equity in Philanthropy
• Spark Justice Fund
• Transforming Movements Fund

Borealis’ donors understand that communities must play a central role in determining their own futures. While our funders may range in terms of institutional focus, size, and type, they share a unique space in the funding landscape, learning deeply from our staff experts, grassroots partners and each other, and working with donor peers to ensure their support creates informed, collective, lasting change.

Organization Information