The pandemic’s health and economic inequities hit the Bay Area’s communities of color hardest. They laid bare and deepened the inequities baked into our region. During the same time, the tragic murders of George Floyd and many others sparked racial justice uprisings to demand change.
We are doubling down on our efforts to combat systemic racism and economic exclusion. In December 2020, the SFF Board of Trustees increased our spending policy so we could dedicate ~$10 million over the next five years to strengthen organizing, advocacy, and movement-building infrastructure for the Bay Area’s Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and AAPI communities. These resources will support the people, systems, skills, and capacities to drive the agenda and build movement power.
The investments for each community are being developed in consultation with community leaders. They are supporting short- and long-term strategies to strengthen the organizations and networks that are building power to advance racial equity and economic inclusion.
AAPI Community
We are supporting the launch of Activate California with a two-year $500,000 grant. Activate will organize AAPI communities to advocate for lasting change, fundraise to support organizations working on the front lines, and define their own community narrative. Activate will be a program of Asian American Futures. We are supporting New Breath Foundation’s We Got Us Fund with a $200,000 grant. This funding will be used to build power in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) racial justice movements, increase opportunities for racial solidarity and healing between AAPI and other communities of color, and increase the leadership pipeline for survivors of crime/violence and directly impacted individuals by the criminal legal system.
Bese Saka
SFF is supporting the Bese Saka Initiative with a two-year $3.4 million investment. Led by the Brotherhood of Elders, Bese Sake is an effort to respond to the needs of Black-led nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. The initiative aims to strengthen the region’s ecosystem of Black community organizers. General operating grants are supporting 18 Black-led organizations in the Bay Area with a focus on capacity building, organizing, policy, and advocacy work. Additional organizations will receive stipends to enable their staff to participate in the initiative’s community convenings.
Additionally, SFF contributed $1 million to the California Black Freedom Fund, a $100 million philanthropic initiative dedicated to Black power-building and organizing in California.
Read more.
Indigenous community
We are currently reaching out to local Indigenous leaders to listen to their needs and learn the best approaches for supporting their communities.
Latinx Power Building Initiative
We are supporting the Bay Area Latinx Regional Power Building Initiative with a two-year, $3 million investment to strengthen the region’s ecosystem of Latinx community organizers. Led in partnership with the Oakland-based Unity Council and San Francisco-based Galeria de la Raza, the initiative will support a cohort of Bay Area Latinx-led organizations focusing on capacity building, organizing, policy, and advocacy work. Ten organizations will receive general operating grants over two years to further their power-building work. The grantees will convene multiple times a year to connect, build community, identify emerging opportunities or needs, and participate in capacity-building opportunities to strengthen Latinx power-building and advocacy across the region. Read more.