Over the next five years, the California Black Freedom Fund will strategically increase the resources available to Black-led organizations throughout California. Several rounds of grantmaking are anticipated each year, aiming to reach a diverse set of Black-led organizations across the state. Grantmaking will begin in 2020.
Making
Racial Justice Real
in California
Photo by Hamilton Families, courtesy of San Francisco Foundation.
Why It Matters
Since the Great Migration, millions of Black Americans have settled in California, searching for opportunity and a better life for their families. Today, California has the sixth largest Black population in the country, but trails in funding infrastructure and building the capacity of Black-led organizations.
The racial justice uprisings that have swept the nation after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many more have shifted policies and culture across the country and in our state, giving us a glimpse of what a new, racially just California could look like.
Now, we have the opportunity to make lasting change. The California Black Freedom Fund (CBFF) is founded on the belief that increasing the capacity and effectiveness of Black-led organizations will, in turn, enhance the freedom and self-determination of Black people most impacted by structural racism in order to drive California as a whole toward healing and transformation.
Black-led, movement-building organizations in California are addressing the multiple and intersecting harms of systemic racism, police violence and racial inequities our communities face. For example, organizations focus on stopping police violence, promoting education equity, improving health outcomes, championing voter registration and civic engagement, and crafting policies around increasing access to housing. These organizations need resources, now and in the future, to continue and strengthen their work.
Philanthropy has the opportunity to sustain, build upon and accelerate the Black-led racial justice underway in California. Doing so requires investing in Black-led organizations to build and strengthen their organizing power within our communities.
About the Fund
The California Black Freedom Fund is a five-year, $100 million initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism.
The first state-based fund of its kind, the California Black Freedom Fund prioritizes investments in the courageous and visionary grassroots advocates and community leaders who are transforming our cities, our state -- and our world.
Grant Support
Current Fund Partners
The California Black Freedom Fund has set a goal of raising $100 million over the next five years through a mix of foundation, corporate and individual donor support. As of October 2020, 17 foundations have joined this important effort as fund partners. We look forward to announcing our partners soon. To learn about how you can join us as a fund partner, please contact Stuart Burden.
Join Us
In this moment of reckoning for racial justice, we have a shared opportunity and responsibility to marshal our resources in order to tackle systemic racism in communities across California. These unprecedented times call for all of us—including philanthropy—to respond in new ways.
Through the California Black Freedom Fund, private, corporate and community foundations and individual donors have the opportunity to prioritize investments in Black-led organizations as a strategic imperative and turn this moment into a sustained movement. Join us in building the capacity and power of Black organizers and advocates to make justice real in California.