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We’re in a pivotal and powerful moment in the fight for racial justice in the United States.
The George Floyd Uprisings have made clear the need to provide immediate, concrete support to Black activists, organizers, and change-makers. As a company, we’ve committed to immediately giving $50,000 to support Black grassroots organizations through our GetThru Charitable Fund.
While this moment brings its attention specifically to police violence against Black Americans, GetThru’s Charitable Giving Committee agreed that long term organizing across multiple issue areas has to be sustained as well. From the beginning, we wanted to root our selection process in an intersectional approach: funding organizations that address systemic racism and inequality across various sectors, and not limiting our search by geography. We also wanted to ensure that we lend our support to grassroots groups who may have been historically underfunded, and may not be receiving as much attention and support at this moment.
We sourced an initial list from the Black Lives Matter website, and crowdsourced recommendations from our Charitable Giving Committee members, resulting in 50 potential grantees. We then identified their organization status (501c3, fiscally sponsored, or other), their general financial need (considering yearly budgets and revenue), program scope, and how they fit into the following categories: direct action and training, police/prison abolition, economic empowerment, grassroots organizing, education, and LGBTQ+ support.
In the end, we came to a consensus on eight organizations that represent all of the above categories. These organizations are representative of both intersectional issues and approaches, as well as of geographies across the U.S. Below are the groups we’ve chosen and information about their missions. We’re excited to be able to show our support, and we hope that you’ll consider learning more about these organizations and supporting their work as well.
We know that these donations are just a first step. We intend to revisit our capacity to make additional charitable contributions at the end of 2020, potentially again to these groups or to new organizations.
One of The BlackOUT Collective’s core beliefs is that, “it is key for Black people to be agents in creating systematic shifts in this county, and we believe that Black people engaging in direct action is a key tactic in creating this change.” By making a donation to The BlackOUT Collective, we can tangibly support direct action training for Black activists, leaders, and community members.
National Black Food and Justice Alliance
NBFJA is an alliance of Black-led food justice organizations across the US. Their focus on building power within Black communities and centering Black food sovereignty principles is needed in a time where food deserts and lack of healthy grocery stores in Black communities exist unchecked throughout our country.
Southern Birth Justice Network
SBJN works to improve access to midwives, host doula training, and fund prenatal and postpartum care to those in marginalized and low-income communities. Not only do they advocate on the national level but they also hold educational workshops, virtual events and forums, and provide tools and resources to Black, youth, immigrant, indigenous, LGBTQ+, and low-income communities.
BYP 100 is a member-based organization of Black youth activists creating justice and freedom for all Black people. Their focus on organizing, advocacy, and education through a Black, queer, feminist lens speaks to the intersectional approach needed to imagine a world without white supremacy.
Based in Madison, WI, Freecom Inc. is led by Black and Southeast Asian people. Their work is centered around elevating and empowering the voices of the people most affected by the issues of violence, poverty, racism, and discrimination to bring about true social change. Their areas of focus include anti-violence, liberation theory education, gender based violence, and more.
The Philadelphia Student Union is a community organizing and leadership development non-profit organization in Philadelphia. PSU has a proven track record of progressive organizing with students, and the committee is inspired by their campaigns and commitment to the city’s youth. Young people are a vital part of this movement, and these funds will go directly toward empowering Philadelphia’s youth and addressing issues they face each day at schools.
TGI Justice Project
TGI Justice Project advocates for transgender, gender-variant and intersex people who have faced abuse in the prison system. TGIJP has a powerful history of providing legal services, peer to peer advocacy, and re-entry services for the most vulnerable populations inside and outside of the prison system.
Mass Liberation Arizona
Mass Liberation Arizona serves at the crucial intersection between electoral policy, grassroots organizing, and community training. Their mission is succinct and detailed (decarcerate and divest our current criminal justice system) yet they execute said mission in a multitude of ways reflective of the effort it will take to truly turn our punitive criminal justice system into a restorative and rehabilitative one. More specially, Mass Lib Az operates weekly forums/trainings, register people to vote, mobilize around key events at the state legislature, and serve as partners for local elected officials committed to transforming our criminal justice system.
GetThru was created by veterans of Bernie 2016, where we helped build the campaign’s historic voter contact operation. In the process, we saw the need for better technology for large scale 1-to-1 communication that reaches people where they are—on their cell phones.
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