Borealis Philanthropy has announced grants totaling $2.4 million to 13 grassroots organizations working to decarcerate, redirect resources from jails to communities, and transform the collective vision of community-led safety.

Awarded through the grantmaker’s Spark Justice Fund (SJF), which has expanded its priorities over the past year, the flexible general support and organizational development grants include support for ending cash bail and unjust pretrial detention policies, policy reform and budget advocacy, jail campaigns, community-led alternatives to incarceration, mutual aid efforts, and leadership development for directly impacted individuals. Grantees are organizing locally, statewide, and regionally, with organizations in 14 states, including Arizona, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Georgia, Louisiana, California, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New York, and Maryland. While SJF supports emerging and growing groups, it prioritizes nascent groups that have had limited access to national funding streams; 35 percent of grantees have annual budgets under $350,000.

“What sets Borealis apart from many other funders is that they are really listening, fully understanding the experience of the Black-led and formerly incarcerated-led experience as well as the cultural barriers that often are not present for our white counterparts,” said Out For Justice executive director Nicole Hansen-Mundell. “They really trust us and recognize us for our experience and expertise as leaders in this work, as such they invest and fund us appropriately.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/MorelSO)