The Families and Workers Fund has announced grants totaling nearly $13 million in support of efforts to build a more equitable economy.

Grants were awarded through the fund’s two main impact programs, Recover Up, which is designed to advance jobs that sustain and uplift people, and 21st Century Benefits, which aims to invest in developing a more inclusive, effective public benefits system, with a focus on unemployment. Recipients include the Better Builder Program, an initiative of Worker Defense Project, which is working to strengthen the quality of jobs in the construction industry in line with a set of standards designed by immigrant construction workers; Resilience Force, a nonprofit that helps workers who rebuild communities following climate-related and other disasters to access training, professional status, and better pay and benefits; Results for America, a nonprofit that assists state and local leaders working to ensure the nearly $7 trillion in relief and recovery funding allocated over the past two years advances jobs that sustain families and boost local communities; and the Unemployment Insurance Equity Open Call, an initiative that helps state and community-based nonprofits leverage $260 million in public funding to improve equity in the unemployment insurance system.

Established in 2020, the fund is a collaborative of more than twenty philanthropies and has $51 million in assets. Chaired by Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and Schmidt Futures CEO Eric Braverman, the fund is housed at Amalgamated Foundation.

“The success of the economic recovery from COVID-19 must be judged not only by how many jobs we create or roads and bridges we build, but also on whether we deliver good jobs—and equitable access to them,” said Rachel Korberg, executive director of the Families and Workers Fund. “Our grantee partners are leading the way in demonstrating how we can shape an economic recovery that sustains families, uplifts communities, and helps to disrupt longstanding racial, gender, and other inequities.”

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