Liberated Capital, the Decolonizing Wealth Project's donor community and funding vehicle focused on supporting Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color, has announced inaugural grants totaling more than $1.7 million.

Launched in March 2021, the #Case4Reparations initiative is aimed at driving and amplifying conversations and campaigns in support of systemic and policy change efforts to realize reparations where wealth — money or land — can be redistributed by institutions and/or governments to Black and Native American communities. The inaugural cohort of twenty-three grantees will each receive funding for local, regional, and national movement-building and advocacy efforts. Liberated Capital also will work to identify the best ways to elevate the work of its grantee partners through field and capacity building and digital tools that will bolster the collective reparations movement.

Selected by an advisory group of Black and Indigenous grassroots and movement leaders, the recipients include ACRE (Action Center on Race & the Economy, Chicago), DC Justice Lab (Washington, D.C.), Gullah Geechee Group, Inc. (Hallandale Beach, Florida), Healing and Reconciliation Institute (Monterey, California), Kanenhi:io Ionkwaienthos (Nedrow, New York), and the Tiwahe Foundation (St. Paul).

"As a nation that built and extracted its wealth from Black and Indigenous peoples, reparations, in the form of money and land, are required as we take meaningful steps toward reconciliation and racial healing," said Edgar Villanueva, founder and principal of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital. "Our grantees, who are making crucial strides in their respective communities, represent the bright spots in this work and the opportunities for future reparations policies at the local, state and federal levels."

(Photo credit: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)