The Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation has announced grants totaling $6.6 million in support of efforts to disrupt systemic racism.

Awarded to 23 national and Indianapolis-based organizations through the foundation’s $15 million Racial Justice and Equity Fund, grants include support for the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, which will receive $500,000 to convene researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to evaluate novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve the seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice; Mary Jane’s Legacy Project at Ohio State University, which was awarded $250,000 in support of a research-and-action effort centering on Black women’s experiences and challenges in earning college degrees; the Southern Poverty Law Center, which will receive $400,000 to help ensure fair and just educational opportunities and advance youth “decarceration” efforts; and the Border Network for Human Rights, which was awarded $400,000 to organize marginalized border communities to defend and promote civil and human rights.

Indianapolis-based recipients include the Goodwill Foundation of Central & Southern Indiana, which was awarded $250,000 for a collaboration with Cook Medical Group aimed at employing residents of Indianapolis’ near eastside; and the Indiana University-Purdue University School of Education, which will receive $250,000 in support of the Education for Liberation program, which works with schools to impact students of color and other students poorly served by public K-12 education.

“A desire to achieve racial equity, especially in terms of educational attainment, is embedded in virtually everything we do,” said Lumina Foundation president and CEO Jamie Merisotis. “Our Racial Justice and Equity Fund has been a signature effort in response to racially motivated violence. Most of our investments—grants, contracts, impact investments—across our different areas of work explicitly address racial disparities in outcomes.”

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