Solidaire Network has announced inaugural grants totaling $14 million over two years from its Black Liberation Pooled Fund in support of more than a hundred organizations working to advance Black and multi-racial movements for social change.

Launched in 2020, the fund is aimed at supporting grassroots organizers in Black communities by mobilizing and coordinating the allocation of resources and strengthening the ecosystem of Black-led social change organizations. The general operating support grants will be used to address intersectional issues including abolition and decarceration, electoral justice, media and narrative shift, trans justice, leadership development, and land, housing, and climate justice, as well as efforts to build and sustain movement infrastructure.

Selected from more than eight hundred applicants, recipients include the Alabama Justice Initiative, Black LGBTQIA Migrant Project, Grow Dat Youth Farm, Homes for All St. Louis, Just Media, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, National Black Food and Justice Alliance, SisterSong: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Urban Bush Women, We the People of Detroit, and Woke Vote.

"These movement partners are doing some of the most innovative work anywhere to advance Black freedom," said Janis Rosheuvel, Solidaire Network's director of movement partnerships and grantmaking. "This cohort of grantees are youth and elders. They are Queer. They are in large and small cities and rural places. They are immigrants, land stewards, artists, and healers. They are fighting to protect the vote and to defund jails and prisons. They are working to mitigate the climate crisis and build grassroots power. We hope our commitment answers the call of the Black liberation movement to fund in deeper and longer-term ways and helps to mobilize even greater resources to these efforts."

"We believe that Black-led social change is about justice for Black communities and broad and deep societal transformation for all," said Solidaire Network executive director Rajasvini Bhansali. "We know that accountability to movements is essential in the ongoing practice of solidarity. At Solidaire, we are ready to liberate wealth and forge partnerships in new ways to demonstrate our deepest solidarity with the Black liberation movement ecosystem."

For a complete list of Black Liberation Pooled Fund grant recipients, see the Solidaire Network website.

(Photo credit: National Black Food and Justice Alliance)