Why SJF Is Excited About Our New Strategic Plan

By Valériana Chikoti Bandua-Estes

I’m excited to share that Social Justice Fund Northwest (SJF) is launching our first five-year strategic plan.

Our 2026-2030 Strategic Plan reflects a deep examination of the power we hold as funders and how we can be good stewards of that power. We are grounding our mission, vision and values in action, and strengthening how we support and serve our grantee partners.

By design, this strategic plan is intended to invite and inspire action, not only for ourselves but across philanthropy. It challenges us and the broader sector to see this chapter in history as an opportunity to be intentionally audacious in how we serve and resource the community.

Our goals

SJF’s goal is to move a minimum of $20 million to community by 2030. We believe this commitment reflects the boldest and clearest vision that Social Justice Fund Northwest has ever articulated, both internally and publicly.

To achieve this vision, our work over the next half decade will be guided by four pillars:

• Resource Mobilization: Move at least $20 million to community organizing.
• Accessibility: Increase access to SJF’s grantmaking programs.
• Infrastructure Strengthening: Strengthen SJF’s internal capacity to advance our mission and vision.
• Community Stewardship: Steward community partnerships through a cross-class, multiracial model of philanthropy.

Why a five-year plan?

A five-year strategic plan allows us to move with intention rather than rushing to achieve milestones. It gives us space to nurture and grow relationships, ensuring that our work is guided by a north star that is rooted by how we want to serve, support, and uplift our community members.

A longer horizon also allows us to see the evolution and growth of our working relationships with grantees, peers, donors, community members and supporters. It’s an opportunity for us to build trust and examine how we can continuously show up in ways that are audacious, consistent, dependable, and approachable.

What are we doing differently this time?

This strategic plan is more outward-facing than previous SJF plans, with a stronger focus on the communities we serve across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. We’re centering our grantee partners more explicitly and strengthening the accessibility, consistency, and transparency of our grantmaking.

We are also investing in our own infrastructure while advocating for stronger infrastructure across the social justice ecosystem. Resilient organizations are better positioned to create lasting change. 

Finally, community stewardship is central to our approach. Through cross-class, multiracial donor organizing, we will mobilize resources and strengthen collective responsibility for advancing justice across the Northwest.

Agitating philanthropy

For SJF, agitating philanthropy is a resounding call pointing to what is possible in our future,  while remembering past contributions. Led by an echo that travels time, the call is a challenge within the philanthropic sector to live up to our stated values.

This call reminds us to position ourselves as intentional contributors who put community first, work alongside our peers, donors, funders and community members—not from a lens that is risk-adverse, but rather from a lens that is fearless about investing in community-led solutions.

It also means asking difficult questions about power, accountability, and who gets to decide where resources flow.

I see the next five years as an opportunity for SJF to live our values, act with intentionality, fight forward while being good ancestors, and invite others in philanthropy to work in tandem with us. Agitation is a necessary call to us as philanthropists to act with purpose, to leap with audacity, act with intentionality, be abundant with our resources, our time, our vision, mission and values.

What we want to see in five years

I want philanthropy in the Northwest to be inspired by the collective audacity of our shared goal: resourcing communities through a framework of abundance, care, and integrity. I hope our actions become as bold and far-reaching as our mission and vision statements, equity commitments, and stated values.

As the Great Wealth Transfer unfolds over the coming decade, I dream of a philanthropic sector across the Northwest leading the way in directing resources to grassroots-led communities. These are the communities that have too long been overlooked and not always believed, despite being the most impacted by oppressive socioeconomic and political policies.

I believe Social Justice Fund Northwest is ready to rise to this moment with determination, abundance, and a deep commitment to community-led change. It is a commitment that I believe is contagious.

As we approach our 50th anniversary in 2028, I see this spirit of agitation inviting more people across philanthropy to become accomplices of good trouble and partners in advancing community-led change. 

Agitating philanthropy requires all of us—funders, donors, organizers, grantees, and community members—to imagine what becomes possible when resources, trust, and power move together. We invite you to join us in building that future.

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