SJF is thrilled to announce the 12 awardees of the 2020-21 Black Led Organizing Giving Project! From October 2020 to May 2021, the project’s cohort — a group of cross-class, multigenerational Black folks living in Oregon and Western Washington — met to build community, learn together, and gather resources for Black liberation.

The project was an absolutely unprecedented, record-breaking success! With an outpouring of support from the participants’ and SJF’s communities, the Black Led Organizing Giving Project raised enough to fund all 12 finalist organizations.

Reflecting on their own roots, communities, stakes, and values, the cohort prioritized funding Black-led grassroots organizations who were… 

• Abolitionist
• Leading radical work in essential industries that receives little to no funding
• Led by and serving queer and trans people
• New and emerging collectives
• Led by and serving communities on the frontlines through the pandemic
• Creating spaces for Black and Indigenous people to build together
• Led by and serving youth
• Meeting immediate needs for their communities
• Led by and serving people impacted by incarceration and the carceral system
• Connecting Black folks to the land

From its first iteration in 2018, the Black Led Organizing Giving Project has existed to fund organizing to build a world where Black people are protected, honored, and thriving. It is radical, transformative fundraising for Black communities, by Black community — and 2020’s cohort and grantees more than live up to this vision. SJF is so proud to support their work! Read on to hear a cohort member’s testimonial about their Giving Project experience and learn more about each grantee.

We asked a Black Led Organizing Giving Project member to share about their experience. Here’s what they had to say:

Aviva McClure, cohort member

We honor the awardees of the 2020 Black Led Organizing Giving Project!

Black & Beyond the Binary Collective | Portland, OR

Black & Beyond the Binary Collective (BBBC) is dedicated to advocacy and healing for transgender and gendervariant Oregonians who are Black and have lived experiences as a member of the African diaspora. Their programming includes providing accessible healing spaces for Black trans and nonbinary people and partnering with other local collectives for community building, education, and youth leadership.

Black Liberation Collective, Idaho | Meridian, ID

Following the leadership of the Movement for Black Lives, Black PIC Prison Abolitionists, and other Black leaders across the country, Black Liberation Collective, Idaho brings Black excellence to Boise in an effort to end police brutality, gender violence, and Black oppression. Through grassroots community organizing and advocacy, they work to reallocate funding from the police, prisons, and other harmful systems toward initiatives that support community wellbeing. Black Liberation Collective Idaho is also working to create spaces for community relationship building and to achieve self sustainability for its leaders and members.

Black Oregon Land Trust | Portland, OR

The mission of The Black Oregon Land Trust (BOLT) is to ensure that Black farmers and their communities permanently own their own land so that they may be sovereign and able to grow their food, culture, community and generational wealth in right-relationship with the earth. To this end, BOLT provides opportunities for Black community members to: connect with land they occupy, tend, and own; learn how to farm, build farm businesses, and serve the community through agricultural production; and gain support through training, equipment, infrastructure, capital and mentoring to ensure their ability to thrive.

Black Power Unlimited DBA Cypher Cafe | Seattle, WA

Powered by a collective of Black artists and organizers, Black Power Unlimited (BPU) has dedicated the last decade to building a home at Washington Hall for community-grounded liberation work to take place through music, art, food and culture. BPU disrupts the detrimental impact of gentrification and displacement in their neighborhood by holding accessible space for Black people, Black arts, Black events, and all historically marginalized communities. At this phase of their existence, BPU works to build partnerships within Seattle’s Black community, host spaces for liberatory organizing, and build a collective of Black caterers for cooperative economic development.

Freedom Project | Seattle, WA

Freedom Project works to dismantle the institution of mass incarceration and heal its traumatic effects on their community. As a community-centered and culturally-responsive organization, they come from, are in, and are directed by the community they serve. Freedom Project offers tangible resources where they are needed most, and make space for people to show up as they are and be seen for their humanity. They organize to connect people to critical support, facilitate co-learning on racial equity, anti-oppression, compassionate communication and mindfulness, and collaborate with community partners to advocate for systemic change. Their programming includes reentry support for people with an incarceration history, providing healing spaces for their community, and leadership building, with the overall goal of decolonizing and eradicating anti-Blackness.

Gathering Roots Retreat & Wellness Center | Seattle, WA

Gathering Roots Retreat and Wellness Center is a Black-led, BIPOC-centered holistic healing organization. They serve Black, Indigenous, and People of Color by providing space for their community to heal intergenerational trauma through cultural healing practices including artistic expression, spirituality, food and land sovereignty, and medicinal learning. They know that in order for BIPOC to do emotional and transformative work, it is necessary to create intentional spaces where they can be affirmed and rooted in their experiences. Gathering Roots’ work is intended for and created to serve BIPOC community members, activists, and organizers; in order to achieve more equitable community outcomes, they collectively integrate and implement pro-equity practices designed to center people most impacted by structural racism.

Liberation Medicine School | Seattle, WA

Liberation Medicine School is dedicated to building a decolonial, African-Indigenous, and Black TGNC-led (transgender and gender non-conforming) health system that fosters medical autonomy within the diasporic Afro-LGBTQI community. They aim to achieve medical sovereignty by building a school that houses a collective of Black LGBTQI+ medicinists, and centers indigenous medical knowledge, experiences, and narratives of the Black LGBTQI community, engages practitioners in undoing pathologic systems of power that undermine the health of Black folks, and upholds the central role of Black TGNC people in anchoring Afro-Indigenous medicine.

The Montana Racial Equity Project | Bozeman, MT

The Montana Racial Equity Project (MTREP) advocates equity and justice for historically marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed peoples in Montana. MTREP directs resources, energy, and time toward addressing racial inequity and injustice in Montana through community organizing, education, and base building. Their purpose is to educate and activate Montanans for whom they advocate. In working towards this, they lift the voices and elevate the agency of BIPOC through an intersectional lens and develop antiracist leaders and organizers. Their current programming focuses on racial equity in education and criminal justice, and the intersection between the two. This includes transforming school curriculums, advocating for restorative justice practices in public schools, and diminishing the power and violence of the police force.

People of Color Sex Worker Outreach Project | Seattle, WA

People of Color Sex Worker Outreach Project (PoC SWOP) works to empower, educate, and resource BIPOC sex workers to advocate for legislative change and create self sustaining models of care within their communities. PoC SWOP centers the experiences of Black queer, trans, and nonbinary sex workers. Since their work began in 2019, PoC SWOP has successfully advocated for over $100,000 in funding for outreach efforts through the Green Light Project, partnered with other collectives to develop reproductive justice policy, supported the Green Light Project to provide rapid housing to community members impacted by COVID-19, and advocated to extend the eviction moratorium to hotels.

Southern Oregon Coalition for Racial Equity | Medford, OR

The goal of the Southern Oregon Coalition for Racial Equity (SOEquity) is to create an equitable and accessible Southern Oregon through an antiracist lens. They serve as a centralized hub for organizations, businesses, community groups, and individuals in Southern Oregon who focus on addressing and remedying the racial inequities this region faces. They also support community leaders in promoting equity and committing to antiracism and hold them accountable in that process. In addition, SOEquity provides resources, training, and networking opportunities to Southern Oregon entities who wish to align their values with those of SOEquity. Their programming includes organizing a biannual State of the Region conference to assess community needs and create recommendations for other organizations, developing and advocating for policies that eliminate discrimination, and organizing to defund the police and support community safety alternatives.

Tubman Center for Health and Freedom | Seattle, WA

The Tubman Center for Health & Freedom addresses health and wellness from both systemic and clinical approaches. By practicing medicine from the intersection of health and freedom, they address both the health of their patients as well as the factors that determine their health. Tubman Health provides primary and preventative care, community resources, social services, political education and advocacy. Founded in May 2020 in response to multiple intersecting health emergencies, the Tubman Center aims to fill the void in public health information and resources for Seattle’s Black community. In addition to their community wellness programming, they also develop healthcare and medical models designed to meet the specific needs of Black communities, advocate for racially just health policy, conduct community research, and provide training to healthcare providers on racial justice in medicine.

WA Black Trans Task Force | Seattle, WA

The WA Black Trans Task Force (WABTTF) is an intersectional, multi-generational project of community building, research, and political action to address the crisis of violence against Black trans people. Led entirely by Black trans women and non-binary femmes, WABTTF provides resources for Black trans people in Washington in collaboration with community partners in order to broaden safety nets and increase avenues for justice that are typically available for white trans people. Their current wrap-around services include: employment training, resource referrals, rent assistance, and more. They are currently working to provide semi-permanent housing to their community, with the long-term vision of a permanent housing development by and for Black trans people.