2018 Social Justice Fund NW Annual Report

Executive Director Note

We are excited to share Social Justice Fund NW’s 2018 Annual Report, which highlights the work of our Giving Project members to raise over $1.1 million in grants to support grassroots organizing in the Northwest. This work comes at a critical time for not just the Northwest but U.S. and the world at large.

We are facing dire challenges that require a multitude of solutions and a massive amount of work from all sectors. There is increasing wealth inequality, irreversible climate change, and deadly attacks on our basic humanity. For those of us who care about creating a just, compassionate, safe world for all, this is a time of crisis. It’s a time when our usual
approaches simply are not enough, it’s a time that requires us all to take risks.

What is risk? For many of our grantees, risk means you may be deported because of your activism. You may lose your job. You may lose your children. You may be arrested and incarcerated. Your life may be threatened directly. And yet, in the face of risks like these, our grantees don’t fall back – they lead.

Now is the time for all of us who have a choice to choose to be uncomfortable.
To step up and take risks. To give in a different way and to ask different questions.
Our times demand this.

We need to tell the truth about who has power and why. And about who is most affected by injustice and why. We need to lift up the voices of the most impacted and trust and support their solutions.

I believe that the arc of history bends towards justice, like Dr. King said. But only if we do it – if we all exert what weight we have, to bend it. We hope you’ll add your weight to ours.

In Solidarity,
Mijo Lee

What We Do

Social Justice Fund NW funds social justice movements throughout Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington,
and Wyoming. All of our grantees are grassroots organizations on the frontlines of social change. We provide them with flexible funding with the freedom to respond to community needs, to invest in leadership and relationships, and to innovate and take risks for long term systemic change.

We are member-funded and member-led. SJF is fueled by you.

Almost all of our grant making is done through an innovative model called Giving Projects. Each Giving Project is a multiracial, cross-class cohort of volunteers who come together with a shared commitment to social justice. Our staff guide them through a process of political education, community building, collective giving, grassroots fundraising, and democratic grant making; these volunteers raise the money for our grants and make the grants themselves. The result is a more accountable, sustainable, and connected form of philanthropy AND hundreds of donor organizers with the skills and analysis to resource our movements for the long haul.

We also provide Rapid Response Grants (to help communities meet urgent needs that couldn’t have been anticipated) and Seed Grants (to help promising young groups gain momentum), and host Donor Advised Funds (helping higher capacity donors move money to community). And we run workshops that help people across race and class become more strategic social justice givers and more effective fundraisers, reclaiming philanthropy for all.

Through Social Justice Fund NW, we are all stronger together. Thank you for being part of SJF and part of a growing movement for justice.

Grantee Spotlight

Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF)

The Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF) is a unique grassroots organization that unites people of African descent to advance equity through community organizing, civic participation, leadership development and strategic voter engagement. (PAALF) envisions a world where people of African descent enjoy the rights, resources and recognition to be a thriving, resilient and connected community.

Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment

Nimiipuu, based in Lapwai, Idaho, works with Nez Perce tribal members and youth both on and off the reservation to develop activism and empowerment strategies to foster positive self-image individual growth while making systemic and change in the social and natural environment. Nimiipuu works with tribal youth and elders to protect their treaty areas and ensure Nimiipuu youth and adults understand how to have the tools to resist misuse of tribal or other lands and the Mother Earth.

Mother Africa

Mother Africa, based in Kent, Wash., supports African immigrant and refugee women and their families to reach their highest potential. Mother Africa works with women that are rebuilding their lives here in a new country, providing women’s groups for creating a safe space, sisterhood, and access to resources. Women within Mother Africa’s communities often face additional barriers to becoming stabilized in their new lives here due to stereotypes against immigrants in our current political system, racial and gender discrimination and a lack of experience knowing how to self-advocate inside of complex U.S. systems. Mother Africa supports women to find their footing and their voice.

Member Profiles

Andriana Alexis

Black Led Organizing Giving Project 2018-2019

“The selling point for me, like many of our peers on this [Black Led Organizing Giving
Project], was the rare and unique opportunity to do the work with an ALL Black group on behalf of organizations led by Black folks doing services for Black folks. Joining this Giving Project was absolutely an opportunity to tell our stories and to tell them loud and wide.

To tell stories about our resilience and our creativity and our talents.
To tell stories about our struggles, our commitments, our communities.
To tell the stories of our ancestors, our aunties, our cousins, our children, and our families by blood and by water – and all Black.

I joined this Giving Project because my responsibility to my community coupled with my
capacity and desire to make a difference for Black folks and alongside Black folks – through a model specifically designed to be for us and by us is not only my birthright and burden, but also part of our collective Black legacy.

The process of coming up with my meaningful gift was difficult for me. It took awhile for me to decide on a number partially because I was trying to decide what would feel meaningful and risky, but mostly because it was important for me to step onto the philanthropic scene in a bold way. One of the most meaningful parts of this project for me is that I am making my largest (so far) philanthropic gift to the benefit of Black led organizations. As someone in this industry professionally and someone who believes in participating in community – it was important to me that this gift was larger, more intentional, and “riskier” than anything else I’ve given. Giving myself permission to give a gift like this was probably the most difficult ask I made. For that reason, my gift is such a special, personal accomplishment.”

Jose Vasquez

Immigration Justice Giving Project 2018

“As an undocumented individual who received the opportunity to join the professional workforce thanks to DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), I wanted to be part of the solution to address the many challenges that our immigrant communities are facing with this administration. Joining the Immigrant Justice Giving Project allowed me to learn about front-line organizations doing the amazing work to organize and protect our immigrant communities across the region.

Joining a group of like-minded, and sometimes not so like-minded, individuals working towards a common cause for good was really inspiring and gives me hope in the days to come as we continue to fight back a hostile administration that is targeting immigrant communities.

I will continue to volunteer and remain engaged with the community of organizers that I have had the pleasure to meet during this Giving Project.”

2018 Grantees

Giving Project Grantees

All-African People’s Revolutionary Party	Portland	OR
API Chaya	Seattle	WA
Asian Pacific Family Club	Salem	OR
Beyond These Walls	Portland	OR
Black Lives Matter Portland	Portland	OR
Black Star Line	Seattle	WA
Chaplains on the Harbor	Westport	WA
Coalition for Rights & Safety for People in the Sex Trade	Seattle	WA
Coalition for Trans Prisoners	Seattle	WA
Colectiva Legal del Pueblo	Burien	WA
Community Justice Project	Seattle	WA
Community to Community	Bellingham	WA
Critical Resistance PDX	Portland	OR
EmpowerMT	Missoula	MT
Equality State Policy Center	Laramie	WY
Eugene/Springfield NAACP	Eugene	OR
GABRIELA Portland	Portland	OR
Got Green	Seattle	WA
Hilltop Urban Gardens	Tacoma	WA
Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project	Seattle	WA
Indian People’s Action	Butte	MT
La Resistencia (formerly NWDC Resistance)	Seattle	WA
Latinos Unidos Siempre	Seattle	WA
Liberation Medicine School	Seattle	WA
Momentum Alliance	Portland	OR
Montana Women Vote	Missoula	MT
Mother Africa	Kent	WA
Mujeres Luchadoras Progresistas	Woodburn	OR
Native Youth Leadership Alliance	Ferndale	WA
Nimiipuu Protecting the Environment	Pullman	WA
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon	Portland	OR
PCUN (Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste)	Woodburn	OR
People’s Plan for Community Justice	Seattle	WA
Portland Harbor Community Coalition	Portland	OR
Q/TPOC Birthwerq Project	Seattle	WA
Reckoning Trade Project	Seattle	WA
Red Lodge Transition Services	Portland	OR
Right 2 Survive	Portland	OR
SAFE (Standing Against Foreclosure and Eviction)	Seattle	WA
Seattle ACED	Seattle	WA
Seattle Black Child Development Institute	Seattle	WA
Seattle Domestic Workers Alliance	Seattle	WA
Seattle Native Coalition on Gender Based Violence and Missing and Murdered Native Women	Seattle	WA
Tenants Union of Washington State	Seattle	WA
The Montana Racial Equity Project	Bozeman	MT
The Noble Foundation	Kelso	WA
The Portland African American Leadership Forum	Portland	OR
The Village of Hope	Seattle	WA
U.T.O.P.I.A. Seattle	Kent	WA
Umoja Kijana Shujaa	Portland	OR
Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project	Portland	OR
WA-BLOC	Seattle	WA
Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network	Burien	WA
Wyoming Equality	Cheyenne	WY

Rapid Response and Seed Grantees

Coailtion of Prosperity for the People	Portland	OR
Freedom to Thrive (formerly Enlace)	Portland	OR
George Creek Cooperative Farm	Culdesac	ID
Got Green	Seattle	WA
Heartspark Press	Olympia	WA
Idaho Tenants Association	Boise	ID
Laramie PrideFest	Laramie	WY
Latinos Unidos Siempre	Salem	OR
Liberation Medicine School	Seattle	WA
MascOn/MascOff	Seattle	WA
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA	Portland	OR
Nurturing Roots	Seattle	WA
Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane	Spokane	WA
Reckoning Trade Project	Seattle	WA
Rogue Action Center	Phoenix	OR
Rural Organizing Project	Cottage Grove	OR
Survivor Impact Group	Seattle	WA
SWOP Seattle (Sex Workers Outreach Project)	Seattle	WA
The Montana Racial Equity Project	Bozeman	MT
The Village Coalition	Portland	OR
Vietnamese Friendship Association	Seattle	WA
What’s Next Washington	Seattle	WA