COMPLETED — Innovative, Just, and Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project 2021

Read: Announcing the Awardees of the Innovative, Just, & Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project!

Who’s behind the 2021 Innovative, Just, & Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project?

We are a group of artists, public servants, parents, organizers, nonprofit workers, builders, immigrants, and readers. We live and work across the ancestral lands of the Duwamish, Coast Salish, Puyallup, Nisqually, Multnomah, Cowlitz, Atfalati, Kalapuya, amd Clatskanie peoples, also known as Seattle, Tacoma, and Lakewood, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. 

We’ve come together to defend housing as a human right. We assert that housing is essential, and underscore that it has always been a right that must be defended — yet never more so than in our current crisis. With even greater instability brought on by Covid-19 and eviction moratoriums set to expire on June 30, 2021, this work literally cannot wait. As new and innovative housing is created, honoring the right to self determination through what housing means and what housing is for those utilizing it, is also essential for every community and everyone, everywhere. 

Our group is committed to defending housing a human right by: 

• Raising as much money as possible by June 30th. We currently have a goal of $205,000 (updated 7/17/21). 
• Giving a meaningful gift and pushing past our hesitation to give generously is a profound act that affirms abundance in an atmosphere of fear with an illusion of scarcity. We challenge you to join us in this defiant act of real courage.
• Deep listening, challenging white supremacy, rejecting classism and showing up honestly in our collective process.
• Using fundraising to share this urgent work and get new people invested in and passionate about housing justice.

Why fund organizing for innovative, just, and equitable housing?

Housing is a human right — yet many are denied this right. Housing inequity is what happens when people cannot access safe, comfortable, and well-maintained housing due to structural barriers like racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, and classism.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts have only made housing injustice worse. It’s also given us opportunities to build alternative systems that support people’s wellbeing through housing equity and justice. This project will fund organizing that addresses the root causes of housing injustice and/or that creates different, imaginative systems so people most impacted by this issue have agency and power in where and how they live. We are committed to funding organizing led by people most impacted by housing injustice because we believe the people closest to the problem have the best solutions.

What is a Momentum Giving Project?

Momentum Giving Projects are designed to be responsive to the “movement moment” that is happening at the time. We recognize that our grantees are organizing — strengthening communities, training activists, building analysis, developing leaders, making change — all the time. But sometimes, a spark catches. Circumstances come together so that there’s new momentum and focused attention around a particular issue.

What is a Giving Project?

Learn about Social Justice Fund’s Giving Project model here.

How does donor organizing make change?

We define donor organizing as people coming together to sharpen their analysis and develop tools to collectively and strategically fund grassroots social change. A donor organizer is any person committed to not only making a meaningful gift on their own, but also educating and organizing their community to resource a movement with money, power, and community support.

How can I support the 2021 Innovative, Just, & Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project?

1. Donate to our Giving Project!
   • If you were asked by a Giving Project member, make sure you include their name in the comments field as well
2. Share our work. Ask others to donate to our Giving Project!
3. Learn more about this and other Giving Projects by talking with Giving Project participants and SJF staff. Click here to learn more about SJF’s Giving Project model. Consider signing up for one of Giving Projects when they are announced.

Contributions to Social Justice Fund’s Innovative, Just, & Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project are tax deductible. We accept donations by credit/debit card, electronic funds transfer, cash, checks, stock, donor advised funds, and planned giving. Click here for more information on giving to SJF.

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Grant applications for the Innovative, Just, & Equitable Housing Momentum Giving Project grant are now closed. Click here to see SJF’s current grant opportunities.