News Archives - Neighborhood Funders Group

Discount Foundation Legacy Award

The Discount Legacy Award annually identifies, supports, and celebrates an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and contributed significantly to workers’ rights movements in the United States and/or globally. Through public recognition and a $20,000 stipend, we hope to recognize and amplify the work of individuals at the intersections leading the way toward justice…

2023 March Amplify Newsletter

Dear friends, Amplify Fund was originally created to support groups at the intersection of racial justice, power building, and equitable development. Our new vision focuses on generational wealth building, land justice, holistic well-being, and human dignity. In other words, our grantees work on a variety of issues. To read about some of the amazing strides they made in…

Midwest 2022 Year-End Newsletter: Rest, Adaptation, + Fireside in January!

These shorter, colder days have required me to rest more, slow down, and re-arrange my work days to catch the daylight for myself and little ones. And it always feels so hard because it disrupts and challenges how I have been taught to survive racial capitalism: to use urgency as a default reaction and accept extraction. 🌱 Forming the program’s…

Amplify Fund’s Updated Vision

Amplify Fund’s original vision focused on “a reality where Black, indigenous, people of color, and low-income people benefit from the changes caused by development, including wealth creation, land control, and quality of life outcomes.” While this original vision served us well, it was written in 2018 by funders and staff. In 2021, adhering to our…

Amplify Fund’s Updated Goals

In 2021, Amplify grantees wrote a new vision for the Fund, and updated our twin goals to fit that vision. However, the core of Amplify’s goals (to help build power in places, and to shift the field of philanthropy) remain the same. Below, you can find the latest articulation of our goals including the conditions…

Amplify Fund’s Updated Values

Amplify Fund has always been values-driven, having articulated a set of values alongside our first theory of change in 2018. In 2021, when we enlisted a committee of grantees to update our vision and goals, we also asked them to revisit and sharpen our values. Below is the latest list of values that guide Amplify…

Reflections from Our First Racial Capitalism Community of Practice

Considering that philanthropy historically and currently is a contributor to the deeply embedded and extractive tenets of racial capitalism, over the last few years NFG’s Funders for a Just Economy has been building its analysis of racial capitalism and power by learning about Black radical tradition and feminist theory. This includes the Journey Towards Intersectional…

2022 October Amplify Newsletter

Dear friends, Our commitment to deep, relational grantmaking means that, in addition to our long-term commitment to racial justice powerbuilding, we respond during crises of all kinds. Crises that affect 1) all our grantees partners, like COVID; 2) individual grantee partners; and 3) grantee partners in just one of our eight places as was the case…

IRSG Rural Organizing Dialogue Series

Over the course of the summer, IRSG held a Rural Organizing Dialogue Series. This series was educational and genuine! It was a space for funders in IRSG’s network to get to know this work and the rural leaders that are holding and leading it. The dialogue featured many of IRSG’s Movement Advisors and created opportunity to…

Event Recap: 9/15 Indiana Co-Governance Funder Briefing

In Indianapolis, gun violence is down 20% so far this year for the first time in a decade; a new crisis response system supports people in crisis to get the care they deserve rather than ending up behind bars; and the nation’s strongest civilian oversight body over law enforcement, created just nine month ago, has…

Happy Labor Day: NFG Unionized!

This Labor Day, Neighborhood Funders Group is honored to share with our members and friends that we have the opportunity to live into our values and theory of change through the process of bargaining in good faith with Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 9415, our employee union. NFG formally recognized CWA Local 9415 on July 14, 2022,…

Introducing Philanthropy Forward: Cohort 4

We are excited to announce the launch of Philanthropy Forward’s Cohort 4 in partnership with The Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions! Philanthropy Forward is a CEO fellowship community for visionary leaders who center racial and gender justice and community power building to disrupt and transform the future of philanthropy. This fellowship brings together CEOs of foundations who are supporting…

Midwest Summer 2022 Newsletter: Collective Courage ✨

With all we are holding, I hope you are also finding sweetness in this final stretch of our Midwest summer. Each day, I have the honor of working with movement workers and funders who teach me what it means to be courageous enough to build the world we want. Individual brave acts are powerful. So…

Midwest Spring 2022 Newsletter: Seeding Change 🌱

I am so honored to say hello to you as the Program Manager of the Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders (Midwest Program) at Neighborhood Funders Group. I shifted into this role from Sr. Program Coordinator last month, a transition that has paralleled the Midwest’s journey into spring. In recent years, I have begun gardening vegetables, which has been…

Connection: NFG’s 2023 National Convening

Neighborhood Funders Group is shifting the timing of our National Convening in Wilmington, North Carolina from June 2022 to Spring 2023 (the convening had been planned in this same location for June 14-16, 2022). It’s with mixed emotions and deep commitment to the NFG community that I share this update with you, while also holding…

2023 Discount Foundation Legacy Award: Call for Nominations

The nominations are now open for the 2023 Discount Foundation Legacy Award! The Discount Foundation Legacy Award annually identifies, supports, and celebrates an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and contributed significantly to workers’ rights movements in the United States and/or globally. Through public recognition and a $20,000 stipend, we hope to recognize and amplify…

Campaign to Support BIPOC Farmers

Photos courtesy of Black Oaks Center. Connect with NFG about contributing Neighborhood Funders Group and Wieboldt Foundation invite you to support racial justice and reparations for Black, Indigenous, and POC farmers who are crucial to our fight for just food systems, economic justice, and climate justice. We have launched a campaign to support the farmers of Pembroke Township, Illinois and Black Oaks…