News Archives - Neighborhood Funders Group

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…

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…

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…

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…

Welcoming IRSG’s Movement Advisors

NFG’s Integrated Rural Strategies Group (IRSG) launched its inaugural committee of Movement Advisors in August 2021. These Advisors will deepen IRSG’s work to increase philanthropy’s accountability to rural movement leaders. These seven rural leaders reflect the powerful and broad diversity of rural communities, representing a range of geographies, issues, races, cultures, and more. What these leaders…

Reflections on Labor Day with Larry Williams, Jr. of UnionBase

This Labor Day, NFG’s Director of the Funders for a Just Economy program, Manisha Vaze, met with Larry Williams, Jr., Cofounder of UnionBase, and formerly a Labor and Just Transition Coordinator at the Sierra Club and President of the Progressive Workers Union. In this interview, Manisha and Larry talked about Larry’s work and his vision…

Statement on President Trumka’s Passing

With heavy hearts, Neighborhood Funders Group and The LIFT Fund are in solidarity with the AFL-CIO and the labor movement to honor President Richard Trumka. President Trumka dedicated his life to fighting for workers, from his beginnings with the United Mine Workers of America, to global solidarity efforts with workers in South Africa, and through…

Introducing Philanthropy Foward: Cohort 3

We are excited to announce the launch of Philanthropy Forward’s Cohort 3 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…