NFG Newsletter

Dear friend, As a kid, I remember swimming in the Missouri river in my home community of Lower Brule, South Dakota, the Kul Wicasa Oyate. I remember it being both odd and fascinating that I could walk out into the water quite a way and my feet still be able to touch the ground. At…

Dear friend, With the barrage of cellphone footage revealing the violence inflicted by federal agents in communities across the country, more and more Americans are being confronted by the realization that the only people coming to save us are each other. As Adam Serwer describes it, cruelty is the point of the Administration’s policies, creating a dual…

Dear friend, Throughout 2025, we’ve seen how a handful of moneyed and powerful individuals and corporations can gut our political apparatus for personal gain—plunging communities into further precarity as their healthcare, housing, jobs, and neighbors are being ripped away. Instead of retreating from funding organizing work that centers Black, queer + trans, immigrant, disabled, and working-class people, NFG…

Dear friend, Thank you to everyone who joined us in Nashville for NFG’s 2025 National Convening! Whether you were there in person or cheering us on from afar, your presence, energy, and commitment made this gathering powerful. Together, we laughed, learned, built relationships, and strategized toward a future rooted in justice and thriving communities. We’re…

Dear friend, Last week NFG hosted its 2025 National Convening in Nashville, TN rooted in seeding (and ceding) transformational power. During the week we grounded ourselves in the richness of Middle Tennessee’s history, culture, and powerful organizing ecosystems. We came together for a variety of planaries, sessions, and workshops aimed at challenging philanthropy to take bold, coordinated…

Dear friend, As the attacks on immigrant communities and protesters continue to escalate, plugging into networks that share your values and commitment to collective liberation is as important as ever. For decades, Neighborhood Funders Group has specifically focused on grassroots organizing and power building as the key to effective social change strategies. In my community,…

Dear friend, We are in a moment that demands more from all of us. As we grapple with the realities of 2025 and the political  landscape that lies ahead, the path forward is uncertain but one thing is clear: we must come together.   This is not a time for isolation.  It is a time for…

Dear friend, Registration is now open for NFG’s 2025 National Convening: Seeding (and Ceding) Transformational Power! This year’s convening theme, Seeding (and Ceding) Transformational Power, is a call to action. We aim to seed many ideas and investments, build new opportunities to fund ongoing organizing and power building, and resource communities methodically and in collaboration with one another…

Dear friend, I was born and raised in Southwestern Montana, in a town that at the time had a population of just over 20,000. The community was homogenous and despite the powerful paradigms it imposed on my young mind, I somehow felt drawn to experiencing different societal structures. This inkling, in part, led me to…

Dear friend, I’m excited to welcome the Neighborhood Funders Group community to 2025! I’m returning from NFG’s winter office closure feeling energized to continue working towards a reality where BIPOC and low-income communities are funded with all philanthropic assets in this current political moment. 2024 was a big year for NFG. Together with you all, we advanced…

In this month’s newsletter, you’ll hear from NFG board Co–Chairs, Kaberi Banerjee Murthy, Ms. Foundation, and Tania Durán, Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. As board Co-Chairs, Tania and Kaberi have been deeply committed leaders on the Board through the heart of this transition; this has been a body of work full of commitment to NFG and its…

Dear friend, Over Neighborhood Funders Group’s 45 year history, we have been a steadfast presence in philanthropy, pushing funders to more deeply and effectively support people of color-led, grassroots organizing in communities across the country. Each of our six programs seek to organize philanthropy into action, with a commitment to sustaining movements for the long haul. As the shape…

Dear friend, Over Neighborhood Funders Group’s nearly 45 year history as an organization we have been a steadfast presence in philanthropy, pushing funders to more deeply and effectively support people of color-led, grassroots organizing, and powerbuilding work in communities across the country. And, NFG has become more bold in its vision to liberate philanthropic assets…

Countless generations of my family were raised in Rivers State Nigeria until weapons of war removed them from their ancestral lands. Understood by many immigrants, Palestinians, Black, Indigenous, and communities of color across the world, the impact of violence lives in the memories and bodies for generations to follow. Those experiences sparked my curiosity to…

Dear friend, When NFG held its first-ever National Convening in Cleveland in 1995, we were known as one of the few spaces in philanthropy specifically focused on people of color-led, grassroots organizing, and power building as the key to effective social change strategies. Nearly thirty years later, funders continue to look forward to our biennial…

Dear friend, In March 2022, I organized my first site visit to Puerto Rico as a staff member of NFG’s Amplify Fund. I had been to Puerto Rico many times in my prior job at Open Society Foundations, but, this time, I committed to spending two weeks on the island. Two weeks gave the grantees more…

Dear friend, Neighborhood Funders Group is a community of grantmakers who are moving money to racial, gender, economic, disability, and climate justice. We organize philanthropy so that Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities and low-income communities thrive. For the past two years, NFG has been in a significant period of leadership transition and organizational change that…