NFG Newsletter

Dear friend, What a joy to write to you from my new position as the Senior Director of the Amplify Fund at NFG! For nearly 18 years (through my roles with the Arcus Foundation, Ms. Foundation for Women, and Grantmakers for Southern Progress) I’ve been on the receiving end of these NFG newsletters. I’m thrilled that as…

Hello friend, This past July, Neighborhood Funders Group wrapped up the second cohort in our Racial Capitalism Community of Practice. Seeing this work grow continues to be heartening. We now have over 50 funder members who have completed the cohort — spending hours on reflective political education, building community with one another, and designing actionable projects…

Hello friend, Last month marked my four year anniversary as part of team NFG! Part of my role as Director of Membership and Communications is to onboard new members who have recently joined NFG to co-conspire with our network of grantmakers to accelerate racial, gender, economic, disability, and climate justice. I also meet with our…

Hello friend, I’m Manisha Vaze, and after five years of working with the Funders for a Just Economy program, I feel very privileged to move into more leadership at Neighborhood Funders Group as the new Vice President of Programs. For those of you who I haven’t gotten to know or build with yet, I’m writing…

Dear friend, I became NFG’s Communications Manager a few months ago. It was the middle of January — the start of a new year and a new chapter of my career. From the interview process, to check-ins with my manager and teammates, to the staff and board gathering we held in March, I have learned so much…

Dear friend, I am writing to you fresh off the heels of our 2023 National Convening in Wilmington, NC — the first in-person convening NFG has hosted since 2018! Throughout the convening, as we exercised our regathering muscle as a community, we dove into a range of topics, including thinking big about the potential impacts…

Dear friend, NFG’s 2023 National Convening is one month away! We’ve been planning this convening since 2021 and are deeply appreciative of the support and guidance of our members and partners who have helped us shape our incredible convening program, including our convening Co-chairs — Chi-Ante Jones of Kolibri Foundation & Cypress Fund and Tania Durán of Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. In…

“It’s all about connection!”  That’s what I thought to myself as I left my 80 degree home to get on a 6:30am flight to unseasonably chilly Los Angeles, just in time for Southern California’s latest atmospheric river (eeep!), to gather with my NFG colleagues and Board. The NFG team last gathered in person in September 2022,…

Dear friend, I’m immensely proud of the ways that Neighborhood Funders Group pairs principle with practice in a myriad of ways — in our programmatic priorities, relationships with movement, collaboration as colleagues, and even internal operations. As a community organizer, I know that fighting the violent systems that structure our society is grueling work. I’ve also seen us…

Dear friend, I’ve been thinking about nutrition lately — not nutrition in the toxic diet culture way — but nutrition as in the necessary ingredients that fuel our bodies and also our spirits, our communities, and our movements. This thinking was in part prompted by Alice Sparkly Kat’s 2023 horoscopes. I’m an Aquarius sun (happy Aquarius…

Dear NFG Community, I hope that you’re finding an abundance of joy and reflection as we move towards the end of this year, and that you can radically rest and connect with your loved ones before the beginning of 2023. I last wrote to you in June, right as Neighborhood Funders Group embarked on a…

The integrated voter engagement efforts leading up to the recent elections underscore how local grassroots organizers are leading the way to seed transformative change and ensure that our communities thrive in the face of extreme challenges. At Neighborhood Funders Group, we are encouraged by philanthropy’s moves to uplift (and fund!) community organizing in bolder and more impactful ways. We also know that…