NFG Newsletter

In NFG’s final Strike Watch blog of 2020, Manisha Vaze — Director of our Funders for a Just Economy Program — issued this call to action: “The organizer in me is asking you to stay vigilant and move resources to where movements are directing us: to organizing, power building, and movements calling to defund the police as…

At Neighborhood Funders Group’s final board meeting of 2020, the toll of the year hit me — suddenly. While saying farewell to Mary Sobecki (Executive Director of the Needmor Fund) as she ended her term on NFG’s Board of Directors, I found myself crying like a baby. I have known Mary since NFG’s National Convening…

On October 1, I enthusiastically moved into the role of Vice President of Programs for Neighborhood Funders Group after being on our staff team since January 2019 and a former NFG member leader. I am proud to continue NFG’s 40-year legacy of mobilizing philanthropy to redefine what is possible for this sector and our communities. Being part…

We hope that — at one of the most critical junctions in the United States in decades — you are tapping into your reservoirs of joy, strength, and nourishment: whether that’s friends and family, rest, food, music, art, plants, pets, or philanthropic community. As we all continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, its economic…

Last week, NFG’s Amplify Fund and Funders for a Just Economy hosted a virtual learning visit in Nashville to showcase how Stand Up Nashville and The Equity Alliance are building power in their city for all residents. These Black women-led organizations have laid the foundation for recent movements supporting mutual aid and just recovery from disasters, community development, and economic justice (watch this video to learn more…

At NFG’s plenary session to ignite our 40 Years Strong virtual convening series, Gladys Washington, Former Deputy Director of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, urged philanthropy to “keep leaning in, and keep putting that money out.” As communities continue to adapt to the altered landscape created by COVID-19 and rise up to defend Black lives, we are seeing…

Thank you to the hundreds of people who joined us online to kickoff our 2020 National Convening Series between June 29 and July 2. Our early July convening programming included the Accountability & Philanthropy’s Role plenary session (watch the recording!), Multiracial Rural Equity Summit hosted by NFG’s Integrated Rural Strategies Program, and Homecoming: Housing Justice is Racial…

It is a great honor and joy to greet you as Neighborhood Funders Group’s new President. And I do so while holding grief and outrage for George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, David McAtee, Dion Johnson, Ahmaud Arbery, and the untold thousands of Black people killed by police. I am also reflecting on Pride Month…

We hope that you are safe, supported, and healthy in this unprecedented public health and economic crisis. The NFG team has spent the last several weeks adjusting to this altered way of life — providing time off for staff, calling for social solidarity, urging funders to scale up and move money to communities of color…

This year marks NFG’s 40th anniversary. During our early years, NFG was 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. Today, NFG continues to be many funders’ political home at a time when moving resources to struggles for…