Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders Archives - Neighborhood Funders Group

May CLS Session

On May 15, funders will be invited to sharpen their approach to practicing solidarity with movements. Specifically, we will support participants to: Critically analyze how philanthropy is a contributor to racial capitalism and anti-Black racism Grapple with the origins of their foundation’s assets and what it means to move resources to organizing through a reparative…

Midwest Funder Connection, Learning, + Strategy Sessions

About Our Connection, Learning, and Strategy Sessions (CLS Sessions) As a core component of Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funder programming, CLS Sessions are bi-monthly 90-minute virtual meetings for funders to strategize, learn, and build community in ways that strengthen their ability to move more resources to Midwest grassroots organizing. All funders that fund in the…

Youth in the Lead: Shifting Power and Moving Resources to Youth Organizers

Throughout history, young people have played crucial roles in catalyzing, organizing, and connecting movements. Despite this, many of us in philanthropy consistently hear the adultist, classist, and racist myth that youth organizing is a less serious form of organizing. Today, as movements demand for the abolition of the prison and military industrial complex, reproductive…

From the Ground Up: Why Community Power Matters in Funding Climate Justice

Please join us on September 14 from 9:30am PT | 11:30am CT | 12:30pm ET for From the Ground Up: Why Community Power Matters in Funding Climate Justice. Register Here! The undeniable intersection of colonialism, racial capitalism, and climate injustice cannot be overlooked – from the devastating wildfires on Maui to the perpetuation of natural resource extraction…

This is For Everybody: Transforming the Housing System in Minneapolis through Cooperatives

Graphic containing event information in text below with photos of IX's cooperative, protests, and community leadership development work

Decades of redlining, racial covenants, racist banking practices, elite-oriented development, and other racist housing policies has resulted in Minneapolis facing one of the worst housing crises in the country. Yet, community members are winning and forging a future where housing is untethered from white supremacy. Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia (United Renters for Justice) (IX)’s…

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…

The Power of Our People: Building Long-Term Community Power in Wisconsin

Wisconsin is often overlooked or only attended to during the 11th hour of national elections. Despite this, Wisconsin is a flourishing and critical site for grassroots organizations that are bringing together communities across geography, race, and class. These organizers offer a clear, strategic blueprint for how to build long-term community power in a…

Forging Pathways to Democracy: Worker Power Building in the Midwest

Graphic of the title, date, and description for the One Fair Wage Fireside on 1/31/23. At the bottom is a photo of a Chicago protest with a sign reading: End a legacy of slavery. "End the subminimum wage for tipped workers."

Please join us for Forging Pathways to Democracy: Worker Power Building in the Midwest on Tuesday, January 31, 2023 at 9am PT | 10am MT | 11am CT | 12pm ET! In a time that can feel politically harrowing, we are in a historically hopeful and inspiring time as workers are striking and…

Campaign to Support BIPOC Farmers: A Conversation with Black Oaks Center

Register Join us in a dialogue with Black Oaks Center about their bold work to build resilient communities and food systems in the historic Black farming community of Pembroke Township, Illinois. Late last year, we launched a Campaign to Support BIPOC Farmers, a multi-pronged effort to move resources to Black Oaks Center to support the…

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…

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…

Indiana: Co-Governance in Action

Join us, for a conversation with Faith in Indiana and the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to learn how they aligned organizing and policy expertise to transform Indianapolis’s criminal justice system, while and building new vehicles to advance governing power in a highly volatile state. Together we will explore: With billions of dollars…

Past Sessions

Session #3: Winning Jobs Narrative: Civic Engagement Using a Framework for Working Peoples across Race and Place September 28, 2022 To create policies that give people the tools to improve their lives and their communities, we need to be able to unite majorities and build coalitions that share common cause. And majorities cannot be achieved…

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…

2021-2022 Midterm Election Series

The 2022 Midterm Elections are rapidly approaching. Next November, elections around the country will shape Congress and state and national policy outcomes, while setting the stage for the 2024 presidential election. With a polarized political landscape, civic engagement and voter mobilization among rural and tribal communities will have a critical impact for years to come.…

Wading in the Water: Water & Racial Justice in the Midwest Webinar

Water is essential to human life. While the Midwest is known for its Great Lakes and is home to one fifth of the world’s fresh water, Midwest communities are facing barriers to protecting access to their water and securing themselves against the threats of flooding, droughts, factory farm contamination, and unsafe municipal drinking water. Calamities across the…