Justice Funders works to shift power and resources by supporting partnerships between frontline movement organizations and funders that center movement strategies and democratic control of resources. Our current partnership is with the Richmond Our Power Coalition.
With the growing number of social justice groups and alliances that are situating their organizing work within the Just Transition framework, there are new opportunities for aligning philanthropic resources to support local, place-based projects that are experimenting with true alternatives to our extractive, capitalist economic system by building local, regenerative economies that transfer wealth and economic power to low-income communities of color. One such formation is the Richmond Our Power Coalition (ROPC), with whom Justice Funders is partnering to promote Just Transition vision, values and projects to philanthropic communities in the Bay Area and nationally.
The Richmond Our Power Coalition is creating transition pathways out of dirty energy, towards solutions that create meaningful work and livelihoods. Our Power brings together frontline communities and allies to coordinate community-led action strategies that advance a Just Transition out of destructive development into new socioeconomic solutions that serves our communities, heals the planet, and preserves our cultures.
From 2015-2019, Justice Funders coordinated two Community and Funder Collaboratives to successfully move more than $1.5 million in grants to Bay Rising and Lift Up Contra Costa, two regional civic engagement alliances comprised of frontline groups that are organizing and building power in marginalized communities to advance systemic change for racial and economic justice.
How Community-Funded Collaboratives Can Build Regional Power