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"Justice Funders serves as a True North for us in philanthropy moving ideas, money and people toward clarity in purpose. We at the Hidden Leaf Foundation deeply appreciate and have benefited from their bold vision and clear, unwavering directive in these times when we need them most." - Supriya Pillai, Executive Director, Hidden Leaf Foundation
Who We Are

OUR MISSION

Justice Funders is a partner and guide for philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world.

OUR VISION

We envision a world that honors the sacredness of our natural resources and recognizes the inalienable rights of all.

We believe that such a world cannot be achieved if institutional philanthropy is constrained by its ingrained practices that uphold the accumulation of wealth and power, while perpetuating systemic social and economic inequality.

We assert that philanthropy’s role in building a thriving and just world is to redistribute wealth, democratize power and shift economic control to communities.

What call on philanthropy to abundantly resource the movements that uproot the systems that oppress us and also support the creation of local, regenerative solidarity economies that build political, economic and cultural power in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.

OUR ROLE

Justice Funders supports individual, organizational, and field-wide transformation in philanthropy.

We do this through:

  • Narrative Change: We inspire and amplify a radical vision for philanthropy
  • Political Home: We build beloved community and facilitate collective action among values-aligned philanthropic change agents
  • Capacity Building: We strengthen individuals’ and institutions’ capacity to lead the Just Transition in Philanthropy
  • Movement leadership: We position social movements as leaders for philanthropy to trust, listen to, follow and fund

We are guided by the Just Transition principles for building political and economic power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

We are funder organizers, committed to a practice of building relationships and leadership to shift power, structures and cultures within philanthropy to advance a Just Transition by turning extracted resources into resources for the regenerative economy.

Organizational History

Justice Funders emerged in 2009 as the Bay Area Justice Funders Network, as local funders sought spaces to bring the philanthropic community together with frontline leaders following the murder of Oscar Grant by BART Police. Melanie Cervantes (Akonadi Foundation), Luke Newton (Common Counsel Foundation), Vanessa Daniel (Groundswell Fund), Carmen Rojas (Mitchell Kapor Foundation), and Kazu Haga (Peace Development Fund) formed the founding steering committee, which solidified the goals for the network, raised seed monies, and hired staff.

Over the next seven years, our work began to broaden in scope and reach beyond the local network. After having tested and incubated successful interventions to re-imagine philanthropic practices, the organization adopted a new name in 2018 to reflect its expansion. Today, Justice Funders is the home of the national Justice Funders Network while also 1) inspiring and amplifying a radical vision for philanthropy through narrative strategies; 2) leading a range of programmatic offerings including events and trainings, cohort programs, and coaching and consulting services; and 3) creating opportunities for action.

In 2020, we began an intentional organizational development journey to deepen the alignment of our structure and practices with the principles of Just Transition, including shared leadership, democratic decision making and self-governance.

We shifted from having an Executive Director and Deputy Director to a co-Directorship model; adopted a democratic form of decision-making in which all staff share power over decisions that affect the organization; and created a governing structure made up of cross-departmental circles that collectively coordinate and manage the organization’s internal functions.

In July 2021 we incorporated as a 501(c)3 organization and became a worker self-directed nonprofit.

Through our organizational changes, Justice Funders is working to actualize our shared values and live into the vision of a regenerative economy based on reflective, responsive, reciprocal relationships of interdependence.