Our Current Organizations
Every month we will feature three different organizations that need our help. Our intent is to bring these non-profits to your attention in the hope that you will continue to support them in the future. Please continue scrolling to see all of our organizations.
September, 2020
Black and Brown Founders
Giving entrepreneurs knowledge, tools and cutting-edge tactics to launch startups without relying on venture capital.
“We're on a mission to close the vast and growing wealth gap between Black and Latinx households and their counterparts in the United States.”
Created by Executive Director, Aniyia Williams during her entrepreneurship residency and the experience fundraising for her tech company, Aniyia discovered the many gaps of venture funding and disparities in supporting people of color.
Less than 2% of venture capital goes to Black and Latinx entrepreneurs, yet they are the driving force behind business creation in the United States.
Aniyia wanted to provide solutions for founders of color who have limited resources and may never see a dollar of outside investment.
She started Black & Brown Founders to address it.
The organization has organized several national events, offers a virtual training program, and a virtual conference to help Black and Latinx entrepreneurs at the earliest stage of their journey cross the chasm from idea to revenue.
For more information and to donate, visit:
https://blackandbrownfounders.com/pave-the-way-to-5k
Prison Book Program
Provide free books to prisoners
“Prison Book Program mails books to people in prison to support their educational, vocational and personal development and to help them avoid returning to prison after their release. We also aim to provide a quality volunteer experience that introduces citizens to issues surrounding the American prison system and the role of education in reforming it”.
Books are crucial to the political, spiritual, and educational development of all people. Most prisons do not allow family and friends to send books into prisons. They must come from a bookstore, publisher, online retailer or a program like ours. We serve over 10,000 prisoners each year.
The reading interests of the people we serve mirror the general population with a few exceptions.. They say that books offer escape, entertainment, and practical information.
To learn more and to donate, visit:
https://prisonbookprogram.org/donate-books/
RAPP
Release Aging People in Prison
“Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP works to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice through the release from prison of older and aging people and those serving long and life sentences.”
Co-founded and first led by the late Mujahid Farid, a 2013 Soros Justice Fellow who served 33 years in New York State prisons before his release in 2011, RAPP focuses on aging people behind bars, many of whom are longtermers convicted of serious crimes. Most of these women and men have transformed their lives and developed profound skills and abilities. They could be released from prison and would enhance public safety through mentoring and contributions to their communities. Yet many are denied release, often for political reasons, and they needlessly remain imprisoned into old age. These elders could return to their communities if current mechanisms such as parole and compassionate release were correctly utilized. We also support legislation in New York to correct the parole system and increase the number of releases.
To learn more and to donate, visit:
August, 2020
The Loveland Foundation
Help provide therapy for Black women and girls
“With the barriers affecting access to treatment by members of diverse ethnic and racial groups. Loveland Therapy Fund provides financial assistance to Black women and girls nationally seeking therapy.”
“The Loveland Foundation was established in 2018 by Rachel Cargle in response to her widely successful birthday wish fundraiser, Therapy for Black Women and Girls. Her enthusiastic social media community raised over $250,000, which made it possible for Black women and girls nationally to receive therapy support. Black women and girls deserve access to healing, and that healing will impact generations.
The Loveland Foundation is the official continuation of this effort to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color, and especially to Black women and girls. Through fellowships, residency programs, listening tours, and more, ultimately we hope to contribute to both the empowerment and the liberation of the communities we serve.”
For more on ways to give, visit https://thelovelandfoundation.org/ways-to-give/
The Okra Project
Provide home cooked, culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans people
“The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.
Based on individual donations, The Okra Project pays Black Trans chefs to go into the homes of Black Trans people to cook them a healthy and home-cooked meal at absolutely no cost to our Black TGNC siblings. For those Black Trans folks currently experiencing homeless or whose homes cannot support our chef’s cooking, The Okra Project has partnered with institutions like Osborne Association and other community spaces to deliver foods.”
To donate, visit:
https://www.artsbusinesscollaborative.org/asp-products/the-okra-project-sponsored-project/
To learn more, visit: https://www.theokraproject.com/
Black Girls Code
Help to empower girls of color to become innovators in STEM fields, leaders in their communities, and builders of their own futures through exposure to computer science and technology.
“Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Black Girls CODE has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs we hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds. Black Girls CODE's ultimate goal is to provide African-American youth with the skills to occupy some of the 1.4 million computing job openings expected to be available in the U.S. by 2020, and to train 1 million girls by 2040.”
To donate, visit:
https://donorbox.org/support-black-girls-code?default_interval=o
To learn more, visit: https://www.blackgirlscode.com/about-bgc.html
July, 2020
American Civil Liberties Union
Help protect civil liberties
What your donation goes toward:
Protecting free speech and the right to protest
Defending reproductive freedom
Fighting anti-LGBTQ discrimination
Safeguarding the rights of refugees and immigrants
To donate, visit
The Conscious Kid
Provide access to children’s books centering underrepresented and oppressed groups
“The Conscious Kid is an education, research and policy organization dedicated to reducing bias and promoting positive identity development in youth. We partner with organizations, children’s museums, schools, and families across the country to promote access to children’s books centering underrepresented and oppressed groups.
To counter racist socialization, structural racism, and racial bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible (Baron & Banaji; Derman-Sparks). Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these critical conversations with children, and can also be used to model what it means to resist and disrupt oppression.
All donations made here go to a dedicated fund for us to get children’s books from our list of “41 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance” into classrooms across the country.”
Beyond addressing issues of race and racism, these children’s books focus on taking action. They highlight resistance, resilience, and activism, and seek to empower youth to participate in the ongoing movement for racial justice. Children not only need to know what individual, systemic, and internalized racism looks like, they need to know what they can do about it. "
For more information, visit https://www.theconsciouskid.org/donate
“In Their Own Words” illustration by Julie Flett
Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM)
Provide access to emotional healthcare and healing for black communities through education, training, advocacy and the creative arts.
“BEAM is a training, movement building and grant making organization dedicated to the healing, wellness and liberation of Black and marginalized communities.
Vision:
BEAM envisions a world where there are no barriers to Black Healing.
Mission:
BEAM’s mission is to remove the barriers that Black people experience getting access to or staying connected with emotional health care and healing. We do this through healing justice based organizing, education, training, grantmaking and advocacy.”
For more information, visit https://www.beam.community