PHOTO CREDIT: Brooke Anderson
$1.15 Million Granted to Community Organizing, Power Building, Movement Building Organizations
East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) has awarded $1.15 million in grants to social movement organizations dedicated to community organizing, power building, and movement building in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The grants, made to 25 organizations, support efforts of local community and movement leaders who are actively working to create positive change in their communities.
“We know the importance of people power and are committed to partnering with our community members who advocate and organize to actualize a society where everyone can live and thrive,” said Brandi Howard, president and CEO of EBCF. “East Bay Community Foundation invests in organizing in the region because it’s the strongest tool for making long-term change and creating the future where everyone reaches their full potential.”
The 2023 slate of grants marks the fifth year of grantmaking for community organizing, power building, and movement building. Since 2019, EBCF has granted more than $2.9 million to more than 25 organizations. Most of the grantee partners receiving awards this year have received funding from EBCF in the past. Recognizing the increasing costs nonprofit organizations face, EBCF offered a 5% increase for those partners who received a grant last year.
“Hearing from grantee partners that costs increase each year, we are glad that we were able to increase the grant awards by 5% for the second year in a row,” explained Joshua Lee, senior program officer at EBCF. “Our intention has been to try and mitigate the challenges associated with inflation and the rising cost of living in the Bay Area.”
These organizations have played essential roles in building community power and advancing progressive policies in the region, such as reparations for Black students, rent control policies in unincorporated areas of the East Bay, and winning progressive measures in Oakland such as the Progressive Business Tax and Fair Elections measure. To allow organizations to create greater impact in their issue and policy advocacy work, EBCF offers grant recipients the flexibility to direct their grant award to any combination of their 501(c)(3) charitable organization or affiliated 501(c)(4) social welfare organization.
EBCF recognizes the need for funders to serve as movement-building and fundraising partners to core grantees through donor and peer funder organizing, as well as the importance of working in close partnership with community leaders who have made this work their priority regardless of the philanthropic support they have or have not received in the past. In addition to its grantmaking program, EBCF also supports several funder coalition spaces, including the Bay Area Regional Power Building Funders Table, the Youth Power Fund (YPF), Fund 4 an Inclusive California (F4ICA), and PIVOT (Powerful Innovations for Voter Organizing and Transformation).
“Community organizing, power building, and movement building are critical to advancing A Just East Bay,” said Hannah Garcia, senior program officer at EBCF. “We are proud to support the work of these organizations and remain committed to building long-term partnerships with these organizations.”
The 2023 Community Organizing, Power Building, and Movement Building program grant recipients are:
- ACCE Contra Costa & ACCE Action
- ACCE Oakland
- Asian Pacific Environmental Network
- Bay Area PLAN
- Bay Rising Action
- Black Organizing Project
- Building Blocks for Kids
- Causa Justa::Just Cause
- Communities for a Better Environment
- East Bay Action (EBASE)
- Ensuring Opportunity
- Faith in Action East Bay
- Filipino Advocates for Justice
- Jakara Movement
- Lift Up Contra Costa Action
- Monument Impact
- Mujeres Unidas y Activas
- My Eden Voice
- Oakland Rising
- Parent Voices Oakland
- Power CA Action
- RYSE Center
- Safe Return Project & Safe Return Action
- Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
EBCF is dedicated to advancing an inclusive, fair, and just East Bay. With a programmatic grantmaking focus on shifting cultural, economic, and people power to address the root causes of inequality and injustice in the region, the Foundation endeavors to embrace trust-based grantmaking practices and a positioning in solidarity with changemakers.
Learn more about EBCF’s Community Organizing, Power Building, and Movement Building program strategy on the program strategy page and in a blog post about a recent gathering of grantee partners focused on strategic funding priorities and forging relationships across organizations.