Dear Community,

As we close out another momentous year at Grantmakers for Girls of Color, we want to extend our gratitude to you for all of your support, and share some highlights. This year, we focused on growing our team and refining our internal infrastructure, launched inspirational new projects and partnerships, hosted meaningful gatherings (both virtual and in-person), and most importantly, grew our investment into our community of girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of Color. 

We’re proud to say that by the end of 2022 we will have awarded over $9 million, to our grantee partners across the country and territories, including Washington D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico. Since our launch as an intermediary in 2020, we have raised and disbursed $16,690,400 in grants to more than 250 organizations in all 50 states, Washington D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico. Our commitment to abundantly resource and amplify the work of our grantee partners who center the leadership, wisdom, and joy of girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth of Color is unwavering.  

Intentional rest

After a transformational staff retreat at the end of 2021, Grantmakers for Girls of Color began the year with an intention to prioritize our staff’s wellbeing and address the burnout that is too common in the workplace, and that has unique challenges for leaders in the social impact spaces, particularly women, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of Color. We made this decision not only for ourselves, but also to create space and affirmation for our grantee partners and movement leaders to do the same. 

To provide time for rest and rejuvenation, in 2022 we implemented organization-wide quarterly breaks, and a winter break to give our team the spaciousness to experience the wholeness of their lives and nourish all parts of their being. We will carry this intention into 2023. This winter break, our offices will be closed from December 17, 2022 until January 8, 2023. When we return in January, we will be doing some internal planning and retreating, and may be slow to respond to outreach. Your patience is appreciated.

Below you will find details about some of the many highlights from this year, and you can dive into deeper insights in this 2022 Executive Summary.

Thank you for your boundless support, and the multiple ways that you are working towards liberated, joyful, and thriving futures for girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of Color. From everyone in our G4GC team, we wish you and your families joy, peace and abundance in the coming year, and the gift of rest beyond the physical and mental, so that your emotions are grounded and your spirit continues to thrive with a deep sense of purpose.

In Community,

Dr. Monique Couvson 

President & CEO, Grantmakers for Girls of Color

Some Members of our G4GC team at our in-person funders event following our 2022 virtual convening in October. Photo credit: Roger Archer, Phaats Photos

Here are some of the highlights of 2022 as our G4GC team closes the year:

• Continuing to fund grantee partners: 
  • As the nation’s only philanthropic intermediary exclusively focused on mobilizing resources to support the transformative organizing work led by girls* of Color, we continue to gain important insights about what is truly required to effectively strengthen these movements and organizations working to dismantle systems of oppression in the U.S.
  • In 2023, we will share updated data about our full impact this year. We are excited to share that by September of this year, we moved 167 grants – with 91 new and distinct grantee partners. Of the $6,997,700 we awarded between January-September 2022: 
    • $768,000 went to the Midwest across 22 organizations. 
    • $2,238,600 went to the South across 51 organizations. 

• Creating convenings for powerful engagement and conversations: 
  • Black Girl Freedom Week 2022 was a triumph with phenomenal guests including Marley Dias, Tracee Ellis Ross, Rashida Jones and Sanaa Lathan, who joined us for our second annual week-long event celebrating the leadership, freedom dreams and power of Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth. Programs throughout the week highlighted the artistic vision and genius of Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth, and advanced narratives that Black girls feel are important to achieve the justice they are seeking. Find videos of the week at the link and stay tuned for Black Girl Freedom Week 2023, happening Feb 13-19 (More information below)!

• • G4GC’s 2022 Virtual Convening, Reclamation & Reciprocity: Harvesting Just & Liberated Futures for Girls, Femmes, and Gender-expansive Youth of Color, was an invaluable opportunity for connection with our various communities of co-investors–G4GC staff, funders, grantee partners, and youth. We kicked off the convening with a powerful keynote address from civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, and learned from so many amazing organizations and young people about the futures they are building and the importance of robustly resourcing this work. Check out the link to watch the amazing plenary sessions! 

Some Members of our G4GC team with guests at the “Joyous Futures” youth celebration in October. Photo credit: Kylie Squiers 

“Joyous Futures: G4GC Youth Celebration” was an unforgettable, beautiful gathering at the end of our week of convening. We gathered young people and organizations in Brooklyn to celebrate and center the joy, wellness, culture, rest, play, creativity and the vibrancy of girls, femmes & gender-expansive youth of Color! You can see highlights from the event in this video:

Black Girl Freedom Week 2023: Arts, Activism, and Innovation!

Make sure to save the dates February 13-19, 2023, for a week of virtual events elevating the activism, creativity, and joy of Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth. The week will end with our Black Girl Freedom Fund Manager Cidra Sebastien running a 60K trail race in Arizona to raise funds for organizations that support the brilliance and leadership of Black girls*. 

Intentional infrastructure building:

Next year will resume our intentional infrastructure building as we continue to shape G4GC to best serve our team, our community of  grantee partners, and our broader philanthropic community. 

In 2023 we will continue to be intentional about analyzing the systems and structures that make our organization and partnerships thrive. Part of this effort will result in quarterly newsletters instead of monthly ones. If you’d like to announce an opportunity in our newsletter next year, please send us the information via Email to [email protected] with “newsletter” in the subject line for consideration. 

We’re overjoyed at how we’ve spent another year supporting and uplifting our grantee partners and look forward to what’s ahead for our community. We wish you all the best in the coming weeks as we transition into a new year of opportunities.  

_________________________

*When G4GC refers to “girls of color” we include  any cis, trans, gender-expansive, non-binary and/or any girl- or femme-identified person age 25 and younger who identifies as Black, Indigenous, Latin, Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander, and/or other People of Color.