January 2022 Newsletter: $10m to 200 orgs
January 26, 2022
Dear G4GC Community,
As we settle into this new year, I hope you and your families are staying safe and healthy. Our G4GC team is gearing up with many exciting plans for 2022, and we’re still feeling centered from the intentional break at the close of last year following significant achievements and initiatives.
I am extremely proud to announce that in 2021, G4GC moved over $10 million to over 200 girl* of Color-led or -serving organizations across ALL 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam! We are inspired to continue our mission to locate and resource organizations that are cultivating spaces and building transformative movements that are led by, center, and support girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth of Color. One aspect of this noteworthy achievement is that our G4GC team has been intentional in centering the leadership of girls and youth, especially in ensuring that many of these grants were awarded through participatory grantmaking processes where girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth were the final decision-makers. I extend deep gratitude to our community of funders, grantees and supporters for walking with us and recognizing that this is just the beginning of our work to abundantly resource girls of Color.
Many of you know that our offices were closed for a few weeks between December and January, first for our team’s annual retreat, followed by a period of rest. This was an intentional recognition of our many achievements the previous year, and of our collective need to fully nurture ourselves and return energized in January. Our decision to close our offices was a deliberate intention to model and normalize rest, especially for other women, girls, femmes, and gender-expansive people of Color. Our hope is that, as we embrace and claim rest, ease, and joy throughout the year, we invite others who work tirelessly to serve and support our communities to also claim these opportunities for themselves.
While there will be much more exciting news to share in the coming weeks, here are a few exciting updates, which you can read more about below:
Firstly, please help me give a warm welcome to our newest team member, Rana LaPine, who will start this month as Fund Manager for our New Songs Rising Initiative! You can learn more about Rana below. We are still accepting applications for a Fund Manager of our Holding a Sister Initiative! Applications are due by February 10th, so please share widely. And if you don’t already have Feb. 14-20 highlighted in your calendar, please mark it now for our second annual Black Girl Freedom Week, which will be full of exciting programming and include a special space centering Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth!
We look forward to continued collaboration with you all throughout the year, and we wish you, your families and communities a healthy and joyous year!
With Gratitude,
Monique W. Morris, Ed.D., G4GC President/CEO
WHAT’S NEW AT G4GC?
Welcome Rana LaPine to our G4GC family!
We are thrilled to welcome Rana LaPine to our G4GC team! Rana’s first day was January 24th as the Fund Manager for our New Songs Rising Initiative, a partnership between Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples and G4GC to mobilize resources toward work that centers and supports Indigenous girls, their families and communities in the U.S. and occupied territories.
As a Kanien’kehá:ka woman, Rana attempts to apply Seven Generations principle to her daily actions, and is passionate about ensuring a better world for the many generations to come. Join us in giving Rana a warm welcome, and learn more about her on our G4GC team page.
T-minus 3 weeks until Black Girl Freedom Week 2022!
#1Billion4BlackGirls
Our 2nd annual Black Girl Freedom Week will include speakers and virtual programming highlighting important themes in the lives of Black girls and gender-expansive youth, including conversations on fashion, beauty, entrepreneurship, and celebrating Black girl creatives!
This year we’ll also be holding sessions on Hopin, where moderated chat rooms will allow for our young folks to link up with one another. Be on the lookout for registration information!
Join our team and support trans girls of Color!
We’re hiring for a Manager of the Holding a Sister Initiative. This position will lead the visioning, creation, and implementation of the Holding a Sister Initiative, a partnership between Grantmakers for Girls of Color and the Black Trans Fund at Groundswell Fund to mobilize resources for work that centers and is led by trans girls of color, and to create a container for critical dialogue and movement building to advance justice for trans girls of color. Applications are due Feb. 10th, and will continue to be accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. For more details you can visit our website. If you’d like to apply, we have the job posting in English and en Español.
Events and announcements
#GOMujeres
We’re so excited to be a partner of #GOMujeres! Join us March 7-31 for what some are calling “the largest movement for gender equity across the Americas,” by @hipgive (Hispanics In Philanthropy). We invite all grantees working with Latinx communities to sign up for this crowdfunding campaign where orgs can connect with a larger network while strengthening their digital fundraising skills. Join the info session on January 25th @ 1 p.m.ET to learn more! Sign up here: bit.ly/gomujeres2022-infosession
Does your organization have a funding opportunity, upcoming conference, or other celebrations you want to share with the G4GC community? Email them to [email protected] 6-8 weeks before the event.
WHAT’S INSPIRING US!
“While joining the call to decolonise, I also challenge philanthropy to debrahminise! What do I mean by debrahminise!?” writes Prachi Patankar who is a Program Officer at the Foundation for a Just Society and also an esteemed member of our G4GC Advisory Board.
“Today, South Asian Americans are well represented in the philanthropic field, and many are from dominant caste backgrounds. South Asian program officers who may not have reflected on their caste privilege, do not often understand the nuances of how caste supremacy culture plays out in human rights or development spaces in South Asia.”
Learn more about how caste systems need to be understood, and how they impact philanthropy in Prachi’s important piece “It’s Time For Funders To Debrahminise Philanthropy” in Alliance Magazine.
IMPORTANT DATES THIS MONTH
Almost half a decade ago, 49 years ago on Jan. 22nd to be exact, a major decision gave people who can bear children more freedom over their own bodies. Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision and simultaneously a defining moment in history for reproductive rights in the United States. As we pass this important anniversary, this precedent is in jeopardy, thus setting us back decades, and young people of Color in rural areas would be impacted the most. Girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of color are on the frontlines of fighting for reproductive justice, to ensure that all people have the right to be safe and free. We are proud to support a number of organizations engaged in this effort- if you would like to learn more about these organizations, reach out to us!
Other noteworthy dates and anniversaries coming up:
February 2022
- 1: Start of Black History Month
- 1: Lunar New Year
- 11: Anniversary of the start of the Longest Walk (1978)
- 12: NAACP founded (1909)
- 14: Annual Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
- ✨🎶✨14-20: Black Girl Freedom Week! ✨🎶✨
- 20: World Day of Social Justice
- 21: International Mother Language Day
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