Based throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, this pool of grantee partners reflects a significant number of organizations rooting their work at the intersection of reproductive justice, gender justice, and abolition.
Washington, DC (February 28, 2023) – The Kolibri Foundation has announced that over $3 million has been awarded to twenty-six organizations as part of their 2022 inaugural grant cycle titled the “Reimagining Safety Fund.” As part of Kolibri’s Ending Gender and Sexual Based Violence initiative, this grant cycle sought to exclusively fund organizations working to transform the root causes of systems and cultures of violence that perpetuate interpersonal, communal and state harm, and abuse.
Kolibri has committed to spending down a dedicated $27 million over the next five years in service of social movements fighting for equity and justice for all people. The Reimagining Safety Fund, which resulted in over 400 applicants, marks the end of the first grant cycle with more to be announced in the Fall of 2023.
“I am feeling gratitude and excitement for wrapping up our first grant cycle. It has been such a joy to further cement our values of power sharing and community learning with our Board through this process,” said Chi-Ante Jones, Kolibri Foundation’s Co-Director.” Funds have been distributed amongst grantees across the United States and Puerto Rico. These grantees reflect organizations utilizing survivor-led and survivor-centering strategies, many also structured with survivors in positions of leadership.
Interpersonal and state-based gender based violence is defined more broadly than domestic or sexual violence. Notably within this Reimaging Safety Fund grant cycle, Kolibri pushed to fund work that encompasses the many manifestations of violence, including but not limited to economic, spiritual, lack of healthcare and access needs. Tangentially, funds were directed at those whose work falls outside of the scope of traditional services, reemphasizing under-resourced organizations based on geographical locations and the communities they serve.
“So often, the work that is foundational for systemic change is deemed too risky to fund. The same applies to work that keeps people alive and safe in real-time,” says Roberto Tijerina, Kolibri Foundation’s Co-Director. “One of Kolibri’s goals is to fund this work at a right-sized scale and to collaborate where it’s useful, with the parameters determined by our grantee partners. We want to champion this work to other funding partners, lifting it up to say ‘You need to get in on this, it’s tangibly changing conditions.’”
Applicants with smaller budgets were prioritized within an extensive 3-month selection process. In addition to focusing on organizations who have limited access to funding based on either their location, position within movement, and/or not yet holding the necessary relationships with funders to help expand their work. Kolibri brings to philanthropy a commitment to being in continued alignment with movement to support each organization in building scale and expanding the effect of their work, as demonstrated through this grant cycle and its grantees. “I am really excited to learn more with our new partners ,” said Jones. “From expanding funding to feminist centered groups in Puerto Rico, to building workers’ power through organizing new labor unions….our grantees are building powerful work that is creating change for many generations to come.”
The awarded twenty-six grantee organizations also now join a transformative community of movement partners representative of Kolibri’s larger purpose to reimagine philanthropy with strategic-grantmaking entrenched in community-identified needs. “We endeavored to move with intention in looking for and connecting with partners who, because of their size, location, or nature of work are not traditionally funded,” said Tijerina. “I’m excited at the possibilities in moving the radical liberation work forward that is represented by the 2022 grantee partners.”
Learn more about these grantees and other movement partners on Kolibri Foundation’s movement partners webpage.
Kolibri Foundation offers grants and instrumental support to mobilize BIPOC-led organizations that focus on healing and ending systemic/interpersonal violence in their communities. Established in 2019 by Eileen, Leo, and Steve Farbman out of the Farbman Family Visionary Fund, Kolibri officially launched in 2022 with the explicit intent to amplify the impact of Black, Indigenous, and people of color who are elevating the organizing work of women, queer and trans, gender nonconforming, intersex, and working class communities.
For more information on Kolibri Foundation, view their website and follow along to engage with Kolibri on their social media:
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About Kolibri Foundation
For the movement. By the People.
Kolibri Foundation was established in 2019 by Eileen, Leo, and Steve Farbman out of the Farbman Family Visionary Fund. By 2020, we embarked on a year-long dreaming and structuring process with movement leaders Lorraine Ramirez, Thenjiwe McHarris, and Cara Page. Cara and Thenjiwe continue to serve on our growing Board. We come to this work as a multi-racial, multi-class, multi-ability team with lived experiences as survivors of systemic and interpersonal violence. We imagine philanthropy as a transformative experience that extends beyond financial contribution to promote dynamic allyships that are aligned within our spiritual and political imperatives. We strive to solidify structures that will have an impact beyond the lifespan of the foundation and leave behind field-wide resources of knowledge, new funding streams, and most importantly people willing to be transformed in service of liberation.
About Black Heart 🖤
Black Heart is a worker-owned creative agency in the Extended Reality (XR) space dedicated to centering Black creators and stories. As a group of collaborators, strategists, and thought leaders, the goal of Black Heart is simple – create an agency built on the principles of the Black community through amazing storytelling, innovative thinking, anti-racist beliefs, a commitment to lifting each other, our clients, our neighbors. We do this in the service of our clients, of you, like-minded individuals and organizations wishing and working to create a better https://www.facebook.com/kolibrifdnworld through action.
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For further information and media inquiries, please contact Kolibri Foundation and/or Black Heart Agency:
Kolibri Foundation
212-918-8172
Nick Leavens
Executive Producer, Black Heart
nick@heart.black