Racial Justice Fund

The New Hampshire Racial Justice Fund was established by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in 2021 to shift power to community members who’ve suffered harm from living within racially unjust conditions. The Racial Justice Fund seeks to do that through investing in the leadership, vision, and solutions of organizations working to counter the harmful effects of racial injustice.

The Racial Justice Fund is led by a Community Design Team of people from across New Hampshire. The Fund was created and is managed and supported by the Charitable Foundation with decisions about vision, priorities and grantmaking made by the Community Design Team. This work builds on the Foundation’s long history of bringing people together to address pressing challenges, and relying on hundreds of volunteers and donors to advise on grant and scholarship decisions.

NAMES (L to R): Alissandra Rodríguez Murray, Anna Kual, Emma Shapiro-Weiss, Marina Vaz, Keisha Venson, (seated) Akilah Campbell, Michael Truong, Mollay Jallah

We acknowledge and appreciate past Community Design Team members and other participants whose contributions helped to shape the vision of the Racial Justice Fund.

As individuals and as a group, we have lived experiences that reflect the very communities and priority areas many community organizations are serving. We are a beautiful, diverse body. We are people of color, immigrants, multilingual, and neurodiverse. We are nonprofit leaders, businesspeople, caregivers, and parents. We are educators, lawmakers, students, artists, and farmers. Most of all, we are community members who care, and we are committed to lovingly deconstructing racial injustice through collaborative and creative means.

We have established a vision and priorities for the fund and have worked to develop a grant program to make funds available to community organizations doing work aligned with the vision and priorities.

We have prioritized the following areas for initial funding to support communities most impacted by racial injustice:

• Solidarity Economy and Land Justice: Collective ownership and governance whether through land, labor, housing, or cultural resources.
• Mutual Aid: Neighbors and organizations working together to meet immediate needs while also challenging the systems that cause harm.
• Grassroots Organizing and Infrastructure: Groups organizing and building power for themselves outside of traditional policy and advocacy arenas, including movement infrastructure.

This is not JUST about FUNDING…

The Community Design Team knows that unrestricted funding is extremely important, but so is building a strong network of folks with common interests. Our goal is to share who we are as a group and to build a relationship-based community with applicants and grant award recipients. Although absolutely not required as a part of this grantmaking process, we will invite and encourage grant recipients to participate in ongoing conversations, goal setting, networking, and shared learning with the Community Design Team and each other during and after the application and award processes. Alongside you, we are excited to explore what options might exist, which could include co-creating things like a community of practice, in-person or virtual fellowship opportunities, or something different. We are community members figuring out how to best resource New Hampshire communities, and we welcome feedback on improvements, accessibility, or gaps you experience with the Racial Justice Fund.

For questions about this grant program please contact the Racial Justice Fund Community Design Team by emailing ews@aups.serfuqrfx.pbz.

Charitable Foundation staff can provide technical support for GrantSource by phone at 603-225-6641 ext. 5 or email at tenagncc@aups.bet. Staff are available Monday through Thursday from 8:30 am – 5:00 pm and Friday from 8:30 am – 3:00 pm.