Grants
North Star Fund runs a robust grants program that coordinates the work of three activist-led committees to make hundreds of grants a year, along with active donor-advised fund grants, Rapid Response Grants, our Giving Project and special initiative grants. Here are all the grants we made from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
Grassroots Action
$490,000
Grassroots Action grants supporting established organizations led by New Yorkers who are directly affected by the real-life problems caused by racism, sexism and greed. These organizations are mobilizing thousands of people in campaigns where they get to raise their voices and be heard. In the 2018-19 fiscal year, these grants ranged from $10,000 to $15,000 and include access to resources to help these organizations continue to grow.
Full Grassroots Action Grants List
African Communities Together
Arab American Association of New York
Black Women’s Blueprint
Brandworkers
Brooklyn Movement Center
CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
CASA: Community Action for Safe Apartments / New Settlement Apartments
Chinese Staff and Workers’ Association
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR)
Community Food Advocates
Crown Heights Tenant Union / Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Damayan Migrant Workers Association
Future of Tomorrow/Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation
Faith in New York
Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (
Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project
Flatbush Tenant Coalition/Flatbush Development Corporation
FPA-Foundation
Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women
Justice Committee
Masa
Metropolitan Council on Housing
Movimiento
Neighbors Helping Neighbors
Neighbors Together
New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE)
New York State Youth Leadership Council
NY Teamsters for a Democratic Union
NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
Parent Action Committee / New Settlement Apartments
Rockaway Youth Task Force
Street Vendor Project
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Teachers Unite
Tenants and Neighbors
Urban Youth Collaborative
Worker’s Justice Project
YA-YA Network
Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition
Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice
Let Us Breathe Fund
$160,000
North Star Fund’s Let Us Breathe Fund moves resources to Black-led and multiracial organizations and movements reimagining community safety and building economic sustainability in Black communities. In FY 2019, these grants totaled $160,000 and bring the total grantmaking for this fund to over $860,000 since its inception in 2015.
Full Let Us Breathe Fund List
African Communities Together
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project (BLMP)
Black Trans Media
Black Youth Project 100 Education Fund
Brooklyn Movement Center
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR)
Community Voices Heard
Equality for Flatbush
Faith in New York
FIERCE
Girls for Gender Equity
Justice Committee
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
Picture the Homeless
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
UndocuBlack Network
Urban Youth Collaborative
Hudson Valley Momentum
$655,000
In 2019, we made our first three-year grants for organizing in the Hudson Valley. Our Hudson Valley grants for fiscal year 2018-19 include three-year awards totaling $655,000, with $275,000 moving into these communities in 2019. They support the vibrant power of New Yorkers taking on housing access, anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ violence, food security and other issues across a wide geographic region.
Full Hudson Valley Momentum Grants List
#100Sistas
ADELANTE Student Voices
Birth From The Earth
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
Community Governance & Development Council (CGDCNY)
Evergreen Garden
Freedom Food Alliance
Grace Immigrant Outreach
In Our Own Voices
Kite’s Nest
MHAction
Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center
Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Education Fund
Rise Up Kingston
Schaghticoke First Nations
Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center
The Underground Center
VOCAL-NY
Worker Justice Center of New York
Yonkers Sanctuary Movement
Catalyst Grants
$195,000
Catalyst grants provide seed funding of $5,000 and $10,000 to support newer groups led by New Yorkers from communities rising up in response to injustice. These grants come with annual renewals, technical assistance and trainings for emerging organizations. This allows grantees to build their leadership, expand their reach and deepen their strategies. Some of these groups were also awarded special one-time grants.
Full Catalyst Grants List
Alliance of Families for Justice
Black Trans Media
Black Youth Project 100 Education Fund
Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC)
Carroll Gardens Association/Domestic Workers Union
Centro Corona
CUNY Rising Alliance
East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust
Foreclosure Resisters
House Lives Matter (HLM)
IntegrateNYC
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
Northern Manhattan is Not for Sale
Parole Preparation Project
Project Hajra
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
Voces Ciudadanas
Innovative Activism
$100,000
Our Innovative Activism grants support creative solutions and alternatives that expand the breadth and complexity of local organizations building grassroots leadership. In FY 2019, all these grants were for $10,000.
Full Innovative Activism Grants List
The Black Feminist Project
Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO)
Global Action Project
Hattie Carthan Community Food Projects
Rise
Sure We Can
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Truthworker Theatre Company
The Women’s Organizing Network
The Working World/ Worker-Owned Rockaway Cooperatives
People Power Giving Project
$206,305
Our 2019 Giving Project brought together over twenty people from different race and class backgrounds to recognize their shared stake in supporting local grassroots movements for justice. Giving Project members raised over a quarter million dollars. Then together they selected twenty organizations to receive grants.
Full People Power Giving Project Grants List
Black Trans Media
Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (CAIC)
Crown Heights Tenant Union/ Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Damayan Migrant Workers Association
Families for Freedom
Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE)
Flushing Workers Center
Jahajee Sisters: Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women
Justice Committee
Laundry Workers Center
LGBT Faith Leaders of African Descent
Masa
Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio
New York State Youth Leadership Council
Parent Action Committee / New Settlement Apartments
Project Hajra
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
Rockaway Youth Task Force
Urban Youth Collaborative
Voces Ciudadanas
Donor-Advised Grants
$4.1M
Donor-advised funds allow individuals or groups of donors to make a one-time contribution or several contributions over time and then decide what organizations and movements the fund will support later. They are an easier and faster alternative to private and family foundations.
Although donor-advised funds have rightly attracted negative attention for allowing the rich to amass wealth and avoid taxes, we’re proud that the donors we work with are committed to moving resources to communities that need it.
With over $4.1 million in total gifts, FY 2019 was the largest year of donor-advised fund grants in our history.
Full Donor-Advised Grants List
Anonymous
Brooklyn Community Foundation
Columbia College
Dance Place
FIERCE
Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine/ Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Groundswell NYC
Harvard University
Institute for New Economic Thinking
IntegrateNYC
Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
NC Farmworkers Project
PolicyLink
Southern Center for Human Rights
Asian American Impact Fund
Project New Yorker
Barbara Adler Zeluck Fund
Association for Union Democracy
Center for Changes (Solidarity)
Center for Constitutional Rights
Labor Notes
Teamster Rank & File Education and Legal Defense Foundation
Bronx Dreaming Scholarship Fund
Adam Fane
Ashley Foreman
Leidy Periel
Caribou Fund
Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX)
Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance
Dinner Guys Giving Circle
GAPIMNY
New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC)
PFLAG NYC
SAGE
Ellis Scholarship Fund
Amirah Zeba
Djenin Kamara
Josue Santamaria
Emma Goldman Fund
MADRE
International Dreamers Scholarship Fund
Gao Xiang Lin
Jose A. Cedillo Rodriguez
Laura Desrosiers
MD Hossain
Roberto Morales
Yanely Jean Louis
Joanne Lukomnik Fund for Health Care Reform
Physicians for a National Health Program – New York Metro Chapter
Kindling Fund
Advocacy Institute
Annunciation House
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Black Lives Matter Network
Black Love Resists in the Rust
Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity (BOLD)
Black Youth Project 100 Education Fund
Center for Popular Democracy
Central American Resource Center (CARECEN)
Clean Air Coalition of Western NY
Community Voices for Youth and Families
Community Voices Heard
Cosecha
generative somatics
Groundswell Fund
Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network
Hudson Valley Community Coalition
Immigrant Defense Fund
Justice for Migrant Families
Kino Border Initiative
Long Island Civic Engagement Table
Make the Road New York
Mijente Support Committee
Movement for Black Lives Fund
MPower Change
New American Leaders
New Energy Economy
New York Communities Organizing Fund
New York Civic Engagement Table
New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC)
New York Renews
Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Education Fund
Other Shore
Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT)
Prison Policy Initiative
Project South
PUSH Buffalo
Racial Justice Action Center
Resource Generation
SEPA Mujer
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
S.T.R.O.N.G. Youth
Team Blackbird
Third Wave Fund
VOCAL-NY
Wildfire Project
Worker Justice Center of New York
Workers Center of Central New York
Liberation Fund
Arriba Las Vegas Worker Center
CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
Chicago United for Equity
Common Counsel Foundation
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR)
Healing Justice Podcast
New Economy Coalition
One Common Unity
Play It Forward Fund
972 – Advancement of Citizen Journalism
Alliance for Quality Education
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
Bank Street
Barnard College
Blue Mountain Center
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
Columbia Land Conservancy
Counseling In Schools
Defending the Early Years
Groundswell NYC
Harlem Valley Rail Trail
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Journey for Justice Alliance
Kolot Chayeinu
Mesa Refuge
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
Network for Public Education
New Israel Fund
New York Civil Liberties Union Foundation
Prometheus Project Foundation
Public Justice
Sanctuary for Families
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Sarah Rosenthal and Morgan Coy Fund
Catskill Mountainkeeper
COHI
CultureConnect
Good Work Institute
Kindle Project
Kingston Land Trust
Long Table Harvest
Museum of Human Achievement
O Positive
Public Policy and Education Fund
Rise Up Kingston
Worker Justice Center of New York
Sobelstein Fund
826 National
Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice
Audre Lorde Project
Bend the Arc: Jewish Partnership for Justice
Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network
Carolina Jews for Justice
Circle for Justice Innovations
City Life/Vida Urbana
Climate Justice Alliance
Common Counsel Foundation
CommonWealth Kitchen
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR)
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
First Nations Development Institute
Global Fund for Women
Griffin-Gracy Educational Retreat & Historical Center
Haymarket People’s Fund
Highlander Research and Education Center
Jewish Studio Project
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
Jews United for Justice
Keshet
Life Comes From It Fund
Movement for Black Lives Fund
New Israel Fund
Political Education Network Project
Political Research Associates
Resource Generation
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Solidaire
Southerners On New Ground
Strategy Research Project
SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
The Runway Project
The Working World/ Worker-Owned Rockaway Cooperatives
Third Wave Fund
Transgender Law Center
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Underground
Unnamed Youth Justice Giving Circle
Sugar Forest Fund
Picture the Homeless
Tenants and Neighbors
Weeksville Heritage Center
Tom and Michele Solidarity Fund
American Jewish World Service
Brandworkers
Center for Popular Democracy
Common Cause Education Fund – New York
Community Development Project/TakeRoot Justice
Community Voices Heard
Doctors Without Borders
Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES)
Hunger Free America
Litchfield Performing Arts
Make the Road New York
MPower Change
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Education Fund
Picture the Homeless
Unfettered Fund
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
National Domestic Workers Alliance
Resource Generation
Third Wave Fund
Unnamed Youth Justice Giving Circle
Works in
Progress Fund
Audre Lorde Project
Black Land and Power Project
Catalyst Project
Circle for Justice Innovations
Corporate Accountability
Corrections Accountability Project
Grassroots International
Healing Justice Podcast
Michigan Welfare Rights Organization
Movement for Black Lives Fund
POOR Magazine
Resource Generation
Solidaire
Third Wave Fund
University of California, Berkeley Foundation
Special Grant Initiatives
$383,000
Special Initiatives are unique, often multi-year commitments that we make to fund particular areas of grassroots activism in New York.
Full Special Grant Initiatives List
Rapid Response Grants
North Star Fund makes Rapid Response grants year-round to support organizing and activism in response to urgent threats and breaking opportunities for mobilizing communities. Rapid Response grants support organizations to be nimble, and in some cases, can help bring their campaigns to the final steps to victory. These grants were $2,500 or $5,000.
CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
Crown Heights Tenant Union / Urban Homesteading Assistance Board
Families for Freedom
Grannies Respond
IntegrateNYC
Make the Road New York
Mekong NYC
Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio
New York Communities Organizing Fund
Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center
NY Civic
Engagement Table
NY Immigration Coalition
NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
NYC Veterans Alliance
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
Street Vendor Project
Yonkers Sanctuary Movement
Total: $74,500
Capacity Building Grants
We have a long term commitment to build the capacity of our grantee partners in their work. In FY 2019, while we examined the results of our long-running Movement Leadership Program, we offered one-time grants to strengthen current grantees. These $5,000 grants supported current grantees as they developed their communication, fundraising and strategy skills.
African Communities Together
Audre Lorde Project
Brooklyn Movement Center
Carroll Gardens Association/Domestic Workers Union
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
Faith in New York
Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project
Global Action Project
In Our Own Voices
Jahajee Sisters Empowering Indo-Caribbean Women
Justice Committee
Million Hoodies Movement for Justice
Movimiento por
Justicia del Barrio
New York State Youth Leadership Council
Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center
Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson Education Fund
NY Teamsters for a Democratic Union
Parole Preparation Project
Picture the Homeless
Rise
Rockaway Youth Task Force
Street Vendor Project
Teachers Unite
Tenants and Neighbors
The Women’s Organizing Network
Worker Justice Center of New York
Total: $127,500
Community Food Funders Champions Award
Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming
Total: $5,000
Education Justice Fund
NYC Coalition for Educational Justice
Urban Youth Collaborative
Total: $130,510
Frederick Douglass Award
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP)
Total: $5,000
Special Initiatives
We have some New York City grants that are unique. For example, grants for our participation in funder collaboratives that directly benefit our grantees or special circumstance grants.
New York Communities Organizing Fund
NYC Capacity Building Collaborative
NYC Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color
Reclaim Pride Coalition
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC
Total: $40,500