Welcome to our
2020 Action Report!
North Star Fund is a social justice fund that supports grassroots organizing led by communities of color building power in New York City and the Hudson Valley. What does that mean, exactly, and what has it looked like in 2020? This year’s action report is a podcast to show you what we’ve been up to.
Our 2020 Action Report
In 2020, New York’s shared crises of health, money and politics have led more New Yorkers than ever in our history to reach out to us asking what they can do. Over a thousand people reached out to us to become donors for the first time, to join an online event with us for the first time, or to learn more about the role of organizing in creating a city we can all live in with dignity.
In 2020 we have found ourselves introducing our unique community over and over again. So this year’s Action Report has everything our annual reports usually do:
- Lists of our regular grants and donor-advised grants
- A shoutout to our donors
- A way to support us with a gift
But it’s also an audio introduction to North Star Fund—from our founding, to our historic levels of grantmaking this year.
We commissioned a six-episode podcast with the Gulp Podcast team—Maureen Sebastian and Risa Sarachan, to bring you along on their journey of getting to know our community and what we have been up to this past year. They discovered for themselves what we can offer to New Yorkers who want new ways to tackle the challenges brought on by the unequal distribution of money and power in our city.
We bring you A Guide to Freedom: A North Star Fund Podcast.
A Guide to Freedom: A North Star Fund Podcast
Episode 1:
No Struggle, No Progress
The hosts of Gulp Podcast, Maureen Sebastian and Risa Sarachan, journey down the rabbit hole to learn all about North Star Fund, questioning whether they are the right people to be hosting this podcast, being new to the North Star Fund world of social justice philanthropy. But first thing’s first: as newcomers to both social justice and philanthropy, they ask, “So… what exactly does North Star Fund do?”
Episode 2:
The Master’s House
Risa and Maureen try to wrap their heads around the fact that they have to 1) decolonize wealth and power, and 2) do it in unanticipated places, like philanthropy. They enter into “The Master’s House,” those mahogany-paneled rooms of traditional philanthropy, only to feel overwhelmed, unwelcome, and unsure. They have to ask: how does North Star Fund make their process, their resources and their community accessible to grassroots organizers?
Episode 3:
Meet the Collision Head-On
Global pandemic. Worldwide protests. And yet. North Star Fund distributes $1.7 million in a short period of time. And yet. Communities receive critically needed resources with the help of funds given out from the Future of Organizing Fund. And yet. The Black-led organizing supported by the Let Us Breathe Fund continues and achieves significant successes in its march for justice. But, like so many Americans, Maureen and Risa realize that they have allowed these underserved communities to go unnoticed for so long and now deepen their resolve to meet these inequities head-on.
Episode 4:
As Difficult and as Perpetual
Social justice is not a sprint. It is not a marathon. It is a practice of compassion and insight that goes beyond donations, calls to action, and allyship. It takes education, community, giving, and self-reflection—all but the last of which can be found at North Star Fund. The contemplation required to understand their purposes in the world of social justice is on Risa and Maureen. Are they prepared to go on those difficult and perpetual inward journeys?
Episode 5:
Are You Earthseed?
As Risa and Maureen journey into the depths of their hearts, and let go of these notions of what being a part of this movement ought to be, they begin to understand the limitless definition of giving. Of time. Of talent. Of leadership. Of resources. Even the smallest gifts are meaningful, from them or from asking their friends and family, Do they continue to add up over time? They don’t have to give everything, they just have to give something.
Episode 6:
Freedom
Where does North Star Fund go from here? And where do Maureen and Risa go, having fallen down the rabbit hole down their paths as before? Or do they take that journey toward the “inward sea” and accept their invitation into the world of North Star Fund to begin a new journey —- to fumbling their way toward freedom?
From Our Director
Looking backward is a privilege I rarely afford myself. I look towards a world where we are all free. I focus my energy, and my heart, on this beautiful future.
Sometimes, though, the opportunity to look back is a reminder of the power we have, and the hearts and hands that have been a part of this journey.
In early 2020, we finalized a new strategic plan, centering North Star Fund’s work to build a powerful ecosystem of grassroots organizing while also dismantling white supremacy as it appears in philanthropy’s entrenched practices. Weeks later, we found ourselves in a pandemic, an economic and democratic crisis, and in a long-overdue public reckoning with police killings and structural racism.
As our 2020 Action Report shows, New Yorkers responded to our calls to action with an unprecedented energy. This past year, over a thousand people like you became North Star Fund supporters for the first time, or joined us online or to learn more about building power through grassroots organizing.
In a time when we cannot be in a room together, we wanted to bring as many voices to you as we could—more than could fit in these pages.
The voices you’re used to hearing—whether at our Community Gala, or through our various events—can be found here in the episodes of A Guide to Freedom: A North Star Fund Podcast.
We commissioned an audio introduction with New York’s Gulp Podcast team—who bring you along on their journey of getting to know North Star Fund, and how to make sense of all that is happening around us through the lens of effective, and powerful, organizing.
Thank you for being a part of our movement, whether it’s by showing up in the streets, joining us for an online event or making a contribution. I can’t wait until we see each other again.
Jennifer Ching
Executive Director
From Our Board Chair
Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof – Justice, justice, you must pursue
I am honored to serve as board chair of North Star Fund, your community foundation tirelessly pursuing justice, where we’re building a community made up of all of us.
As you’ll hear in this year’s special action report podcast, I was invited to join this community in the mid-80s, as a reproductive rights activist on the Community Funding Board. And I’ve been proud to be a part of this growing community for decades.
Whenever you joined us—in the 80’s, 90’s, the 2000’s, or our newest decade—I thank you for showing up for justice. Especially this last year.
When people were needed on the street, our community put on their masks and marched.
When people needed food and personal protective equipment, North Star Fund grantees showed up all over our region with money, food and supplies.
When North Star Fund donors got the call that financial donations were needed immediately, you mailed checks, contributed online or made generous gifts from your Donor-advised funds.
Your financial contributions are fueling organizations, communities and movements of justice seekers.
Whether that’s justice for over-policed Black communities, justice for workers who have been deliberately excluded from COVID-19 economic relief, or justice for people who have no way to pay their rent in our collapsed economy.
Thank you for financial donations this year. I know you will do it again, for justice.
As activists, organizers, teachers and advocates, you are my heroes. You are the bedrock of North Star Fund and I deeply thank you.
Let’s keep pursuing justice—Tzedek—together,
Marjorie Fine
Board Chair