Hudson Valley Organizing Grants

North Star Fund launched our Hudson Valley grants program in 2017 in response to New York’s changing demographic and political realities. We were eager to support locally-grown movements and concerned about the region’s gentrification. We couldn’t have predicted that the Hudson Valley would experience the nation’s highest rent increases, as people—along with profit-seeking developers—moved to the area from New York City during the pandemic.

Today, our goal is for Hudson Valley grassroots leaders and networks to be well-connected to each other and their counterparts throughout the state. New York State is not designed for everyone to access all its natural and economic resources. A regional ecosystem approach is essential to ensure that resources are shared more equitably. North Star Fund is deepening our commitment to multi-year grants and community connection in support of a strong movement of grassroots organizations working together to create a New York where we all have what we need to thrive.

The reach of organizing in the Hudson Valley

Our Hudson Valley funding area includes a mix of rural, suburban and urban settings stretching from Westchester to Albany, with local contexts that provide unique opportunities for grassroots organizing led by communities of color. Grantees focus on a vibrant array of issues including racial, immigration, education and food justice, housing equity and criminal legal system activism. We support organizations including farms, centers for liberatory and political education, cultural spaces, providers of birth and post-partum services and worker training, and tenants’ rights coalitions.

Many grantees operate in multi-issue organizing spaces that extend to other parts of New York. While much of their organizing is hyperlocal, they are taking on challenges that are interconnected across geographies. For example, many Hudson Valley communities rely on prisons for employment, and those prisons largely incarcerate people of color from New York City—so ending mass incarceration requires transformation throughout the state.

Supporting growth and lasting change

The Hudson Valley continues to be an important place to grow and connect communities of New Yorkers committed to creating deep, lasting changes to the inequities in our state. The dozens of active grantees we fund in the region include seasoned organizations that have been around for years, as well as emerging organizations less than a few years old. Our total funding in the region is now $5 million, including $1.4 million committed to the current grantees.