Strengthening the Organizing Ecosystem

Anyone who knows North Star Fund knows we make grants to support grassroots organizing—but what may be less known are the many ways we intentionally support a connected movement ecosystem. We provide leadership development opportunities and organizational support, and we create spaces for grantees to build collaborative relationships, often in partnership with allied funding organizations. We’re guiding the field of philanthropy to fulfill commitments that funders made in 2020 at the height of national protests calling for an end to anti-Blackness.

Supporting leadership development

In spring 2023, we offered our second annual Hudson Valley Weekend of Organizing, a community- and skills-building experience for grassroots organizers—and held our first New York City Weekend of Organizing. These multi-day training sessions create an opportunity for participants to connect with other leaders in the field and advance our skills for a transformative approach to organizing.

North Star Fund’s Community Food Funders project has relaunched Seeding Power, a nine-month cohort-based food justice fellowship program for experienced leaders working across sectors to build equitable food systems in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Partnerships in action

As a member of the New York City Capacity Building Collaborative, we co-create free trainings for our grantee organizations. This year’s training lineup included an online security training by Vision Change Win.

We host events, such as Still We Fight and our People’s Plan online briefing, to share ways to get involved, calls to action and how to give strategically in support of social justice movements.

We strive to ease burdens for emerging movements in whatever ways we can, providing structural support so that groups can focus on organizing. For example, we are the fiscal sponsors of the Giving Project Network and Communities United for Police Reform.

North Star Fund staff also participated in the Giving Project Network’s National Convening, hosted by our long-time sister fund, The Hawai’i People’s Fund. This was an opportunity to connect with colleagues in the network and engage in learning and sharing about Giving Projects, with a focus on exploring how Giving Projects and funds can better prioritize and commit to supporting Indigenous sovereignty and Black liberation.

Growing the movement together

While a single organization can have an impact, it takes many groups of people, connected in relationship, to create sustainable movements that can transform our society. We are committed to collaboratively growing a vibrant movement community together.