40YearsBold Timeline
We’ve been changing philanthropy and changing New York for four decades. Here are some of the highlights from 40 years of supporting grassroots organizing for justice in New York! If you have additional highlights to share, contact us!
1979
North Star Fund is launched!
A group of young adults with wealth see a small but potent movement growing across the U.S.. People are starting foundations to support grassroots movements where the funding decisions are made by activists rather than the usual wealthy philanthropists. This group of friends pool their money and approach more friends and family to give as well. With a little over $50,000 in donations, North Star Fund is born.
The 1980s
1980
Community Funding Board awards the first grants
North Star Fund’s unique Community Funding Board model, where grassroots activists make decisions using money donated by other New Yorkers, moves into gear and announces the first grant awards. The first slate includes groups such as Disabled in Action NY, Third World Newsreel, Black and White Men Together, and the Welfare Action Coalition.
1984
North Star Fund Completes Five Years of Grantmaking
After five years of grantmaking, North Star Fund’s Community Funding Board has made over a half million dollars in grants ranging from $150 to $4,000 to groups working on housing, worker organizing, international solidarity, and health.
1987
We Make our First Donor-Advised Fund Grants
Progressive New Yorkers who need time and flexibility to make their charitable contributions set up the first donor-advised funds via North Star Fund. Part of their contributions automatically go to support the activist-led grantmaking model.
1989
North Star Fund’s Tenth Anniversary
By our tenth anniversary, North Star Fund has awarded close to $2.5 million in almost one thousand grants. These grants funded issues as diverse as anti-apartheid organizing, AIDS activism, housing activism and seniors organizing.
The 1990s
1992
November Institute
North Star Fund convenes a weekly program to help people with wealth discuss the political concerns and responsibilities that accompany having access to more resources than they need.
1993
Fighting Racism and the Politics of Division Conference
North Star Fund, already known for creating spaces for thoughtful and strategic political discourse, organizes a conference for 1,500 people to strategize on racism.
1996
North Star Fund Debuts the First Edition of the Activist Directory
Pre-Google, North Star Fund creates a directory of activist organizations here in New York so that people can find and connect with each other. It includes many newly-formed groups who are responding to the repressive policies of the Guiliani (local) and Clinton (national) administrations.
1999
North Star Fund Turns 20
After two decades of grantmaking, North Star Fund has made over $21 million in grants to hundreds of organizations. Issues range from low-wage worker organizing, immigrant defense, housing justice, arts for activism, and international solidarity.
1999
North Star Fund Launches Strategic Grantmaking Initiatives
In addition to the general funding cycles that include a range of issues such as Media, Housing, Culture and Health Care, North Star Fund identifies three strategic issue areas for new grants: Anti-Bias and Economic Justice, Government Accountability, and Youth.
The 2000s
2002
North Star Fund Director Betty Kapetanakis Dies
Community activist and North Star Fund director Betty Kapetanakis dies in a truck accident in Manhattan. This transition is hard on the North Star Fund community, where she has provided leadership during the difficult post-9/11 world, and where communities are facing the PATRIOT Act and other anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim waves.
2003
New Yorkers and the World Protest the Invasion of Iraq
2006
New Yorkers Respond Loudly to Anti-Immigrant Federal Legislation
In response to a national bill that will take the criminalization of undocumented immigrants to new highs and make it a felony to provide housing to an undocumented person, over 135,000 New Yorkers turn out to local rallies. North Star Fund provides $131,000 to over a dozen organizations providing strategic and compassionate leadership on the issue.
2006
North Star News Prize
North Star Fund establishes the North Star News Prize for outstanding journalists of color. Prize winners over the years include Rinku Sen (founder of Colorlines), Jeff Chang (author and culture maker), Farai Chideya (author and journalist) and Carol Jenkins (founding president of the Women’s Media Center) .
2007
New York Activists Go to the US Social Forum
North Star Fund makes special grants to help ten local organizations send member leaders and organizers to connect with national justice movements in Detroit, Michigan.
2007
Partnering with Other Foundations to Build Stronger Movements
Grantees are identifying skills that they need to build stronger more responsive organizations. In response, North Star Fund partners with other foundations to offer workshops to grantees on fundraising, political engagement, media training and more.
2009
Greening Western Queens
North Star Fund launches the Greening Western Queens Fund, a $7.9 million fund investing in energy–efficiency and environmental projects in communities affected by the week-long 2006 power outage.
2009
North Star Fund Turns 30
By our 30th year, we’ve made over $29 million in grants and supported hundreds of New Yorkers to enter the world of grassroots organizing on the local, statewide and international level.
The 2010s
2010
Launch of the Movement Leadership Program
The Movement Leadership Program welcomes its first cohort of grantees. The program is designed to offer two-year grants alongside support for organizations in improving the effectiveness of their base-building, leadership development and campaign work.
2011
Planting the Seeds for Community Food Funders
We launch Community Food Funders to support funders who want to contribute to the growth of a regional food system that is sustainable and just through ever step of the food chain.
2012
Let’s Talk About Activism’s Future
We launch the Activism’s Future Campaign, raising $8.5 million by the end of the campaign in 2016 so that we can expand grantee programs.
2012
Hurricane Sandy Hits New York Hard
North Star’s Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund awards over $400,000 to the communities hardest hit by the storm for a combination of immediate recovery needs as well as support for organizing for longer term changes for hard-hit communities.
2013
Education Justice Fund
We create the Education Justice Fund in 2013 to support powerful alliances that can bring together students and parents to press for needed changes to the public school system. The coalition partners turn up the public pressure and soon have a big impact on discussions in the mayoral race. Multiple candidates adopt their recommendations into the candidates’ platforms, including eventual mayor Bill de Blasio.
2013
Communities Join Together for Police Reform
North Star Fund becomes the fiscal sponsor for Communities United for Police Reform, bringing together dozens of community organizations mobilizing tens of thousands of New Yorkers to demand changes to the way police interact with communities of color.
2014
Let Us Breathe Fund Launches
Following the brutal killing of Eric Garner at the hands of the NYPD, communities are mobilizing around the city to demand change. His last recorded words, “I can’t breathe!” resonate in rallies, marches and vigils. Our community wants to find an even deeper way to get resources to support Black-led local organizing. We Launch the Let Us Breathe Fund for Black-led organizing for police reform, community safety and economic justice.
2015
Let Us Breathe Forum
The Let Us Breathe Forum brings together 500 community organizers, media makers and allies in philanthropy to highlight strategies central to the movement for Black Lives. You can watch video from it on our YouTube Channel.
2016
Organizing Resilient Communities
Shortly after the presidential election, North Star Fund establishes a new line of rapid response funding: Organizing Resilient Communities. The fund supports quick-turnaround grants to support communities rising up to resist attacks on communities of color, immigrants and other people targeted by new administration moves.
2017
Building Momentum in the Hudson Valley
North Star Fund makes its first round of Momentum Grants in the Hudson Valley to support organizing of low wage workers, communities of color and immigrant communities. This marks the first time North Star Fund made grants outside of the five boroughs.
2017
Bringing Leaders Together for a Resilient New York
The Resilient New York forum brings together community members, donors, grant makers, and organizers to unite around a proactive shared vision to support the grassroots for the next four years and beyond.
2019
#40YearsBold
North Star Fund has now given out more than $57 million in grants to thousands of organizations. We’re poised to continue supporting social justice movements in New York led by communities of color by bringing together New Yorkers who care deeply about sharing power. We invite you to join us!