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Here’s the latest in news and updates from North Star Fund, including previous and upcoming grants, our current programming and our work to change philanthropy. Be sure to sign up for email or follow us on social media if you want to get our news delivered directly to you.
North Star Fund is Sunsetting our Innovative Activism Grants Program
After several years of consideration and planning, North Star Fund will formally close our Innovative Activism grant program in Spring 2021. How we will close out our Innovative Activism Program The loss of support from a foundation partner can be harmful, especially...
Meet Some of the New Black-led Organizing Projects We’re Supporting
Since the summer of 2020, North Star Fund provided over $1M to Black-led organizations engaging in grassroots organizing—the process of building collective power. This is part of our goal of distributing a total of $2M to a wide breadth of organizations by this June....
How to Apply for a Grant (Spring 2021)
North Star Fund just hosted two How to Apply workshops to introduce new applicants to North Star Fund. In these online events (one on Zoom and Facebook, one on Instagram Live) we shared our open grant opportunities for groups new to North Star Fund. We also discussed...
Still We Fight Webinar Recording and Slides
What an inspiring webinar! Thank you for your interest in our webinar, Still We Fight: The State of Black-Led Organizing in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Over 125 of our community members joined our speakers as they offered powerful reflections and urgent calls...
Goodbye from Our Donor Program Director
Dear North Star Fund community, After over 8 years on staff, I am transitioning out of my full time role as Donor Program Director at North Star Fund this month. When I got to North Star, the most common question I got was “But what is donor organizing?” and I’ve...
2020 was a big year of Hudson Valley Grants
2020 marked our fourth year of grantmaking in the Hudson Valley, and the year when we finally surpassed $1 million dollars in grantmaking in the Hudson Valley through our Community Funding Committee (CFC) process. Through the CFC, local organizers volunteer their time...
2021 New Year’s Revolutions: Beyond Crisis Giving
Thank you to all of you who signed up for our 2021 New Year's Revolutions workshop. This was the first year we offered it entirely online. Kofo Anifalaje, Helen Stillman, and Jillian White offered self-reflection questions and concrete tools to make the process of...
Our “Power Lunch” on Trump’s Last Day
Thanks to all of you who joined us for North Star Fund’s Power Lunch on January 19, 2021, the last full day of the Trump administration. It was wonderful to see so many people–allies from New York and across the country in a truly intergenerational space of both...
We’re Committing $2 Million to Our Let Us Breathe Fund
North Star Fund is delighted to announce a $2 million commitment to our Let Us Breathe Fund. This commitment marks a historic increase since the fund was created in 2015 to support communities calling for justice for Eric Garner. In the first six years of this fund,...
Announcing Our 2021 Grant Opportunities
We've got big news to share with you about grants at North Star Fund. First, beginning in 2021, Spring/Summer grants will be for new applicants. Fall/Winter grants will focus on renewal applications from current grantees. Second, North Star Fund’s spring application...
In Response to January 6 Siege of the U.S. Capitol
By Jennifer Ching, Executive Director Along with the world, I watched in horror this week as a white supremacy-fueled mob—acting on the express approval of Trump and Republican politicians throughout the nation—seized the nation’s Capitol building. It took only a few...
Building New Relationships in the Hudson Valley
In late October, North Star Fund’s Hudson Valley grantees met up to get to know one another and talk about the amazing work they’re doing in the region. For those of you who have been on a North Star Fund Zoom call this summer or fall, you may be familiar with our...
Webinar Follow-Up: Decolonizing Fundraising
This conversation, the third in our Let Us Explain series, was a 90-minute dive into how North Star Fund’s fundraising team is working to dismantle deeply inequitable structures baked into the culture of fundraising. As we shared, we’re not coming to you with all the...
Love Letter to the North Star Fund Community
Friends, At the end of October, I will leave North Star Fund after 15 years. In my time at North Star Fund, I’ve been proud to support communities rising up to fight for their rights and at times their survival. There are so many moments of these struggles that will...
Webinar Follow-up: Giving Circles, Explained
Session Two of our fall 2020 “Explained” series took us into the world of Giving Circles. Why do people set them up? What lessons have people learned from doing them? We heard from people who have been involved as members of Giving Circles breaking it down and sharing...