What’s Happening
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.
Harnessing the Power of the New Electorate (Streets to Statehouse Addendum)
North Star Fund and New York Foundation’s new Streets to Statehouse: Harnessing the Power of the New Electorate examines how grassroots organizing is not only essential for building campaigns from outside City Hall or Albany, but is also critical in building a more...
Our Summer 2021 Victory RoundUp
As the pandemic continues, our grantees are organizing fiercely online and in-person to continue to support their communities. Let’s celebrate the hard work and organizing that is creating tangible impacts for individuals and families across New York City and New York...
Seeking Organizers to Join Our Volunteer Community Funding Committees
Thank you to all who applied! We are no longer accepting 2021 applications. Are you a community organizer? Are you passionate and knowledgeable about organizing for systemic change? Are you interested in making philanthropy and grantmaking more responsive to the needs...
Why You Should Join the North Star Fund Giving Project: A Participant’s Reflections
By Angbeen Saleem, Digital Communications Coordinator Since I started working at North Star Fund in 2018, I’ve watched two different Giving Project cohorts flow through our offices, helped create social media content for them, and helped manage events like the People...
Our Newest New York City Grantees – Summer 2021
Grassroots organizing groups across New York City are continuing to step up to meet these demanding and stressful times. While North Star Fund provided automatic renewals over this past year to 100+ current grantees, we also continued our tradition of having an open...
Meet our Newest 2021 Let Us Breathe Fund Grantees
In the summer of 2021, as part of our commitment to expand the Let Us Breathe Fund, we funded an additional nine grassroots community organizations with grants totaling $360,000. These grantees join the dozens of grantees of the Let Us Breathe Fund–grassroots groups...
Our Newest Hudson Valley Grantees, Summer 2021
Our total Hudson Valley grants surpassed $2 million by early 2021. In 2021, similar to 2020, we focused on auto-renewals for grantees. Most of our 2021 Hudson Valley grants were awarded via our Future of Organizing Fund streamlined renewal process, allowing grantees...
A Letter from our Outgoing Program Director
After nearly six years at North Star Fund, I am writing to share that I am transitioning from my role. My last day as program director will be Friday, August 20, 2021. Grassroots organizing changed my life. Earlier this summer, I found my contribution to a...
Round 3 of Future of Organizing Grants Total Close to $1 Million
It’s summer 2021, and the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t over. For sure, there are new signs of normalcy—restaurants and offices reopening and people starting to fill mass transit again. But vaccine distribution is still uneven and some frontline workers are still at risk of...
Job Posting: Philanthropy Programs Director
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. We envision a world in which resources and power are equitably shared, and a future where everyone can...
Highlights from Conversations on Justice with AAPI Organizers
We were so glad to get to host Conversations on Justice, an online conversation among Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizers in New York City on May 20, 2021. These organizers spoke to what the times demand, and about their shared work demanding justice and...
2021 Giving Project Sets a Record
In early 2020, as we were planning our fourth year of the Giving Project, we were beginning to feel like pros. In each of the previous years we had over 25 people active in an annual cohort. They came together for a series of daylong trainings on weekends to focus on...
Some Good Legislative News and More NYC Organizing Grants
Our community has had a lot of hard times since 2020. But because of the hard work of organizing and surviving New Yorkers have focused on, we have things that are worth celebrating. In Albany, hard-won changes in the 2021 legislature will improve the lives of...
Thanks for a Unique 2021 unGala
Though we could not be in the same room, we are so grateful for the chance to gather with you, our North Star Fund community, for the 2021 North Star Fund unGala. For a few moments in the afternoon before the event (just before the Chauvin verdict was announced), we...
Our 2021 Partnership with Change.org to support Black-led organizing
North Star Fund is pleased to announce our partnership with Change.org. Beginning in spring 2021, we will be working with members of the Change.org Racial Justice Fund to distribute $3.5 million to Black-led organizing groups across the United States. The Change.org...