Blog Post
Resetting Philanthropy Together
Dear JustFund Community, When I started JustFund back in 2017, there was one goal in mind: to move more money to movements. Back then, I was working at Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to the frontlines of intersectional movements for racial, gender, and climate justice. We, like many other donor networks, collaborative…
Read MoreFind And Fund Urgent Need: Abortion Access
Dear JustFund Community, Today is a devastating day for our country as the Supreme Court reverses nearly 50 years of precedent overturning Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional right to abortion. Half of the states in our country are also expected to ban abortion. Today’s decision is a gender, racial, and economic injustice that…
Read MoreThe Role of Trust in Grantmaking
Dear JustFund Community, You’ve heard us say that Money Moves at the Speed of Trust™ and undoubtedly you’ve been in a meeting or read a piece using the phrase “trust-based philanthropy”. People are talking about centering trust in their grantmaking, but what role does trust play? At the very basic level, we rely on trust when we…
Read MoreChanging the Way Nonprofits Apply for Funding
Dear JustFund Community, Did you know that JustFund is the nation’s first – and only – national common application grantmaking solution? We launched the common proposal in 2017 with three funds: Solidaire Network, The Emergent Fund, and Defending the Dream Fund. We moved about $200K in our first year of operating and over 800 organizations were able to utilize…
Read MoreEquity in Philanthropy
Dear JustFund Community, It’s happening! There are so many more dynamic conversations in motion today about how to truly center equity in philanthropy. The most recent one I heard was at the PEAK 2022 Grantmaking Conference last week, (if you didn’t attend this year, be on the lookout for next year’s conference!) where the opening speakers, Amoretta Morris, Vu…
Read MoreFunding Historically Excluded Organizations
Dear JustFund Community, JustFunders are off and running in 2022 as they center equity in their grantmaking and work to move more resources to historically excluded organizations. Our team has supported 177 grant cycles for 56 funds and foundations to date, giving more than 6,000 organizations the chance to apply for funding through the nation’s…
Read MoreWhat a year 2021 was…
Dear JustFund Community, I continue to be struck by the exclusionary and expensive nature of traditional philanthropy, which makes funding accessible to only select nonprofits with the right expertise and networks, not to mention prohibitively costly for organizations and funders to seek and distribute funding. We can and we must do better. Our JustFund team…
Read MoreCollaborative Funding
What is Collaborative Funding? Collaborative funding is the practice of grantmakers coming together to learn, share information and knowledge, and sometimes, align resources for organizations supporting a specific goal. When grantmakers join forces around a common purpose, collaborative funding maximizes collective impact by coordinating strategy, learning, and funding in alignment with other grantmakers, while reducing…
Read MorePhilanthropy Built on Trust
Dear JustFund Community, JustFund was developed a few years before the revolutionary trust-based philanthropy movement came to be, as a way to operationalize best practices in grantmaking that are rooted in equity and built on trust. The most recent Trust-Based Philanthropy in 4D guide talks about a holistic approach that uses “trust-based values to guide your philanthropy’s…
Read MoreParticipatory Grantmaking
What is Participatory Grantmaking? Participatory grantmaking is the practice of ceding grantmaking power to the very communities affected by funding decisions. In action, participatory grantmaking uplifts these communities by giving them the agency to decide who and what they fund. By centering affected communities in the grantmaking process, participatory grantmaking shifts unequal power dynamics inherent…
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