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Dear JustFund Community,
A few years ago, I remember reading an email about a (then) new initiative called “Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.“
Organizers from Southerners Organizing on a New Ground were raising money to bail out as many mothers and caregivers as possible so they could be home on Mother’s Day. Funds would go toward services to support people bailed out, actual bail, and legal costs. I remember wishing I had a way to tell friends and family outside of the donor network I was in – and track our collective giving to help that organization hit its financial goal as quickly as possible.
While activists and leaders of organizations like SONG were working around the clock doing this critical frontline work, I thought the least we could do is make their ability to find new funding easy and simple.
Why should activists take time away from their life-changing work to spend time navigating complicated applications from dozens of funders?
Surely, philanthropy could find a streamlined solution, a way to help organizations lift up their needs; a way for us to organize our peers and make sure these critical leaders have the resources they need.
We have spent five years designing that solution in JustFund and have strengthened our capacity to regularly improve the platform by introducing new features monthly. We started by providing the nation’s first-ever common proposal. Over 75 funds use the common proposal today, and collectively we’ve moved $154M through this equitable solution.
When we heard from some JustFunders that they don’t even need proposals to consider making a grant – just the organization’s name, address, and EIN – we jumped in to respond. JustFund has been working closely with both grant-seekers and grantmakers to launch new Organization Profiles: a way for organizations to tell their story and for JustFunders to search for, view, and share funding decisions at the organization level. JustFunders will still have the chance to request the common proposal when running a grant cycle and view proposals.
We are excited to share this feature with JustFunders next month!
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