Change.org Partners with North Star Fund to Distribute $5.5 Million to 35+ Black-led Organizations

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This morning, Change.org and New York-based community foundation, North Star Fund, announced more than 35 Black-led organizations across the United States that will receive grant funding from Change.org's $5.5 million Racial Justice Fund. The Fund was created to redistribute money that came to Change.org connected to the Justice for George Floyd and Justice for Breonna Taylor petitions. The grant recipients work on the frontlines of Racial Justice to disrupt anti-black racism and empower communities of color.

With the guidance of North Star Fund, each grant recipient was carefully chosen through an intentional approach that sought to responsibly resource Black-led organizations and movements. The five-week process took a unique approach to corporate philanthropy by developing an inclusive selection committee of Change.org staff members, petition starters, and a representative of North Star Fund to learn about equitable grantmaking and identify a cohort of recipients.

"Creating a system that intentionally sought out organizations that were on the frontlines of this work was crucial in our grantmaking process," said Jennifer Ching, Executive Director for North Star Fund. "We hope that our partnership with Change.org inspires other major corporations to be more conscious about creating equitable philanthropic practices that directly benefit a greater number of Black-led movements fighting for transformative change."

According to statistics, a majority of philanthropic dollars go to causes that exclude Black, Indigeneous or People of Color communities issues like Racial Justice.

"Change.org's goal with the Racial Justice Fund has always been to responsibly resource Black-led organizations and movements. This could not have been possible without the guidance of North Star Fund," said Rashawn Davis, Associate Director of Change.org's Racial Justice Fund. "This process has been a practice of solidarity and we hope to lay a foundation for long-term change and continued transformation within Change.org and around the world."

Organizations from the Racial Justice Fund grants include:

• Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100): Founded in 2013, BYP100 is a member-based organization of Black youth activists creating justice and freedom for all Black people.
• The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI): MPJI protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership, and promoting collective power.
• BlackOUT Collective: The mission of BlackOUT Collective is to train 10,000 black people in the next four years to execute creative and effective direct actions in service of organizing and advocacy work.
• Law 4 Black Lives: Law for Black Lives is a national community of radical lawyers and legal workers committed to transforming the law and building the power of organizing to defend, protect and advance Black Liberation across the globe.
• Freedom Agenda NYC: Freedom Agenda is a member-led project, dedicated to organizing people and communities directly impacted by incarceration to achieve decarceration and system transformation.

More information on the Racial Justice Fund and the full list of community grant recipients is available at www.change.org/RacialJusticeFund.

About Change.org

Change.org is the world's home for people-powered change. More than 644 million people across more than 195 countries use our petition and campaign tools to speak up on issues they're passionate about. Approximately 70,000 petitions are created and supported on our platform every month, with 1.7 million new people joining our global network of users every week.

Every day, our users collaborate to organize on local, national and global issues; hold corporations to account; and demand action from decision makers at the highest levels of government and business. Our platform is free to use, open to all, and completely independent because it's funded by the people who use it. This independence also makes Change.org a trusted resource for decision makers, who turn to the platform to hear from and respond to the communities they represent. People on Change.org have powered tens of thousands of campaign victories worldwide, and more are winning every week.

As an organization, Change.org is committed to providing the tools, resources and support needed to help democratize activism, so that anyone, anywhere has the power to create the change they want to see in the world.

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SOURCE Change.org, Inc.