California Black Freedom Fund

The California Black Freedom Fund is a five-year, $100 million initiative to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustained investments and resources they need to eradicate systemic and institutional racism.

The first state-based fund of its kind, the California Black Freedom Fund prioritizes investments in the courageous and visionary grassroots advocates and community leaders who are transforming our cities, our state and our world.

By creating and accelerating a new statewide ecosystem of Black-led organizations confronting racism and anti-Blackness, this fund aims to effect the culture, policy and systems changes necessary to realize equity and justice in California.

Achieving influence in a state as large and complex as California will require an ecosystem of diverse organizations—working independently and collectively at local, regional and state levels—to reshape the narrative, advance ideas and ensure the accountability of public officials. The California Black Freedom Fund will support organizations addressing the multiple and intersecting harms of systemic racism, police violence and racial inequities faced by California’s Black communities. These organizations should meet the following criteria:

• The entity must be led and controlled by Black people
• The grant recipient must include as a core mission the goal of combating anti-Black systemic racism and advancing Black communities’ priorities
• The grant request should equip the organization to confront Black communities’ long-term exposure to state-sanctioned violence and abuse
• The grant must help achieve the ultimate objective of increasing the power and influence of Black communities to effect structural policy change

Funding will not be provided for:

• Capital improvements
• Budget shortfalls or fundraising events
• Previously planned or long-term campaigns
• Funding gaps due to organizational emergencies, such as office vandalism, resignation of an executive director or sudden loss of funding
• The application is streamlined to reduce time spent on applying and processing. The grant review process will be expedited and only one application may be submitted per organization.