Inside Philanthropy

Who's Funding What & Why

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Neighborhood Funders Group

OVERVIEW: The Neighborhood Funder’s Group convenes like-minded grantmakers from around the U.S. to strategize and collaborate on funding for social justice and change. 

IP TAKE: According to its Theory of Change, the Neighborhood Funder’s Group envisions a future when “[p]hilanthropic assets are liberated so that BIPOC communities and low-income communities have power to self-determine.” Grantmaking is only a small part of this organization’s work, which mainly involves convening funder’s from around the U.S. around issues relating to grassroots organizing for social justice and change. For grantmakers and grantseekers, the main opportunities here lie in strategizing, networking and learning with other organizations. 

This is an accessible organization that provides contact information for all of its staff members, as well as a membership list. Program pages offer detailed information events and collaborations. Reach out with questions and ideas. 

PROFILE: Based in San Francisco, the Neighborhood Funders Group (NFG) was established in 1980 as a network of organizations focused on “people of color-led, grassroots organizing, and power building as the key to effective social change strategies.” According to its mission statement, the group “organizes philanthropy so that Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities and low-income communities thrive.” Today its members consist of “over 140 grantmaking organizations that co-conspire to accelerate racial, gender, economic, disability, and climate justice.” While NFG does conduct some grantmaking, it mainly serves as a “political home” where member organizations can “connect, strategize, and take action.” A list of the group’s members is available here. NFG is a GUTC signatory. 

Grants for Racial Equity, Women, LGBTQ, Disabilities, Economic Development, and Climate Change

Most of NFGs programs do not make grants but provide organizational and strategic support to the group’s grantmaking members. Areas of engagement include but are not limited to “racial, gender, economic, disability and climate justice.” Rather than dedicating programs to specific causes, programs instead intersect interest areas across giving.

  • The Amplify Fund is NFG’s sole grantmaking vehicle. This is a “place-focused, pooled fund” that pursues the goals of strengthening the ability of “marginalized people to maintain and build decision-making power in place” and “shift[ing] shift where, to whom, and how philanthropy provides support.”
    • Geographic areas of focus are chosen based on the potential for organizing and change and currently include California, Missouri, Nevada, Easter North Carolina, Western Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Tennessee.
    • Based on current needs and issues, specific strategies are developed for each state or region, with grants ultimately addressing issues including education, civic engagement, food systems, housing, economic opportunity, mental health, immigrants’ rights, community development and more.
    • This fund does not appear to run an application program, but grantseekers may get in touch with Senior Director Roz Lee for additional information. 
    • Among more than 50 grantees, the fund has made grants to the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Homes for All St. Louis, the Carolina Youth Action Project, the Fund for an Inclusive California, Pittsburgh United and Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico. 
  • The Democratizing Development Program is a convening of “place-based and national funders” that partner with communities to pursue “sustainable development and community power building strategies.”
    • The overarching goal of the program is “to create long-lasting benefits for low-income individuals and communities of color.”
    • In addition to strategy development and analysis, the program offers grantmakers the opportunity to form alliances and collaborate on grantmaking projects.
    • According to the program’s news tab, affordable housing, land stewardship and economic justice have been areas of high interest for this program. 
  • The Integrated Rural Strategies Group brings grantmakers together to form a “shared understanding among funders at a national scale of what it takes to build community-led capacity to advance justice and equity for rural communities.” Areas of focus here include increasing civic participation among rural communities and organizing around issues of land, climate change and environment. 
  • Funders for a Just Economy is a subgroup of NFG members “committed to advancing the philanthropic conversation around economic justice and worker power.”
    • The group organizes support for campaigns in the areas of “worker health and safety, job quality” and collective power.
    • Additionally, the group addresses issues pertaining to “economic discrimination and disparities based on race, gender, and migration status; including how philanthropy may perpetuate these disparities through its grantmaking, employment practices, and opportunities for advancement.” 
  • The Midwest Organizing Infrastructure Funders group works broadly to move “resources to grassroots organizing in the Midwest.”
    • The group runs in-person and on-line meetings, information sessions and other events to catalyze direct support for grassroots groups that prioritize BIPOC communities, civic engagement and economic justice.
    • The group has also demonstrated interest in issues relating to gender, disabilities and climate justice. 
  • Philanthropy Forward is NFG’s “CEO fellowship community for visionary leaders who center racial and gender justice and community power building to disrupt and transform the future of philanthropy.”
    • The program is run in collaboration with the Aspen Institute’s Forum for Community Scholars and targets CEO’s of organizations “already supporting racial and gender justice and community power building” as they work toward “deeper change at the individual, organizational, and philanthropic field levels.”
    • Launched in 2019, the program has so far hosted six cohorts, each containing as many as 16 participants and specifying its own areas of focus. Profiles of each cohort are linked to the program page. 

Important Grant Details: 

Grants from NFG’s Amplify Fund have ranged from $25,000 to $475,000. 

  • Grantmaking is a very small part of this organization’s work; it mainly serves as a learning, strategizing and networking platform for funders that support organizing for BIPOC and low-income communities. 
  • This is a membership organization that organizes projects and convenings around topics of pressing interest to its members. 
  • Some of the group’s projects focus on place-based strategies and have named geographic interests including but not limited to the Midwest, rural areas and regions that demonstrate potential for movement and change. 
  • NFG does not accept applications for funding, but it is an accessible group that presents many opportunities for getting involved. 
  • Email addresses for all staff members are available at the group’s Who We Are page, and the group’s director of membership and communications, Courtney Banayad, can be reached via email at courtney@nfg.org.

Submit general inquiries to NFG via email at hello@nfg.org or telephone at (510) 444-6063.

PEOPLE: 

Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only). 

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