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Join GCIR for a discussion with the Alliance for Justice and leading immigrant justice organizations to understand how philanthropy can fund in the 501(c)4 space while also learning about active opportunities.
The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, Northern California Grantmakers, and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees invite you to a funder briefing to learn about exciting initiatives to end the political exclusion of immigrants and build thriving local communities through immigrant voting.
Building on the legacy of Queer and Trans elders and pioneers, LGBTQ immigrant and refugee leaders continue to lead the fight for societal transformation. For years, these leaders have advocated for increased funding to support LGBTQ immigrant communities, particularly to address lack of access to medical care and asylum and detention issues (including sexual assault). A 2017 Congressional inquiry found that LGBTQ immigrants are 97 times more likely to be sexually victimized than non-LGBTQ people while in ICE custody. However, LGTBQ immigrant issues continue to receive less funding when compared to overall dollar amounts invested in LGBTQ communities.
Over the last two decades, waves of immigrants have made rural communities their homes. According to the Pew Research Center, from 2000 to 2018 immigrants accounted for 37 percent of overall rural population growth. Driven by demand for labor in the argricultural, meat packing, and dairy processing industries, this growth has led to an economic revival of parts of rural America where communities were once on the decline.
Join this discussion to learn more about how immigrants in states like Georgia are shaping their own future and the role philanthropy can play.
GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Kris Hayashi, Executive Director of Transgender Law Center, the largest trans-led organization in the country.
Join GCIR and FCYO for a discussion with leaders from the immigrant youth moment during this critical time.
In this edition, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Arcenio Lopez, Executive Director of Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP). Read on as Arcenio shares his thoughts about building power for Indigenous immigrants, the importance of forging alliances with other Indigenous communities, and how philanthropy can support and strengthen the work of Indigenous migrants.
In this edition, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Magaly Urdiales, Co-executive Director of the Western North Carolina Workers' Center. Read on as Magaly shares her insights on organizing workers in her region, the innovative strategies they use to identify campaign issues and effect the changes workers want to see, and the important role philanthropy can play in building immigrant worker power and leadership in rural areas.
Join GCIR and our partners at Neighborhood Funders Group to hear directly from leaders at Food Chain Workers Alliance and Demo Lab South about current efforts to build rural worker power in the agricultural sector, from farm and dairy workers in the Northeast to poultry workers in Georgia.
GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Lian Cheun, Executive Director of Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) in Long Beach, California, an organization working for gender, racial, and economic justice through community and power building efforts led by Southeast Asian young women.
We have curated a set of resources to assist funders in preparation for a potential targeting of nonprofits and foundations. This list is not exhaustive and will be a dynamic space where we will continue to add resources as we identify them. We also encourage you to share these resources with your grantees.
Join the Four Freedoms Fund and Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees for a discussion with leaders from these movements and the release of a report with recommendations for philanthropy.
Join GCIR and our partners from the Four Freedoms Fund, the Latino Community Foundation, the California Community Foundation, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation to discuss the importance of investing in movement infrastructure and to learn directly from funder colleagues how they define and prioritize this work.
Join GCIR and our partners at Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) for a 75-minute webinar that aims to inspire funders to imagine what is possible, and to move them to take action to help protect the freedom to move and stay.
What do we hope to accomplish? What will success look like? What will it take to get there? These are some of the questions I grapple with as GCIR’s Programs Learning Manager. My position is new, reflecting the organization’s commitment to proactive learning throughout our work. In a nutshell, I aim to support the team in building evaluative capacity, including through the design (and constant iteration) of ways of working that make it easy for people to engage meaningfully in learning processes.
As I reflect on what brings me to this work, I am reminded that these roots run deep. As a Puerto Rican brought up in the United States, I was raised with an awareness of our nation’s history of colonialism and at times violent intervention in Latin America and beyond. I saw how the U.S. government had fought to ensure that the political and economic arrangements in Latin American countries suited its own interests, while then abdicating responsibility for the resulting destabilization.
I often find myself going back to Davis’ words, especially on days when progress feels so excruciatingly slow and hopelessness begins to set in. Lately this has come in the form of news headlines of another school shooting and continued disappointment with elected officials for not delivering on their promises. Yet Angela Davis’ quote not only reminds me that the fight toward a liberated world takes time, but also that, even on the most difficult days, you must be as bold and far reaching as possible. After all, there is a role for everyone, including those of us in philanthropy, in the long-term fight for equity and justice. Given the considerable influence and power of philanthropy – a $90 billion sector – funders are well-positioned to play a key role in its radical transformation.
As a native-born U.S. citizen working in the movement for immigrant justice, I often reflect on what brought me to this work out of the many social justice issues that demand our attention. Navigating the immigration system alongside my wife who immigrated from Albania to pursue her dreams of a better future opened my eyes to the complex and often challenging immigrant experience in America.
Welcome to Amplify, where we feature interviews with immigrant justice field leaders to showcase their work and provide a platform for their perspectives. In this episode of our Amplify podcast, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Maria Ibarra-Frayre, Co-Director of We the People Michigan. The organization is committed to building power and strengthening civic engagement for communities across Michigan through disciplined, rigorous, long-term community organizing.