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The Trump administration has launched its most far-reaching attack on immigrants to date in the guise of a seemingly innocuous regulatory change: the revised “public charge” rule. When the new rule goes into effect on October 15, barring delays due to litigation, immigrants accessing programs that help them meet basic needs, such as food, housing, and health care, can be denied a green card, and individuals deemed likely to use these programs can be denied admission to the United States.
A pledge from California philanthropic organizations:
The COVID–19 public health and economic crisis and the murders of Black Americans by police, have laid bare the deep inequities across our state. We need bold steps to ensure a future based on economic inclusion, racial equity, and compassionate humanity.
Pillars Fund has created a rapid response fund to support the personal expenses of Muslim artists and activists whose livelihoods are being negatively impacted by this current moment. They will be making $500 grants to individuals through a short application process.
AHRI for Justice (AHRI) and Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC) recognize that our communities have been greatly impacted by COVID-19. For many in our communities, COVID-19 is no longer just a public health crisis, but a humanitarian crisis on many levels.
In January 2019, I reflected on the extreme anti-immigrant policies that have come out of the White House over the past two years, the resulting human devastation, and the attacks that are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. I called on philanthropy to dream big and act with courage because we can only combat these injustices if we have a vision that surpasses the opposition’s in ambition and scope.
With the federal administration set to end the use of public health law Title 42 as an expulsion tool to deny would-be asylum seekers entry into the United States (a policy deemed unconstitutional by a federal court late last year) tomorrow, it is widely expected that a significant number of individuals and families will enter the U.S. through the southern border in search of refuge. Therefore, GCIR is calling on philanthropy to resource immediate and long term responses to the humanitarian needs of migrants.
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) today announced a new $10 million challenge grant from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation toward the California Immigrant Resilience Fund.
A letter from Unbound Philanthropy to its grantees about the COVID-19 outbreak.
The first quarterly President Message from Marissa Tirona, GCIR President.
As we approach 2025, we at GCIR know that working together will be our greatest asset as we face impending challenges for immigrants and the immigrant justice movement. As we continue to mobilize funders into action, philanthropy must utilize its enormous power and privilege to stand with immigrant and refugee communities, one of the primary targets of the incoming administration.
In partnership with California philanthropy, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) today announced the launch of the California Dignity for Families Fund, seeking to raise $20 million to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of migrants at the southern California border, ensure due process for asylum seekers, support their integration into receiving communities, and restore dignity to the asylum process.
Visibilize, mobilize, and amplify: These three goals represented the driving force behind a recent learning trip to the U.S.-Mexico border, organized for 15 funders by Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) and Grantmakers Concerned with Imigrants and Refugees (GCIR). This delgation traveled to McAllen, Texas, and Reynosa, Mexico in early May to connect with nonprofits providing critical services. Humanitarian relief, legal services, power-building, and advocacy are just some examples of the vital work groups are leading in border communities.
The learning trip left a lasting impact on Lincoln Mondy, a Program Officer at the Andrus Family Fund. He joined Ivy O. Suriyopas, GCIR's Vice President of Programs, and Andrea Villaseñor de la Vega, Director of the Migration and Climate Mobility program at HIP, to share his personal reflections and experiences.
A group of leading California foundations issued this call to action on immigration to philanthropy.
In her second quarterly message of 2022, GCIR president Marissa Tirona shares some of the highlights of GCIR’s recent work, including GCIR’s national convening in Houston in May, grantmaking and learning through the California Dignity for Families Fund, developing a theory of change though the strategic planning process, and partnering with Upwardly Global to advance the economic power of immigrant and refugee women of color.
In her quarterly message, GCIR President Marissa Tirona calls on philanthropy to step up in this critical moment and leverage its power in service of communities under attack by the current administration, including immigrants and refugees. She also shares how GCIR is stepping up in this moment to expand our state and local strategies, advance pro-immigrant policies, amplify power-building efforts and expand protections for migrants in the long-term.
Drawing on reflections from a recent GCIR webinar about the value of learning in grantmakin, GCIR's Programs Learning Manager Anduriña Espinoza-Wasil explains that learning for evaluation purposes is not a one-time event at the end of a grant period, but a powerful process that is ongoing. There is an important relationship between learning and strategy, the ways learning processes can hold us accountable to the communities we serve, and how funders can start learning now.
GCIR is announcing the California Dignity for Families Fund’s first round of grantmaking investments, totalling $2.8M. The Fund, launched in May as part of a public-private partnership with the State of California, mobilizes philanthropic dollars to provide urgent humanitarian relief to migrants and support for their resettlement in California communities.