FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 12, 2019
CONTACT: Jacqueline Lara, jacqueline@megaphonestrategies.com, 240-305-2133 // Kawana Lloyd, kawana@megaphonestrategies.com, 240-472-2860
Libra Foundation Honored with 2019 NCRP “Changing Course” Impact Award for Incorporating Grantee Feedback
San Francisco, CA –This week, The Libra Foundation was announced as the winner of the “Changing Course” award from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) 2019 IMPACT Awards. The Foundation is challenging white supremacy by prioritizing funding for organizations led by and for those most impacted by systemic injustice – largely low-income people and communities of color – who are working on building power from the ground up and inspiring significant local change that drives change nationally.
In 2017, the Libra Foundation shifted power within their own organization by appointing women of color with deep roots in justice and equity to their leadership team to reflect the change they seek to create. The foundation is one of four recipients that will be recognized in Seattle during the CHANGE Unity Summit on Wednesday, November 20.
“We learn from and listen to the people we fund, those most impacted by issues of injustice and inequality, who know best what solutions are required for the myriad challenges marginalized people face across issue areas and identities,” said Crystal Hayling, Executive Director of The Libra Foundation. When told about the award, Board Member of The Libra Foundation, Susan Pritzker, responded, “These 192 organizations we’ve been able to support lead us, call us in, and help us continuously reflect internally to liberate ourselves from assumptions and practices that undermine our effectiveness in advancing justice. We serve them. This award is theirs.”
Key Milestones include:
- During the first half of 2019, the foundation approved $12.4 million in grants to social justice organizations. The foundation’s latest docket includes $8.1 million to 31 existing grantee partners and $3.4 million to 23 organizations new to the foundation.
- Libra awarded $550,000 to support the work of eight organizations fighting the recent abortion bans in the South, including ARC-Southeast, Groundswell Fund, National Latina Institute for ReproductiveHealth, National Network of Abortion Funds, Southerners on New Ground, Spark Reproductive Justice!, URGE United for Reproductive, and the Gender Equity and Yellowhammer Fund.
- Libra awarded $475,000 to six pooled funds working on Census 2020 outreach in hard-to-count communities in California and nationally. Recipients include Census Bay Area Regional Pooled Fund, Census Equity Fund, Census Pooled Fund for Sacramento Region, Census Pooled Fund for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, Los Angeles County Census Pooled Fund, and the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund Census Cluster Project.
“The Libra Foundation’s recent transformation exemplifies how a philanthropic institution can begin doing the difficult but necessary work of aligning its practices with its values. Under the staff and family’s leadership, the foundation has undergone an intentional process of examining its role in perpetuating and benefiting from inequality, and taking proactive steps to promote equity and justice. With a program team made up entirely of women of color working in partnership with a board that recognizes that changing the system means changing themselves, the Libra Foundation is reimagining philanthropy’s role in supporting emancipatory social movements that fuel our collective liberation,” said Maria Nakae, Senior Engagement Director, Justice Funders, and member of the NCRP Impact Awards Selection Committee.
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About The Libra Foundation
The Libra Foundation is a family foundation with an endowment of approximately $500 million that is invested for impact. The Foundation is committed to social justice work in the United States in the areas of criminal justice and drug policy, environmental justice, and gender justice. Over the past decade, The Libra Foundation has granted approximately $63 million to 192 grantee partners.
About NCRP
The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy amplifies the voice of nonprofits and the communities they serve in the philanthropic sector. Through research and advocacy, it works to ensure that grantmakers and donors contribute to the creation of a fair, just and equitable world.
Since 2013, NCRP has awarded 19 Impact Awards to grantmakers in recognition of support, leadership, and partnership with grassroots organizations and community leaders around LGBTQ rights, minimum wage, environmental justice, health equity and other critical issues. A full list of past NCRP Impact Awardees is available on www.ncrp.org.
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