There’s a litany of incredible organizations and funds on this list that are beyond worthy of your interest and support that support, elevate, and impact Black lives. I implore you to dive in and find what causes resonate with you today - then come back tomorrow or next week and dive in again if you can.
Please feel free to share this page, as it will be regularly updated.
The following is a list of funds, organizations, and initiatives you can support with your dollars right now to support Black communities of all intersections and amplify that Black lives DO matter. Thanks and love to all of the hardworking folx who maintain these funds, initiatives, and organizations!
Giving Gap exists to advance racial equity in giving and mobilizing positive action for Black lives by connecting people to causes they care about. Their aim is to build the movement for the equitable funding of Black-founded nonprofits by providing a donor platform that allows individuals and institutions to learn about and give to vetted Black-founded nonprofits; research, data, and reporting that documents the strengths and needs of Black-founded nonprofits; and fundraising and storytelling campaigns to mobilize giving and positive action for Black lives
Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc. is a global organization in the US, UK, and Canada, whose mission is to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
The Trans Housing Coalition helps Atlanta’s chronically homeless Transgender and gender non-conforming people move from the streets into long-term housing and on to the lives they want to lead.
The Okra Project is a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever they can reach them.
Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative founded in 2012 to support grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people in the United States, including U.S. territories.
BreakOUT! seeks to end the criminalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC), queer, nonbinary and, intersex (LGBTQI) youth to build a more just New Orleans.
Founded and led by Trans and gender-nonconforming people and our allies, House of GG aims to create safe and transformative spaces where members of their community can heal—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—from the trauma arising from generations of transphobia, racism, sexism, poverty, ableism, and violence, and nurture them into tomorrow’s leaders. Their current primary focus is on supporting and nurturing the leadership of transgender women of color living in the U.S. South.
Black Visions Collective is a Black-led, Queer, and Trans centering organization whose mission is to organize powerful, connected Black communities and dismantle systems of violence.
Reclaim the Block began in 2018 and organizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety. They believe health, safety, and resiliency exist without police of any kind and organize around policies that strengthen community-led safety initiatives and reduce reliance on police departments.
Campaign Zero encourages policymakers to focus on solutions with the strongest evidence of effectiveness at reducing police violence. Their platform is continuously updated in response to the findings and insights of researchers and organizers nationwide.
Unicorn Riot is a decentralized, educational 501(c)(3) non-profit media organization of journalists that aims to engage and amplify the stories of social and environmental struggles from the ground up. They seek to enrich the public by transforming the narrative with accessible non-commercial independent content.
The National Black Deaf Advocates is the official advocacy organization for thousands of Black Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United States. Black deaf leaders were concerned that Black Deaf and hard of hearing Americans are not adequately represented in leadership and policy decision-making activities affecting their lives so they established NBDA in 1982.
The North Star Health Collective was created in response to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul September 1-4, 2008. Their organizing collective core includes health providers— physicians, nurses, healers, herbalists, doulas - many of whom are also long-term community organizers with diverse experience across a range of social sectors—affordable housing, environmental justice, women’s health, human rights.
Women for Political Change holistically invests in the leadership and political power of young women and trans & non-binary individuals throughout Minnesota. By investing in young people and creating alternative spaces for community education & healing, they challenge systems of oppression and work to shift the face of power within public and political leadership.
The Black AIDS Institute is dedicated to ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Black community. BAI is the only uniquely and unapologetically Black HIV think and do tank in America. They believe in complete freedom for Black people by eradicating systematic oppression so that Black folx as a collective can live long, healthy lives.
The mission of the Transgender District is to create an urban environment that fosters the rich history, culture, legacy, and empowerment of transgender people and its deep roots in the southeastern Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The transgender district aims to stabilize and economically empower the transgender community through ownership of homes, businesses, historic and cultural sites, and safe community spaces.
The Center for Black Equity aims to promote a multinational LGBTQ+ network dedicated to improving health and wellness opportunities, economic empowerment, and equal rights while promoting individual and collective work, responsibility, and self-determination.
The Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative is a Black, Trans-led, broad-based collaborative to restore and Atlanta where every person has the opportunity to grow and thrive without facing unfair barriers, especially from the criminal legal system.
TGI Justice Project is a group of transgender, gender variant, and intersex people–inside and outside of prisons, jails, and detention centers–creating a united family in the struggle for survival and freedom.
Transgender Law Center (TLC) is the largest national trans-led organization advocating for a world in which all people are free to define themselves and their futures. Grounded in legal expertise and committed to racial justice, TLC employs a variety of community-driven strategies to keep transgender and gender nonconforming people alive, thriving, and fighting for liberation.
The mission of Princess Janae Place is to help people of trans experience maximize their full potential as they transition from homelessness to independent living by offering a safe space for people of trans experience to connect with community, access gender-affirming support, as well as engage in educational and recreational activities.
Established in 2011, The National Black Trans Advocacy Coalition is the only social justice organization led by black trans people to collectively address the inequities faced in the black transgender human experience.
Hip Hop For Change breaks down barriers between youth and justice issues that affect their lives and communities using Hip hop as a vehicle. They educate, employ, and empower historically marginalized communities and inspire the next generation of leaders advocating for change.
From the basement of East Harlem public housing in 1984, STRIVE was founded to tackle the chronic unemployment in New York City. STRIVE's mission is to help people acquire the life-changing skills and attitudes needed to overcome challenging circumstances, find sustained employment, and become valuable contributors to their families, their employers, and their communities.
The legendary Apollo Theater positions itself as a commissioner and presenter; a catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative works; and partner in the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of U.S. American and global culture.
For more than 25 years, The Brotherhood Sister Sol (BroSis) has been at the forefront of social justice, educating, organizing, and training to challenge inequity and champion opportunity for all. With a focus on Black and Latinx youth, BroSis is where young people claim the power of their history, identity, and community to build the future they want to see through education, activism, and empowerment.
The Minnesota-based African American Leadership Forum (AALF) is comprised of over 1,500 African Americans who self-identify as thought leaders, influencers, builders, and ambassadors. Collaboratively, these leaders volunteer their time, talents, and treasure to work toward building a more just society that works well for everyone.
The African American Roundtable at CLGS (AART) seeks the full inclusion of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people in communities of faith and the mobilization of black communities of faith in support of social justice for LGBTQ people by fostering dialogue about the intersections between faith, gender identity and expression, and sexuality among black church and faith leaders (including scholars of religion), among black church congregations, among black LGBTQ persons and between each of these constituencies.
Black Girls CODE is devoted to showing the world that black girls can code, and do so much more. By reaching out to the community through workshops and after-school programs, Black Girls CODE introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails. Black Girls CODE has set out to prove to the world that girls of every color have the skills to become the programmers of tomorrow. By promoting classes and programs, they hope to grow the number of women of color working in technology and give underprivileged girls a chance to become the masters of their technological worlds.
The Black Male Voter Project is the only national organization focused solely on increasing Black men’s participation in electoral politics. Their goal is to make more than 300 million voter attempts, targeting Black men in an effort to close the voter gap with Black women and Black men from 10% to 4%.
California-based Black Women for Wellness aims to expand healthcare access, reduce toxic hair care chemicals that are prevalent in the Black community and build political advocacy in California and beyond. Their goals are to increase accessible, appropriate and affordable health services that positively impact the health outcomes for Black women and girls and build the personal, communal, and political power of Black women and girls within California by influencing public policy, organizing, and outreach.
Color of Change is a nonprofit civil rights advocacy organization working for civil justice by championing progressive solutions and policies. As the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, they help people respond effectively to injustice in the surrounding world. Driven by 7 million members, they aim to move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in the United States.
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) is a civil rights organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and same gender loving (LGBTQ/SGL) people, including people living with HIV/AIDS. As one of the United States’ leading national Black LGBTQ/SGL civil rights organizations focused on federal public policy, NBJC has accepted the charge to lead Black families in strengthening the bonds and bridging the gaps between the movements for racial justice and LGBTQ/SGL equality.
Founded in February 1961 by the husband and wife team of Dr. Margaret Taylor Burroughs and Charles Burroughs on the ground floor of their home, the Chicago-based DuSable Museum of African U.S. American History is a Chicago community institution, the oldest independent African-American and Black U.S. American-centered museum in the United States, and the first non-profit museum dedicated to the collection, documentation, preservation, study, and dissemination of the history and culture of Africans and Black U.S. Americans.
Established on September 9, 1915, by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder and creator of Black History Month, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s mission is to be the premier Black Heritage learned society with a strong network of national and international branches and partners whose diverse and inclusive membership will continue the work and vision of Woodson and the founders of Black History Month.
The Grassroots Law Project is a political organizing force working to combat racism and bigotry in the United States. They bridge the gap between grassroots organizing and legal expertise in criminal justice reform by bringing millions of people together to address the most pressing and egregious failures of the system, hold powerful actors accountable, and advocate for deep structural change.
Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV) elevates life in Oakland, California, and beyond by challenging oppressive dynamics and environments through urban farming. Founded and led mainly by women of color from the surrounding neighborhood and larger community, ANV creates a safe and creative outdoor space for children, youth, and families in East Oakland, CA. ANV engages and strengthens young people’s understanding of nutrition, food production, the natural world, and healthy living as well as strengthens their ties to the community.
Buy From A Black Woman strives to ensure the success of Black Women-owned businesses. Through educational programs, an online directory, and funding, Buy From A Black Woman empowers and educates business owners and the people who support them, ensuring the success of businesses owned by Black Women.
Butterfly Dreamz uses stories to change lives and empower young female leaders. Through writing and collaborating on books, receiving mentorship from female leaders, and various opportunities for leadership development, girls hone their communication skills, gain access to a network of inspiring women, and learn that they can change the world.
The Chicago Torture Justice Center addresses the traumas of police violence and institutionalized racism through access to healing and wellness services, trauma-informed resources, and community connection. The Center is part of the movement to end all forms of police violence.
The Global Economic Diversity Development Initiative (GEDDI) seeks to help communities worldwide create generational wealth by distributing funds to nonprofit and for-profit entities that focus on building economic wealth for the black community. To do this, GEDDI vets organizations to ensure dollars directly support the black population.
Named in honor of trans rights activist Marsha P. Johnson, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute elevates and supports Black trans people through organizing, advocating, community, leadership, and collective power. The Institute’s current programming focuses on providing fellowship opportunities around the arts and community organizing.
Vida Afrolatina is an international women’s fund that connects resources, including philanthropic funding and capacity support, to Afro-Descendant women’s groups in Latin America, with a specific focus on organizations that provide services for sexual violence survivors.
Philadelphia-based Mill Creek Urban Farm is an educational farm and environmental education center dedicated to improving local access to fresh, chemical-free produce at low cost for the Mill Creek community and surrounding neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
Phenomenal I Am, Inc. facilitates youth-led empowerment, enrichment workshops in order to explore and address common issues among the next female generation, like respect for themselves and others, effective communication, higher aspirations, being a girl, healthy relationships, body image. self-esteem, self-confidence, and more.
Founded in 2015 during a time of deadly encounters between Black people and law enforcement and the subsequent rise of the Movement for Black Lives, Soul 2 Soul Sisters is grounded in self and sisterly care, providing space for all Black Women to rest, share their experiences, and develop and implement strategic plans for individual and collective peace, power and liberation.
California-based Tannery World Dance & Cultural Center (TWDCC) is committed to access, equity, and excellence through its dance education programming. Offering performances, curated festivals, artist talks, community dance classes, and more, TWDCC is fostering a community throughout Santa Cruz and the Bay Area.
North Carolina-based StepUp Durham provides employment training and opportunities for members of the Durham and Raleigh communities facing challenges such as criminal histories, racial inequities, and histories of drug abuse, domestic violence, and/or homelessness.
The following is a list of bail funds across the United States. This list will be updated as new funds are generated. Love and thanks to all of the hard-working folx who created these bail funds!
Split your donation between 70+ bail funds
The National Bail Out Collective coordinates the Mama’s Day Bail Outs, where they bail out as many Black Mamas and caregivers as we can so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families. They also provide fellowship and employment opportunities for those they bail out in order to support their growth and create a national community of leaders who have experienced incarceration.
LGBTQ Freedom Fund pays bail to secure the safety and liberty of individuals in immigration facilities in every U.S. state and pretrial detention in Florida. They also work to build a critical mass against the mass detention of LGBTQ people — a tangle of discrimination and poverty fuels disproportionate incarceration rates.
The Atlanta Solidarity Fund provides support for people who are arrested at protests or otherwise prosecuted for their movement involvement.
Baltimore Action Legal Team (BALT) has been operating a bail fund since April 2015. In times of crisis, they receive donations and post as many bails as possible. As the COVID-19 crisis began, they began assisting with home detention costs as fewer low-level bails were being ordered and an increase in the use of electronic monitoring began to trend.
The Massachusetts Bail Fund posts bail for people who can't afford to pay their own bails in Massachusetts.
The Chicago Community Bond Fund is a collective of 100 volunteers that work to sustain the CCBF’s work and mission, which includes the operation of their revolving bail fund and local and national advocacy efforts to end money bond and pretrial incarceration.
The Connecticut Bail Fund’s mission is to reduce the direct harms caused by criminalization, incarceration, and deportation while building power among the people and families in our community who are most impacted by these systems in Connecticut. Their strategy is to pay bail for people who are being caged due to poverty, organize in opposition to the incarceration and deportation of community members, and educate and advocate towards a radical vision for safety, justice, and healing.
The Detroit Justice Center (DJC) is a Detroit, Michigan-based non-profit law firm working alongside communities to create economic opportunities, transform the justice system, and promote equitable and just cities.
Dauphin County Bail Fund is a non-profit community organization based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania dedicated to freeing community members from cages and ending the practice of cash bail.
California-based The Bail Project combats mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system—one person at a time. They aim to restore the presumption of innocence, reunite families, and challenge a system that criminalizes race and poverty by fighting to end cash bail and create a more just, equitable, and humane pretrial system.
Madison, Wisconsin-based Free the 350 Bail Fund aims to directly undermine modern-day enslavement disguised as the so-called justice system. They are a community-run bail fund consisting of many progressive Wisconsin organizations.
Memphis, Tennessee-based Just City aims to transform local criminal justice policy and practice to ensure it is fair for all people regardless of wealth, race, or ethnicity.
The Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund is a project to bail out those most in need and those who put themselves at risk fighting for our collective freedom.
New York-based Emergency Release is a volunteer-run nonprofit lender providing interest-free loans to New York City communities who cannot afford to pay the bail/bonds of their incarcerated loved ones.
Orlando, Florida-based Community Bail Fund is dedicated to ending the widespread incarceration of individuals who have been arrested for non-violent offenses but lack the financial means to pay bail and return home to their families while awaiting their court date.
The mission of the Philadelphia Community Bail Fund is to end cash bail and pretrial detention in the city of Philadelphia.
The Richmond Community Bail Fund aims to post bail for everyone in Central Virginia who needs it in order to help them avoid the many immediate and collateral consequences of incarceration. They are working toward the abolition of cash bail, pretrial detention, and supervision.
The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) provides cash bail for marginalized people charged with crimes who are unable to afford bail and find themselves incarcerated while awaiting routine court appearances in King, Snohomish, and Pierce Counties in Washington State.
The following is a list of organizations and community funds you can support if you live in Portland, Oregon, or the Pacific Northwest and would like to support the Black community in the region. This list will be updated as new resources come my way. Love and thanks to all of the hard-working folx who created these community funds and organizations!
Don’t Shoot Portland is an arts and education organization that promotes social justice and civic participation through year-round programming that advocates for community members facing racism and discrimination by providing legal representation and direct advocacy.
The Equitable Giving Circle is a nonprofit whose aim is to build immediate and sustainable equity for Portland’s BIPOC communities through a combination of fund development and community and network building that centers on economic equity.
Mudbone Grown is a nonprofit organization focused on igniting, cultivating, and centering Black Agriculturists to participate as owners and movement leaders within agriculture, land stewardship, regional food security response, and economic prosperity
Black Food Sovereignty Coalition is a member-based organization working in solidarity with Black, Indigenous, and POC growers, policymakers, advocates, and educators to stabilize food systems infrastructure for marginalized communities in the Pacific Northwest.
Black Futures Farm is a community farm, staffed by volunteers and two resident farmers. We sit on 1.15 acres with 17 different fruit trees, vegetables, flowers, medicinal and cooking herbs. Our farm is located on the grounds of the Learning Gardens Lab at 60th and SE Duke in Portland, Oregon. They are a group of Black identified/ Diasporic and Continental African people working together, growing food and community. It is a project of the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition.
North X Northeast Community Health Center is the only medical clinic in Oregon devoted to African American/Black health. Their mission is to improve health outcomes and advance health equity by offering primary care services and health education and promotion focused on the African American/Black community.
Brown Hope is a nonprofit organization that aims to serve and mobilize communities in order to heal our collective soil from the poisons of our past and present, so our future roots can thrive. Brown Hope and its members are responsible for championing such initiatives as the Black Resilience Fund and Black Street Bakery.
Black United Fund of Oregon aims to assist in the social and economic development of Oregon's Black and underserved communities while contributing to a broader understanding of ethnic and culturally diverse groups.
The Portland chapter of Critical Resistance is a group of dedicated prison industrial complex abolitionists who work to help magnify and spread the work of CR and local prison industrial complex abolitionists.
The Black Parent Initiative’s mission has been to educate and mobilize the parents and caregivers of African, African American, and African American multicultural children to ensure they achieve success.
Imagine Black (formerly known as the PAALF Action Fund) helps the Portland Black community by building Black political participation, awareness, education, and leadership to help all Black Portlanders have access to more possibilities and opportunities. Their work is done through a Black Queer Feminist lens.
BEAM Village is a collective of Black educational service providers united under the mission to break generational cycles of socioeconomic suppression for Black residents through community-driven educational support structures.
Black & Beyond the Binary Collective works to build leadership, healing, and safety for Black - African transgender, queer, nonbinary, and intersex (TQNI+) Oregonians. Their mission is to give power back to Black communities, celebrate self-expression, and preserve the dignity, joy, and the future of Black queer and Trans communities living fully liberated lives.
African Family Holistic Health Organization is an Immigrant/Refugee led nonprofit organization grounded in a vision of collective caring and building and sustaining an economically thriving Swahili-speaking community. They are committed to improving the health of Black communities through peer health education, increased access to health resources, and connecting community members with health providers to create positive and lasting change.
Elevate Oregon is a non-profit organization for at-risk youth that supports students in the Parkrose neighborhood of Portland, one of the most diverse school districts in Oregon. Elevate’s year-round mentoring program integrates with the core high school curriculum to raise graduation rates and college enrollment, offering career development for students of color in the 6th–12th grades.
CAIRO is a statewide, grassroots not-for-profit organization that aspires to organize Oregon’s African immigrants and refugees (AIR) communities with a view to inspire hope so they rise above the circumstances that marginalize them.
The Coalition of Communities of Color's mission is to address the socioeconomic disparities, institutional racism, and inequity of services experienced by our families, children, and communities; and to organize our communities for collective action resulting in social change to obtain self-determination, wellness, justice, and prosperity.
IRCO’s (Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization) Africa House is the only culturally and linguistically specific one-stop center targeting the increasingly diverse and rapidly growing number of African immigrants and refugees living in Oregon. Receiving national attention for moving beyond intercultural strife to be the only center serving Africans from every country in the continent, Africa House is led by an advisory board of cross-cultural community leaders and staffed by a multicultural, multilingual team.
Self Enhancement, Inc. (SEI) is dedicated to guiding underserved youth to realize their full potential. Working with schools, families, and partner community organizations, SEI provides support, guidance, and opportunities to achieve personal and academic success.
Wild Diversity helps to create a personal connection to the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, all People of Color (BIPOC) & the LGBTQ+ communities, through outdoor adventures and education.
The Black Farmers Collective is on a mission to build a Black-led food system by developing a cooperative network of food system actors, acquiring and stewarding land, facilitating food system education, and creating space for Black liberation in healing and joy. They envision Black liberation through food sovereignty, in spaces built on cooperation and interconnectedness with the environment and the community, where our knowledge and creativity are boundless.
Clean Greens Farm and Market is a small nonprofit organization, owned and operated by longstanding African American residents of Seattle’s Central District. Clean Greens was established to supply fresh, sustainably grown produce at affordable prices to low-income families. They are committed to teaching the Black community about Food and Social Justice while growing fresh and organic produce to increase access to healthy eating.
Hollingsworth Cannabis Co. is a family of cannabis connoisseurs passionate about natural healing, plant power, and farming. Their cannabis is grown in insulated climate-controlled greenhouses to create the best environment for production. They take sustainability and a low carbon footprint seriously, buying local, reusing, and using solar energy.
Feed The Mass is a nonprofit organization founded on the belief that everyone deserves access to reliable, high-quality nutrition. They offer multiple sustainable solutions to combat food insecurity in the Portland metro area, with a food education program that offers accessible cooking workshops to the Portland community and their FED program, which serves Portland’s hungry and combats food waste by turning donated food into high quality, nutritious meals that are served to the Portland area’s most vulnerable neighbors.
Members of the Portland Chapter of the historically Black Fraternity Phi Beta Sigma founded The Blueprint Foundation to expose Black urban youth to learning opportunities they usually do not get to access. To do this, they provide youth resources and mentoring where opportunity gaps exist with a focus to uplift, educate, and support the development of black-identified youth and other communities of color.
Africatown Community Land Trust’s mission is to acquire, develop, and steward land in Greater Seattle to empower and preserve the Black Diaspora community. Their work is focused on community ownership of land in the Central District that can support the cultural and economic thriving of people who are part of the African diaspora in the Greater Seattle region.
Black Oregon Land Trust’s mission is to create opportunities for Black farmers in Oregon to own land, build generational health and wealth, and birth sovereign, thriving communities. Their work is focused on accessing land and establishing organizational structures as a nonprofit land trust.
Black Women in STEM (BWiSTEM) is dedicated to supporting, promoting, and inspiring Black women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers, as well as advocating for equitable and inclusive workplace environments that nurture diverse talent. BWiSTEM encourages the engagement of all women who want to share professional perspectives, gain cutting-edge industry information, enhance leadership and communication skills, participate in partner programs, and build meaningful networks with peers.
Raceme Farm Collective is made up of three distinct Black and Brown-owned farm businesses (Chalchi Farm, Flying Dogheart Farm, and Scrapberry Farm) that work in collective, sharing investment and risk in farm infrastructure, marketing, and planning work. They grow weeds and medicine and believe in food as medicine and community as medicine.
Mercatus elevates the unique and universal narratives of entrepreneurs of color in Portland and connects the city and region with local talents, businesses, services, and products that come from diverse entrepreneurs. They also host and compile an incredible directory of Black-owned businesses in Portland.
Page updated February 2, 2022.