In First Round of Grantmaking, Black Girl Freedom Fund Supports Organizations Serving Black Girls Across the U.S.

NEW YORK, June 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Black Girl Freedom Fund, an initiative of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, today announced its first grant recipients. The grantmaking was guided by an advisory committee of seven Black girls and Black gender-expansive youth between the ages of 13-17 years old.

The Black Girl Freedom Fund is focusing its first round of grants for Black-girls serving organizations that address safety and wellbeing of Black girls. Along with the fund, the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign aims to mobilize $1 billion for Black girls and young women over the next 10 years. The campaign has mobilized $17 million since it was first launched in September.

"We affirm that Black girls are sacred, and are deserving of love and abundant resources to heal, grow, and thrive," says Dr. Monique W. Morris, President and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and cofounder of the #1Billion4BlackGirls Campaign. "Black girls present some of the boldest, wisest, most creative articulations of justice in our society. We'll all benefit when we listen to their experience and needs, and fund their solutions."

For its first round of funding, grants ranging between $50,000-$100,000 will be distributed to The F.I.N.D. Design (Nashville), Pretty Brown Girl (National), Healing the Black Body (National), Get Smart B4U Get Sexy (California), The Hive Community Circle (South Carolina), 3D Girls (Atlanta).

Each grantee meets the fund's criteria that organizations are led by Black girls and/or Black women, Black femmes, gender-expansive Black people, and serve Black girls, Black femmes, and/or gender-expansive Black youth. In addition, each organization is U.S.-based, focuses on leadership development, works to center the power of Black girls, facilitates programming for Black girls, centers the wellness and safety of Black girls in its mission and/or programs.

"Black girls and gender-expansive young people are deeply invested in the wellbeing and safety of their peers," said Kyndall Clark Osibodu, Manager of Organizational Health and Learning for Grantmakers of Girls of Color, who co-facilitated the Black Girl Freedom Fund Youth Advisory Committee. "Not only did the Youth Advisory Committee conjure up and bring into the room their first-hand experiences, they modeled for us what it means to do philanthropy abundantly, make decisions with conviction, and hold us accountable to co-construct a container that centers their own healing, safety, and wellbeing."

The fund was created to address a major disparity in giving to Black girls and other women and girls of color, which was discovered to represent only 0.5% of $66.9 billion by foundations, totaling just $5.48 per woman and girl of color in the United States, according to the Ms. Foundation. In 2017, one of the most recent years for which data exists, less than $15 million was specified as benefiting Black women and girls.

"It has been a joy to have this empowering and transformative experience guided by the brilliance and leadership of Black girls and gender-expansive youth in the fund's Youth Advisory Committee," said Cidra Sebastien, Manager of the Black Girl Freedom Fund. "I look forward to more collaborative opportunities  to imagine and co-create alongside them. We are eager to support more Black girls and gender-expansive youth in every city, every state, in every way."

Additional rounds of funding will be made in 2021. For updates, visit 1billion4BlackGirls.org

About the Black Girl Freedom Fund:
Black Girl Freedom Fund is an initiative of Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC), a fiscally-sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The accompanying #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign is a 10-year philanthropic initiative to mobilize a $1 billion investment in Black girls. Learn more about the campaign: 1Billion4BlackGirls.org.

About Grantmakers for Girls of Color:
Fiscally-sponsored by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC) works to mobilize resources and amplify transformative organizing work to dismantle systems of oppression led by girls and gender-expansive youth of color. Grantmakers for Girls of Color openly invites partners and stakeholders to co-create an inclusive space in support of girls, young women, and gender-expansive youth of color across programmatic issues and geographic areas. Learn more by visiting GrantmakersforGirlsofColor.org.

SOURCE Grantmakers for Girls of Color