North Star Fund is about the power of collective, local action. At North Star Fund, community organizers lead both the work we support and our grantmaking. Our donors—both big and small—are partners in grassroots fundraising and mobilizing critically-needed resources, quickly. Together, we moved millions last year to support emerging movements in New York City and the Hudson Valley led by people of color and communities most impacted by injustice. When we rise together, we build power for and with each other.
Thank you for your support.
North Star Fund raises money from New Yorkers for grants to support grassroots organizing in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Both our grants and our grantmaking are about building power.
Board
New York City Community Funding Committee
Hudson Valley Community Funding Committee
Let Us Breathe Fund Committee
Staff
Consultants & Volunteers
Our leadership is largely drawn from activist communities in New York, drawing leaders from across lines of race, age, gender and class. What we have in common is a commitment to a just and equitable New York where everyone is welcome and can expect to be treated fairly. As a community, we take risks and invest in emerging issues and a combination of new and established leadership.
Alvarez Symonette
Amber Guild
Andrew Goldberg
Asa Johnson
Candis Tolliver
Christine Parker
David Ryan Alexander
Gonzalo Mercado
Holly Fetter
Jennifer Ching, Executive Director
Jennifer Flynn Walker
Kesi Foster
Lisa Steglich
Lloyd Martinez
Maggie Williams
Marjorie Fine
Mark Reed, Treasurer
Michael Waterman, Secretary
Nisha Atre, Chair
Pierre Hauser, Vice-Chair
Susanna Blankley
Zahida Pirani
Alvarez Symonette
Jen Hatch
Mark Reed, Treasurer
Natasha Pallan
Nishi Shah
Cathy Dang
Dominique Tan
Felix Endara
Jawanza Williams
Katie Lindsay
Kesi Foster, Co-Chair
Krystal Portalatin
Leah Obias
Ligia Guallpa
Michael Tikili
Rob Robinson
Sam J. Miller
Susanna Blankley, Co-Chair
Diana Sánchez
Emma Kreyche
Gloria Martínez
Guisela Marroquín
Jalal Sabur
Rae Leiner
Sandra Oxford
Vanessa Green
Ejeris Dixon
Ingrid Benedict
Kesi Foster
Adam Liebowitz, Community Food Funders Director
Angbeen Saleem, Digital Communications Coordinator
Catherine Eusebio, NYC Program Officer
cori schmanke parrish, Deputy Director
Elz Cuya Jones, Deputy Director
Helen Stillman, Donor Program Director
Jennifer Ching, Executive Director
Jodi Sh. Doff, Operations Manager
Kathleen Pequeño, Communications Director
Kofo Anifalaje, Development Director
Leyana Dessauer, Administrative Assistant
Mayra Hidalgo Salazar, Hudson Valley Program Director
Michelle De León, Betty Kapetanakis Memorial Intern
Seun A. Owolabi, Development Manager
Emily Sloss
Stephanie Mendoza
Abrazos Music & Entertainment
AHOY Studios
Alison Roh Park
Almoradie Media
Amanda Gentile
Ana Espina, Thomas & Associates
Ariel Ottey
Bryan Potter Design
Caracol Interpreters Cooperative
Dan Bigelow
Dana J. Schneider
Daniel Gross
Danielle Pearce
Dimitri Serov
Elena Waldman
Gerard Gaskin
Henry Serrano
Idealist Consulting
Idewild Partners Inc.
Ingrid Benedict
Janvieve Williams Comrie
Krystal Portalatin
Laura McNeill
Liberation Cuisine
Lynn Lewis
Matt Beals
Matt Peters
Neha Gautam
Nitika Raj
Oxalis NYC
Priscilla Gonzalez
Procopia
Sierra C. Spingarn Catering
Simran Noor
Stephen Pellegrino
Superfine Printing
Support Group
Tumblr
Universal Partnership
Ventucom
Wingo, Inc.
Woke Foods
Zahida Pirani
Zerandrian Morris
North Star Fund brings together a community of New Yorkers who care about social justice, who combine our resources—money, skills and networks—to fund locally-grown movements for change.
Events to connect people to local grassroots movements for learning and network building
Materials that highlight the justice issues that our grantees work on
Building leadership to change philanthropy to make it more inclusive and responsive to the needs of communities of color and low-income communities
Events to connect people to local grassroots movements for learning and network building
Materials that highlight the justice issues that our grantees work on
Building leadership to change philanthropy to make it more inclusive and responsive to the needs of communities of color and low-income communities
New York has thousands of micro-workplaces—like the corner laundromat—where isolated workers toil in unsafe and unsanitary working conditions while receiving subminimum wages.
Laundry Workers Center’s worker empowerment model of organizing focuses on isolated workplaces and has led to higher wages and better conditions at restaurants, warehouses and retail stores.
Laundry workers are building sector-wide power across retail laundromats and are now leading the industry’s first safe conditions and fair wages campaign in New York City.
We were one of the first funders of Laundry Workers Center in 2013. They have received multiple grants prior to our two-year, $50,000 Movement Leadership grant to advance this challenging organizing campaign.
Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are homeless or reside in temporary housing. Meanwhile, there are vacant and underused properties in every neighborhood across the five boroughs.
Picture the Homeless (PTH) draws its leadership from unhoused and formerly unhoused New Yorkers. In 2006 and 2011, members conducted methodical surveys of underused properties across the city and found enough vacancies to house every homeless New Yorker.
In response to PTH’s decade-long campaign, the NYC Council passed the Housing Not Warehousing Act, requiring the city to track vacant properties and to make the information available to the public so PTH and organizers can identify potential affordable housing sites in every community.
We have supported Picture the Homeless with grants every year of this campaign, including a Movement Leadership grant in 2011 and their 2018 Grassroots Action grant.
Police violence is a deeply entrenched problem in New York City, with powerful institutions fighting every possible solution emerging from the community even after the violent deaths of New Yorkers.
Brooklyn Movement Center (BMC) organized community members affected by the death of Saheed “Sy” Vassel after he was gunned down by police in his Crown Heights neighborhood.
“The Real Saheed” campaign countered the story about him painted in media after his death by the NYPD, who told negative stories about his background rather than allow the public to know the identities of his killers.
In addition to a Let Us Breathe grant this year, BMC also received a Grassroots Action grant, a Rapid Response grant, and a Frederick Douglass Award grant. We also continue to fiscally sponsor and support Communities United for Police Reform, a coalition of organizations including BMC that organizes to fight discriminatory police practices.
How can we build the transformative leadership of women in social justice and community organizing?
Women’s Organizing Network convenes a group of women organizers from social justice organizing groups and unions across New York City and the Hudson Valley for a five-month leadership program.
Participants build relationships of mutual support with each other, deepen their leadership, and bring a gender lens into their work, reaching thousands of people in their circle of influence.
We were one of the first funders to invest in Women’s Organizing Network in 2016, and they received a 2018 Innovative Activism grant. Most of the leaders they are developing work at current and former grantee organizations of North Star Fund.
New citizens in the Hudson Valley, many of whom are Latinx and who come from mixed-immigration status families, are ripe for civic engagement but need to be included in outreach strategies by community organizations.
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) brings together new citizens, other immigrants and allies in Hudson to involve them in local policymaking where their voices will have an impact.
CCSM has gone to where potential Latinx voters are, such as soccer games and local school or community events to register voters and make sure eligible voters know how to reach out to their local elected officials.
We’ve funded CCSM in each of the first two years of the Hudson Valley Momentum Grants. We are the first local community foundation to prioritize supporting grassroots organizing across issues and geography in the Hudson Valley.
New York’s Board of Parole operates with little public scrutiny while making life changing decisions about the lives of incarcerated New Yorkers that are based on political considerations instead of public safety.
Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) brings together former prisoners, lawyers and criminal justice reform advocates focused on bringing accountability and much-needed changes to the parole board.
RAPP’s campaign “If the Risk is Low, Let Them Go” is moving the dial on public dialogue about parole. The release of Herman Bell after nearly 45 years in prison has show that it is possible to break the hold of political forces on the lives of prisoners.
We’ve awarded Catalyst grants to RAPP in each of their first three years and made a $10,000 grant in 2018 as this campaign continues to build momentum.
One in four low-income New Yorkers are unable to afford the cost of a Metro-Card to get to work and school, and fare increases hit lo-low income New Yorkers the hardest.
Riders Alliance ran a high-profile campaign to pressure the City Council and the mayor to secure funding for reduced fare MetroCards for New Yorkers who need access to the subway and buses.
In summer 2018, the City Council approved over $100 million in funding for a reduced fare MetroCard to begin in January 2019.
We’ve been investing in Riders Alliance consistently since their founding, including with a 2015 Movement Leadership Grant and a Rapid Response grant in spring 2018 that helped push this campaign to victory.
What kind of money do we need to build grassroots power? Our movements thrive when people raise money from their networks and local communities while having strategic and transformative conversations about race, class, and the power of organizing.
The Giving Project brings together 20 New Yorkers from different class and race backgrounds for a six-month process of learning, dialogue and fundraising for our local movements.
The Giving Project raised $210,000 in new donations for grassroots organizing, and its members selected 15 organizations drawn from the North Star Fund grantee pool to receive grants.
We brought this transformative community building model to New York City for the first time in fall 2017. We were able to make use of our decades of experience organizing social justice-minded donors and building people’s skills at fundraisers.
Food justice funding isn’t keeping up with the urgency of problems plaguing our food system: poor treatment of workers all along the food chain, the demands of climate breakdown, and unequal access to fresh food and farmable land.
Community Food Funders has been convening a growing number of foundation staff and board members to learn together and better understand the needs of the field.
In 2018, Community Food Funders laid the groundwork to launch a new cohort-based leadership development program for food justice organizers modeled after our successful Movement Leadership Program, launching winter 2019.
As the convener of Community Food Funders, we provide regular workshops and site visit that are attended from foundations across the region, and have provided the expertise to launch the leadership program.
North Star Fund is New York’s community foundation supporting grassroots groups leading the movement for equality, economic justice and peace.
A two-year program that grants $50,000 to current and former grantees with a strong track record of success. Each grantee also receives progressive training and technical assistance in new movement platforms, strategies, and tactics as well as building a lifelong community of peers.
Grants from $5,000 to $20,000 provide unrestricted support to organizations so they can focus on shifting the balance of power. As with all our grants, this responsive grantmaking model trusts those addressing the root causes of injustice to lead solutions.
Grants of $10,000 to support grantees using arts, culture, and technology to engage and organize communities, shift narratives, and build grassroots power through creative action and alternative practices that strengthen communities.
The Let Us Breathe Fund moves resources to Black-led and multiracial organizations and movements fighting police violence and structural racism in New York City. These grants total $180,000 for 18 organizations, and bring the total grantmaking for this fund to over $700,000 since its inception in 2015.
The Hudson Valley Momentum grants awarded $10,000 and $15,000 to local organizations that serve, educate, organize, and mobilize their communities. Responsive, activist-led grantmaking paired with training and capacity building will support a growing grassroots movement for justice in the Hudson Valley.
Catalyst grants provide seed funding of $5,000 and $10,000. They come with annual renewals, technical assistance and trainings for new organizations. This allows grantees to build their capacity and deepen their strategies, building a powerful and lasting movement.
Rapid response grants are short-term grants to help organizations respond nimbly and effectively to urgent needs on the ground and in the halls of government.
For the second year in a row, North Star Fund organized a Giving Project — a new model of social justice that builds community and grows political and fundraising know-how. Each member makes their own gift and inspires family and friends to make an investment. The cohort then decides how to distribute the money as grants, selecting from the current general fund grantee pool.
Our Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) program connects our donors with grassroots organizations and movements for social justice. To open a DAF, individuals or groups can make a single gift or multiple contributions over time. Our DAF program includes collective giving circles, families that coordinate giving and individuals making first-time gifts. You decide where to direct the money, and North Star Fund administers the grant for a small fee. Our staff will work closely with you to develop a giving plan that moves resources into the community in strategic and responsive ways.
The North Star Fund community of donors keep growing. Become part of changing New York and make a gift today!
This list represents gifts received July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. If there are any errors or omissions on this list, please accept our apologies and reach out to us at seun@northstarfund.org with updates or corrections.
Additionally, we received gifts in honor of these individuals and families. Thanks to all of you for being part of the North Star Fund community and in many cases, introducing new people to North Star Fund.
Thank you to our Legacy Circle members, who have answered the call to Share a Just Future by including North Star Fund in their estate plans.
You’re busy, and you care deeply about justice. You don’t always have the time or energy to track down all the vibrant community organizing in New York. And you aren’t sure that “philanthropy” has anything to do with the things you care about, like your family and community.
New Yorkers from all walks of life come together at North Star Fund through events and through giving to support the movements we want to see gain power in New York City and the Hudson Valley. What we share is a commitment to justice, to sharing resources and to building the power of the grassroots.
Thanks to your presence and contributions, you provide grants, strong networks and vibrant programming to build movements for justice in New York City. From emerging grassroots movements to established institutions for justice, you can support it all here.
We convene memorable events for our community where you can learn, rise up to take action and commit more deeply to justice in our lifetimes and beyond. We share what we know and who we know. We help people decide how to make sure their giving matches their values. We build movements that last.
North Star Fund is committed to making deep, long-term investments in grassroots activism to ensure a just and equitable future for all people in the New York City metro region. A planned gift, which is a charitable gift from your overall estate or from non-cash-financial assets, is one of the most powerful ways you can ensure a just future for all New Yorkers.
To learn more, reach out to
Development Director Kofo Anifalaje
at 212.620.9110 or kofo@northstarfund.org.
North Star Fund prides itself on integrity and transparency as the cornerstone of social justice philanthropy.
North Star Fund continues to have a strong financial position that allows us to be a responsive and enthusiastic financial supporter of local movements. We maintain reserves to ensure our stability in the face of the current uncertain times, and are committed to being a long-term resource for organizing. If you have questions about these financial statements or our overall financial position, you can reach out to Cori Parrish at cori@northstarfund.org.