Surdna Foundation Announces $14.23 Million in Grants
During the period of April-June 2018, 64 grants totaling $14,235,000 were approved by the Surdna Foundation staff and board to further the Foundation’s mission of fostering just and sustainable communities in the United States – communities guided by principles of social justice and distinguished by healthy environments, inclusive economies, and thriving cultures. Grants are listed below by program area with additional information about the specific line of work within each program. Grant information is also available in our grants database.
Strong Local Economies
Baltimore Community Foundation, Baltimore, MD
$500,000 | 18 months
To support the launch of a multi-year strategy to advance inclusive small business through the Baltimore Small Business Technical Assistance Fund. The Fund will complement various small business and impact investing initiatives throughout Baltimore. (18 months)
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Didtechnology, Inc., Atlanta, GA
$600,000 | 3 years
To support the expansion of digitalundivided’s programming and operations to two new locations.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Greenlining Institute, Oakland, CA
$400,000 | 2.5 years
To support the Greenlining Racial Equity Civic Fellowship, housed with the City of Oakland’s Economic Development Department. The Fellowship will advance and implement a racial equity agenda that results in inclusive growth, increased economic security, and reduced racial income disparities.
Category: Equitable Economic Development
HBCU VC, San Francisco, CA
$150,000 | 18 months
To support HBCU VC’s student run venture capital training program in partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities across the country.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
MLK50 2.0, Memphis, TN
$175,000 | 1 year
To produce an investigative reporting series on poverty, power and public policy in Memphis. This series will be an extension of the yearlong reporting project, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Mortar Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
$100,000 | 1 year
To support the exploration of an advanced MORTAR 3.0 curriculum designed to build local, wealth generating businesses by: 1) designing services to reinvigorate minority-led brick-and-mortar businesses; 2) working with developers to help minority entrepreneurs compete for local contracts; and 3) building out partnerships to train minorities and women on how to own and manage franchise businesses.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Ms. Foundation for Women, Brooklyn, NY
$100,000 | 1 year
To support the Ms. Foundation’s general program planning and development and the 2018 Gloria Awards.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
National League of Cities Institute, Inc., Washington, DC
$350,000 | 18 months
To support the National League of Cities Institute’s Equitable Economic Development Fellowship.
Category: Equitable Economic Development
Newark Community Economic Development Corp., Newark, NJ
$150,000 | 1 year
To support Newark Community Economic Development Corp.’s assessment of Newark’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for high-growth firms which will result in recommendations for creating a pipeline of growth businesses in Newark.
Category: Equitable Economic Development
Raise the Floor Alliance, Chicago, IL
$100,000 | 1 year
General operating support for education, trainings, and advocacy work to improve job quality for low-wage workers, as well as legal, policy, organizing, and communications support for Chicago-area worker centers.
Category: Job Quality and Career Pathways
Rockefeller Family Fund, New York, NY
$350,000 | 2 years
To support the Local Solutions Support Center as it re-frames and responds to preemption as a direct and growing threat to local democracy, decreases the frequency of preemption, and ends its use as a punishment against local officials and governments.
Category: Job Quality and Career Pathways
Rutgers Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, Piscataway, NJ
$370,000 | 2.5 years
To support the Rutgers Center’s Black and Latino Technology Program and Accelerate 2020 CEO Academy aimed at growing minority-owned businesses and supporting entrepreneurs of color in building tech businesses.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Texas Organizing Project Education Fund (TOPEF), San Antonio, TX
$150,000 | 1 year
To support the continued development and implementation of TOPEF’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) in Houston, Texas and the exploration of expanding the program to other cities in Texas for 2019. BCLI prepares low-income women of color to serve on appointed boards and/or commissions to influence policy decisions.
Category: Equitable Economic Development
Transform Finance, New York, NY
$185,000 | 1 year
To support Transform Finance’s suite of trainings for social justice leaders to engage with finance as a social change strategy and a year-long cohort to jumpstart advanced initiatives to reclaim capital and a voice in finance.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Sustainable Environments
Action Center on Race and the Economy Institute, Chicago, IL
$300,000 | 2 years
To support the Action Center on Race and the Economy Institute’s development of models and provision of technical assistance to municipalities for resisting water privatization.
Category: Urban Water Management
Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Oakland, CA
$400,000 | 3 years
To support the Asian Pacific Environmental Network’s efforts to ensure that low-wealth communities and communities of color can respond to and promote solutions to threats of climate change, pollution, and economic inequality.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Center for Heirs Property, Charleston, SC
$200,000 | 2 years
To support to the Center for Heirs Property’s promotion of the sustainable use of land while providing increased economic benefit to historically underserved landowners and land stewards.
Category: Regional Food Supply
Center for Story-based Strategy, Oakland, CA
$175,000 | 2 years
General operating support for the Center for Story-based Strategy’s work to provide environmental, social and economic justice leaders, organizations and alliances the strategic support to reframe climate and environmental issues and win critical campaigns.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
City Scale, Tamworth, NH
$150,000 | 2 years
To support City Scale’s work with local government sustainability directors, community-based organizations and funders implementing alternatives for climate action that result in more equitable outcomes for low-wealth communities and communities of color.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Common Market Philadelphia, Inc., Philadelphia, PA
$300,000 | 2 years
To expand Common Market’s operations to build regional food systems that are based on racial and economic equity, and ecological sustainability, and create prosperity for urban and rural communities.
Category: Regional Food Supply
Council on Foundations, Arlington, VA
$50,000 | 1 year
To support the Council on Foundations’ development of a roadmap for funders and other engaged stakeholders to start the process of changing how the federal government understands and supports impact investing.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Eastern Market Corporation, Detroit, MI
$100,000 | 1 year
To support FoodLab Detroit’s ability to capitalize and strengthen its model for supporting the enterprises of low- income & residents of color and grow Detroit’s food economy while improving equity.
Category: Regional Food Supply
Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities (TFN), Coral Gables, FL
$200,000 | 1 year
To continue catalyzing the growth of TFN’s Partners for Places, a successful matching grant program that creates opportunities for cities and counties in the United States and Canada to improve communities by building partnerships between local government sustainability offices and place-based foundations.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Georgia WAND Education Fund, Inc, Atlanta, GA
$50,000 | 1 year
To support the Advancing Equity and Opportunity Collaborative’s Disaster Recovery and Restoration Working Group to connect the impacts of climate change and highlight opportunities around renewable energy for environmental justice communities in the South.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Greater New Orleans Foundation, New Orleans, LA
$375,000 | 2 years
To provide support to deepen the “living with water” movement in New Orleans (Orleans Parish) as it transitions to the next mayoral administration and expands the movement into neighboring Jefferson Parish.
Category: Urban Water Management
Groundwork USA, Yonkers, NY
$80,000 | 1 year
To support Groundwork USA’s continued development of community-based social enterprises that provide stormwater and green infrastructure services and enable low-wealth communities to build wealth, as well as secure environmental benefits of retrofitting the landscape.
Category: Urban Water Management
HEAL Food Alliance, Oakland, CA
$150,000 | 2 years
To support HEAL Food Alliance’s movement building to transform the current food and farming system to one that promotes better stewardship of land, thriving local economies, and healthier communities nationwide.
Category: Regional Food Supply
Indigenous Environmental Network/Indigenous Educational Network of Turtle Island, Bemidji, MN
$150,000 | 3 years
To support the Indigenous Environmental Network’s organizational and programmatic capacity to address environmental, energy and climate justice issues.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
ISAIAH, St. Paul, MN
$825,000 | 3 years
To support ISAIAH’s launch of a leadership development program designed to help organizers from small and mid-sized towns in the Midwest integrate environmental and climate justice practices into their work to engage residents in improving environmental quality and sustainability.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
It Takes Roots, North Miami, FL
$575,000 | 3 years
To support It Takes Roots’ advancement of strategies to improve environmental quality, rebuild place-based governance, and increase the visibility of frontline leaders.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Just Community Energy Transition Fellowship, Philadelphia, PA
$300,000 | 3 years
To support the Just Community Energy Transition Fellowship and develop leadership in the climate justice field by knitting together a platform of aligned activities and a narrative around Just Transition to clean, renewable energy solutions that will create greater environmental quality.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Land Loss Prevention Project, Durham, NC
$225,000 | 3 years
General operating support to build the capacity of the Land Loss Prevention Project which provides legal support and assistance to financially distressed and limited resource farmers and landowners in North Carolina.
Category: Regional Food Supply
New Jersey Future, Trenton, NJ
$85,000 | 1 year
To support low-income residents, small businesses and communities of color, to influence combined sewer overflow (CSO) alternatives reports in 2019, laying the groundwork for just, sustainable CSO plans in 2020.
Category: Urban Water Management
One America, Seattle, WA
$185,000 | 2 years
To support OneAmerica’s efforts to build a progressive, long-term, power-building strategy in Washington State, bringing together key partners across sectors around a common agenda grounded in racial equity and environmental justice.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
One Voice Mississippi, Jackson, MS
$350,000 | 3 years
To support One Voice Mississippi (One Voice) to educate and activate communities in Mississippi around the effects of climate change. One Voice will build communities’ capacity to work with rural electric co-ops and municipal owned electric companies by providing technical assistance and access to best practices around community-based clean energy solutions.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Partnership for Southern Equity, Atlanta, GA
$375,000 | 3 years
General operating support for Partnership for Southern Equity which focuses on advancing policies that promote racial equity and shared prosperity in metropolitan Atlanta and the American South.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
People United for Sustainable Housing, Inc. (PUSH Buffalo), Buffalo, NY
$450,000 | 3 years
General operating funds to support PUSH Buffalo’s organizational capacity to promote accountability over local and state infrastructure investments. PUSH will use its national platform to lead campaigns for a Just Transition through improved environmental outcomes in low-wealth communities and communities of color.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Pie Ranch, Pescadero, CA
$50,000 | 1 year
To support Pie Ranch’s business planning and community engagement for a farm incubator program that aims to increase equity, ownership, and wealth-building opportunities for under-resourced farmers of color.
Category: Regional Food Supply
Right to the City Alliance, New York, NY
$275,000 | 3 years
General operating support for the Right to the City Alliance’s development and promotion of a national equitable development platform that includes strategies, tactics and policies that promote community-led planning and lead to more environmentally sound and equitable transportation and land use investments in low-income communities and communities of color.
Category: Transportation Networks and Equitable Development Patterns
Smart Growth America, Washington, DC
$385,000 | 1 year
General operating support for Smart Growth America’s efforts to change development patterns and practices to create communities that are more equitable, inclusive, environmentally sustainable and economically prosperous.
Category: Transportation Networks and Equitable Development Patterns
Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, Los Angeles, CA
$150,000 | 2 years
To support Strategic Actions for a Just Economy’s efforts to further the goals of the “Miyako” Network coordinated by Public Advocates and Urban Habitat by promoting policies for sustainability and equity along transit lines.
Category: Transportation Networks and Equitable Development Patterns
Verde, Portland, OR
$150,000 | 3 years
To support Verde and its Living Cully partners in serving low-income and people-of-color communities by building environmental wealth.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure; Joint Program Grant with Thriving Cultures
Working World, Inc., New York, NY
$75,000 | 1 year
To support Working World’s efforts to build out the infrastructure for a national network to bring investment to cooperatively-run, community-owned or controlled solar projects.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Thriving Cultures
Arizona State University Foundation, Tempe, AZ
$200,000 | 1 year
To support the Arizona Creative Communities Institute’s work at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, to support connections between University resources (faculty, fellows, students, technology) and community-based organizations throughout the state.
Category: Artists and Economic Development
Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, Washington, DC
$25,000 | 1 year
To support Corcoran’s exhibition and two-day convening focused on equity/inequity within Indian Country associated with the Corcoran’s Salon Dore Series on Equity, Culture and Creativity.
Category: Other
Foundation for Louisiana, Baton Rouge, LA
$1,300,000 | 3 years
To increase the Foundation for Louisiana’s organizational capacity and infrastructure to provide vital support to Louisiana artists and culture bearers and to support coastal communities navigating the impacts of sea level rise.
Category: Artists and Economic Development; Joint Program Grant with Sustainable Environments
Greater New Orleans Funders Network, New Orleans, LA
$150,000 | 3 years
General operating support for the Greater New Orleans Funders Network which seeks to deploy philanthropic investment to promote equity and justice in the greater New Orleans region.
Category: Other; Joint Program Grant with Sustainable Environments
Gulf Coast Community Design Studio, Biloxi, MS
$150,000 | 2 years
General operating support for the Gulf Coast Community Design Studio’s community engagement work, focusing on the cultural, economic and environmental threats to Turkey Creek, a watershed and African American community in Gulfport, Mississippi.
Category: Community Engaged Design
Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools, New Orleans, LA
$50,000 | 1 year
To support Rethink’s formal connection with the local artists in New Orleans and to support art-based training and fellowships for young people of color.
Category: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Monument Lab, Philadelphia, PA
$190,000 | 2 years
To Monument Lab’s development of a national cohort of fellows from the fields of public art, history, architecture, city planning, and/or environmentalism.
Category: Community Engaged Design
Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Category: Artists and Economic Development
Paper Monuments, New Orleans, LA
$110,000 | 18 months
To support the second and third phases of the Paper Monuments’ initiative, an independent project that is attuned to the political realities of proposing and enacting temporary and permanent interventions in public spaces, in New Orleans.
Category: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Capacity and Infrastructure
BoardSource, Washington, DC
$50,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Center for Effective Philanthropy, Cambridge, MA
$50,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, New York, NY
$70,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Foundation Center, New York, NY
$50,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Washington, DC
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Independent Sector, Washington, DC
$50,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, Washington, DC
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Techsoup Global, San Francisco, CA
$50,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Vera Institute of Justice, New York, NY
$175,000 | 2 years
To support the SAFE Cities Network, a network of cities and counties dedicated to building a national publicly-funded system of legal representation services to immigrant residents facing detention and deportation.
Flexible Grantmaking Fund
Center for Popular Democracy, Brooklyn, NY
$195,000 | 1 year
To support the rebuilding efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria by developing the Center for Popular Democracy’s organizational capacity to deploy the Maria Fund.
La Maraña, San Juan, PR
$30,000 | 6 months
To support La Maraña’s implementation of Imaginación Post-Maria, a recovery model that empowers citizens to imagine, plan, and build the changes they desire for their communities.
NDN Collective, Porcupine, SD
$225,000 | 1 year
To support the development of the NDN Collective, which includes convening indigenous leaders, influencers and change makers; developing a business plan with a market analysis; the development of a brand identity package and the deployment of brand assets into a cohesive strategy aligned with the mission.