Surdna Foundation Announces $14 Million in Grants
During the period of April-June 2017, 72 grants totaling $14,050,000 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, strong local 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
The American Prospect, Washington, DC
$125,000 | 1 year
General operating support, which includes support for The American Prospect’s Writing Fellows Program.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Aspen Institute, Washington, DC
$100,000 | 1 year
To support the Aspen Institute Forum on Latino Business Growth, a 3-day gathering that will bring together 28 leaders and practitioners from across sectors and disciplines to grapple with and generate ideas for high-impact interventions that will help stakeholders overcome obstacles to scaling Latino owned businesses.
Line of work: Business Development and Acceleration
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Baltimore, MD
$150,000 | 1 year
To support the creation of economic opportunities for Baltimore City residents through anchor institution economic inclusion strategies.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Camelback Ventures, New Orleans, LA
$75,000 | 1 year
To launch a pilot cohort that will focus on developing entrepreneurs in New Orleans to create more good jobs, particularly for women of color.
Line of work: Business Development and Acceleration
Center for Innovation in Worker Organization, New Brunswick, NJ
$200,000 | 2 years
To support the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization’s Co-Enforcement and Building the Bench projects.
Line of work: Job Quality and Career Pathways
Didtechnology, Inc., Atlanta, GA
$150,000 | 1 year
Program support to the BIG Accelerator program, a 26-week incubator program for black and Latina women tech entrepreneurs located in downtown Atlanta.
Line of work: Business Development and Acceleration
Good Jobs First, Washington, DC
$600,000 | 3 year
General operating support as Good Jobs First continues to advance equitable economic development policies and practices across the country.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Good Work Network, New Orleans LA
$180,000 | 18 months
To assist Good Work Network in its development of strategic, market-driven technical assistance and policy-based advocacy. The goal is to increase the stability and growth of diverse small businesses and promote creation of higher-profit minority businesses. This grant also supports Good Work Network’s efforts to develop a mini management program for artists and to strengthen the ecosystem of support for artists/art based businesses.
Line of work: Business Development and Acceleration
Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation, Memphis, TN
$200,000 | year
To support MLK50, a series of events and projects commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination and to support the Justice through Journalism project.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College, New York, NY
$100,000 | 1 year
To produce a series of policy briefings on issues of: a) employment, labor markets and community economic development; b) small- and medium-sized local business infrastructure; and c) trends in income, poverty and inequality by raceethnicitynational origin in New York City. The data and analysis will be used to lead a series of policy workshops, seminars, and discussions with academics, practitioners, and policy makers focused on the crucial economic and community development policy challenges facing the Latino community and exploring potential solutions that can have a positive impact for New York City and State.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
New American Leaders Project, New York, NY
$170,000 | 1 year
To provide state and local elected officials with leadership training, skills building, and networking opportunities. The grant will also support the completion of a documentary film on a trailblazing legislator and related impact campaign.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
NewCorp, Inc., New Orleans, LA
$150,000 | 1 year
To aid in the development of the New Orleans Black Mardi Gras Indian Co-Op to create opportunities for the Black masking Indians to monetize their trade through the sale of their suits and other items produced by co-op members.
Line of work: Business Development and Acceleration
The New York Women’s Foundation, New York, NY
$150,000 | 2 years
To support the New York City Fund for Girls and Young Women of Color.
Line of work: Job Quality and Career Pathways
PolicyLink, Oakland, CA
$100,000 | 1 year
General operating support to help strengthen PolicyLink’s capacity and build financial reserves through the Reserve and Growth fund which will also help PolicyLink weather funding fluctuations and respond rapidly to urgent issues.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Raise the Floor Alliance, Chicago IL
$150,000 | 1 year
General operating support for education, training, and advocacy to improve job quality for Chicago’s low-wage workers, addressing on wage theft, racial unity “Know Your Rights” training, and anti-retaliation advocacy.
Line of work: Job Quality and Career Pathways
Roadmap Consulting, Oakland, CA
$125,000 | 1 year
To provide capacity building for three of Surdna’s Strong Local Economies grantee partners, as well as provide crisis response training to Surdna grantees.
Line of work: Job Quality and Career Pathways
World Business Chicago, Chicago, IL
$150,000 | 1 year
To enable Chicago Anchors for a Strong Economy (CASE), a program of World Business Chicago, to increase its supplier matchmaking and support offered to anchor partners.
Line of work: Equitable Economic Development
Sustainable Environments
Emerald Cities Collaborative, Inc., Washington, DC
$300,000 | 18 months
To support Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) high road implementation tools in six cities with a focus on building community-based energy and water infrastructure projects in key markets.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Energy Programs Consortium, Washington, DC
$35,000 | 1 year
To support efforts for low- and moderate-income homeowners to access energy efficiency loan products without undue financial burden.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange, Philadelphia, PA
$200,000 | 2 years
To support ongoing activities of the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange, a city-to-city practitioner network and information center that seeks to accelerate research, innovation and implementation around green stormwater infrastructure.
Line of work: Urban Water Management
ISAIAH, St. Paul, MN
$225,000 | 1 year
To support ISAIAH and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) to build a Midwestern regional strategy grounded in state-based power building organizations for a fair economy, sustainable environmental policies, and racial equity.
Line of work: Integrated Infrastructure
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Los Angeles, CA
$300,000 | 3 years
To support the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy’s research of Los Angeles County’s watershed management needs and advocate for green water infrastructure solutions that promote drought adaption, quality jobs and environmental and community benefits.
Line of work: Urban Water Management
Meridian Institute, Dillon, CO
$50,000 | 1 year
To enable AGree to: support education and advocacy for local/regional food systems and urban agriculture programs and investments; and positively influence immigration policy for the food and agriculture sector.
Line of work: Regional Food Supply
New York Energy Democracy Alliance, Brooklyn, NY
$75,000 | 1 year
To support the New York Energy Democracy Alliance’s CoShare working group. CoShare working group members will raise funding to build community owned or controlled solar projects that are accessible to low-income communities and communities of color.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
One America, Seattle, WA
$50,000 | 1 year
To build, in partnership with a core set of cross-sector allies, a long-term power-building strategy in Washington State grounded in a commitment to long-term organizing.
Line of work: Integrated Infrastructure
People’s Action Institute, Chicago, IL
$300,000 | 3 years
To support People’s Action Institute’s Climate Justice program; deepening organizing activities and running climate justice campaigns that center around the interest of working class people and communities of color.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
THE POINT Community Development Corporation, Bronx, NY
$300,000 | 3 years
To support The POINT’s continued implementation of the South Bronx Community Resiliency Agenda (SBCRA). The SBCRA seeks to build power among residents, stakeholders, business owners and decision-makers while advancing a comprehensive community-led environmental and social resiliency plan.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Rockefeller Family Fund, New York, NY
$75,000 | 1 year
To support the Just Transition Fund (JTF), a philanthropic pooled fund initiative housed at the Rockefeller Family Fund. The JTF supports frontline coalfield and power plant communities as they make a just transition away from coal.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
RSF Social Finance, San Francisco, CA
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support to strengthen RSF’s Food System Transformation Fund, which is dedicated to financing the development of regional food systems.
Line of work: Regional Food Supply
The Solutions Project, Oakland, CA
$450,000 | 3 years
To support the Solutions Project’s continued efforts to strengthen the ecosystem of clean energy advocates and to provide direct, rapid response grants to frontline leaders in key movement moments through the Fighter Fund.
Line of work: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
Southeast African American Farmers’ Organic Network, Sonoma, CA
$125,000 | 2 years
To support the general capacity building and organizational infrastructure necessary to grow the production capacity of the Southeast African American Farmers’ Organic Network and to provide training that enhances the knowledge of individual members.
Line of work: Regional Food Supply
Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education, Inc., Albany, GA
$225,000 | 3 years
To improve the capacity of under-served farmers to strengthen value chain linkages by providing training, education and increasing opportunities.
Line of work: Regional Food Supply
STAR Communities, Portland, OR
$75,000 | 1 year
To support the STAR Communities’ national sustainability rating system that improves sustainability conditions in U.S. cities and counties.
Line of work: Integrated Infrastructure
Sustainable Jersey A NJ Nonprofit Corporation, Lawrenceville, NJ
$280,000 | 2 years
To support Sustainable Jersey (SJ) to build sustainable and equitable communities by deploying data tracking systems that measure impacts to guide the development of emergent best practices.
Line of work: Integrated Infrastructure
Transportation for America, Washington, DC
$250,000 | 1 year
To enhance Transportation for America’s efforts to build capacity at the local level to advance more sustainable and equitable transportation policies and to drive policy change at the local, state, and federal levels.
Line of work: Transportation Networks and Equitable Development Patterns
Winrock International, Little Rock, AR
$150,000 | 1 year
To support the Wallace Center’s creation of equitable, economically viable community-based food systems through a Community of Practice in concert with USDA’s Food LINC Initiative, and to raise awareness of this work among stakeholders.
Line of work: Regional Food Supply
Thriving Cultures
Alliance for California Traditional Arts, Fresno, CA
$200,000 | 2 years
To support Alliance for California Traditional Arts’ Living Cultures Grants Program, which provides grants to small and mid-sized organizations to sustain communities that foster traditional arts transmission, engagement, and sustainability in California. (2 years)
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, San Francisco, CA
$75,000 | 1 year
To provide scholarship assistance to low-income students of color in LINES Ballet Summer Program.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
ArtsEmerson, Boston, MA
$50,000 | 2 years
To support Community Curators, a program that engages Boston curators to envision and produce events in ArtsEmerson’s downtown spaces.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Asian American Writers’ Workshop, New York, NY
$200,000 | 2 years
To support three projects to incubate excellent artists of Asian American, immigrant, and Muslim descent and to engage communities of color with aesthetically rigorous cultural practice: 1) an online magazine, The Margins, and the Margins Fellowship; 2) an online editorial initiative, Open City, and the Open City Fellowships for immigrants and Muslim writers; and 3) a new prize in which Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Simon & Schuster will publish the first novel by an Asian American writer anywhere in the U.S.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Association for Community Design, Norfolk, VA
$150,000 | 2 years
To support the research on racial justice and social equity in community-engaged design practice, with the goal of building the capacity of design professionals to use their work to fight systemic racism and refine practices in designing for equitable outcomes in the built environment.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
AXIS Dance Company, Oakland, CA
$150,000 | 2 years
General operating support for AXIS Dance Company’s artistic, engagement, and advocacy programming that will increase visibility, inclusion, and equity for people with disabilities in dance.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, Dallas, TX
$25,000 | 6 months
To support the Association for Community Design’s 40th annual conference and the affiliated Racial Justice + Design Summit.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Center for Cultural Innovation, Los Angeles, CA
$100,000 | 1 year
To support the Center for Cultural Innovation as it develops strategies to advance the recommendations of its 2016 report, Creativity Connects: Trends and Conditions Affecting U.S. Artists.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Clinton Community Christian Corporation, Clinton, MS
$80,000 | 1 year
To support programming and design processes to inform the development of the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, a cultural center that celebrates the agricultural and cultural products of Mississippi.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Deep Center, Savannah, GA
$50,000 | 1 year
To support Deep Center’s River Writes project within the Block by Block program to engage community, artists, and adult and youth writers in documenting, celebrating, and advocating for Savannah’s long-oppressed and rapidly disappearing Gullah-Geechee coastal communities.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Designing Justice Designing Spaces, Oakland, CA
$300,000 | 3 years
To support the Concept Development Fund at Designing Justice Designing Spaces (DJDS), which will provide research and development capital to support the design of new processes, building types, tools, spaces, and financial models that are of high impact to DJDS’s restorative justice/economics partners and clients. (3 years)
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Enterprise Center,Philadelphia, PA
$200,000 | 1 year
To support the Enterprise Center’s Philly Foods Innovation Marketplace efforts to create $1M in opportunities and contracts for culinary artists and small business owners in Philadelphia’s food industry.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Foundation for Louisiana Baton Rouge, LA
$200,000 | 1 year
To support Phase I of the Claiborne Corridor Cultural Innovation District in New Orleans, a project that seeks to reclaim underutilized space for community economic development, cultural preservation, and recreation uses along a corridor that has shouldered the effects of disinvestment and inequitable development practices.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy, Inc., Brooklyn, NY
$300,000 | 3 years
To support the Youth Ensemble and the Rights of Passage programs for youth of African descent.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Junebug Productions, Inc., New Orleans, LA
$150,000 | 2 years
To support Junebug Productions’ focus on: 1) producing projects/events and deepening relationships in the Treme neighborhood as Junebug Productions transitions to new space at the Bell School ArtSpace; and 2) restructuring the staffing of the organization.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Kiva MicroFunds, San Francisco, CA
$100,000 | 1 year
To continue Kiva’s work in connecting and supporting traditionally underserved small business owners in the arts and culture sector with Kiva’s crowdfunded, 0%-interest capital, made available on its web-based platform, Kiva.org.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Kounkuey Design Initiative, Los Angeles, CA
$350,000 | 3 years
General operating support.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, MN
$75,000 | 2 years
To support the Loft Literary Center’s artists’ programs.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Community Innovators Lab, Cambridge, MA
$225,000 | 27 months
To bring together the planning and design disciplines to create a suite of aesthetic tools to support community organizing and advocacy efforts around displacement and gentrification in Boston and the Bronx.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Neighborhood Story Project, New Orleans, LA
$225,000 | 3 years
To create an equitable model for the publishing of collaborative ethnographies that not only tell the stories of art, music, ritual, and activism in New Orleans, but also help reweave the fabric of communities.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
Penumbra Theatre Company, Saint Paul, MN
$300,000 | 3 years
To support the Summer Institute, Penumbra Theatre Company’s artistic and leadership training program for teens.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
REBUILD, City of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
$450,000 | 3 years
To support planning and early implementation for community engagement and capacity building efforts for Rebuilding Community Infrastructure, a $500 million program to revitalize neighborhood parks, recreation centers, and libraries in Philadelphia.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Roots of Music, Inc., New Orleans, LA
$150,000 | 3 years
To provide general operating support for Roots of Music to provide free, year-round, after-school music education and mentoring to students from low-income households throughout New Orleans.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Soulsville Foundation, Memphis, TN
$100,000 | 2 years
To support the Stax Music Academy’s SNAP! Afterschool Senior Academy Program, serving students ages 13-18.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Springboard for the Arts, Saint Paul, MN
$750,000 | 3 years
To develop a new set of programs and tools that increase economic opportunities for artist-run businesses.
Line of work: Artists and Economic Development
University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning, Albuquerque, NM
$225,000 | 3 years
General operating support for the Indigenous Design and Planning Institute.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
University of Virginia Institute for Environmental Negotiation, Charlottesville, VA
$125,000 | 2 years
To develop a social impact study template for housing (re)development that is holistic; grounded in evidence-based research; participatory and equity-focused; and actionable by a variety of key decision makers.
Line of work: Community Engaged Design
Urban Word NYC, New York, NY
$225,000 | 3 years
To support the National Youth Poet Laureate, the only program of its kind that celebrates the intersection of artistic achievement and social justice. Urban Word will expand the program to 50+ cities and enhance the curriculum.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Working Classroom, Albuquerque, NM
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Line of work: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
$150,000 | 2 years
To support The Creative Ecosystem, a cultural incubator for community-driven and artist-led change.
Line of work: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Capacity and Infrastructure
Alliance for Justice, Washington, DC
$100,000 | 2 years
To support Alliance for Justice’s general operations, including its Bolder Advocacy and Justice programs.
Council on Foundations, Arlington, VA
$10,000 | 1 year
To support the Council on Foundations’ Human Resources Summit: Achieving Equity in the Workplace that will take place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from August 16-17, 2017.
Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Washington, DC
$75,000 | 1 year
General operating support.
Flexible Grantmaking Fund
Living Cities, New York, NY
$1,500,000 | 3 years
General operating support for the next round of Living Cities’ work. Over the next three years, Living Cities will work with its members, partners, and sites to build an economic opportunity roadmap that city leaders can use as a blueprint for building an inclusive economy.
Mijente, Phoenix, AZ
$40,000 | 1 year
To strengthen Mijente’s base-building and technical assistance support to local partners.
Vera Institute of Justice, New York, NY
$105,000 | 1 year
To support Vera Institute’s Immigrant Representation Network, a network of cities and groups providing legal representation for people facing detention and deportation.