Surdna Foundation Announces $3.16 Million in Grants
During the period of October-December 2017, 20 grants totaling $3,160,000 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
American Sustainable Business Institute, Washington, DC
$185,000 | 1 year
General operating support for: 1) the American Sustainable Business Institute to advance High Road Business practices such as new labor standards, worker ownership, and sustainable procurement; and 2) the Business for a Fair Minimum Wage’s work to raise minimum wages at the federal level and in specific states.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, Oakland, CA
$75,000 | 1 year
General operating support.
Category: Equitable Economic Development
Greater Milwaukee Committee for Community Development, Milwaukee, WI
$175,000 | 18 months
To support Stay Up, a program that increases wealth, access to capital, revenue growth, and hiring capacity for business owners of color in Milwaukee by providing the tools and knowledge to advance ambitious business growth.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Inner City Advisors, Oakland, CA
$150,000 | 1 year
To build out and test the Good Employer Matrix, an online assessment and underwriting tool to evaluate small business job quality and the mission impact of capital investments.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Metropolitan Economic Development Association, Minneapolis, MN
$175,000 | 1 year
To accelerate the formation and growth of Black-owned businesses by scaling a group of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) specializing in small business credit.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, Washington, DC
$105,000 | 1 year
To support research that will examine the current entrepreneurial ecosystem from the investor lens and look at pipeline, sources of funding, deal terms and potential exit strategies.
Category: Business Development and Acceleration
Sustainable Environments New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Brooklyn, NY
$450,000 | 3 years
General operating support for the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance’s suite of citywide, statewide and regional climate justice research, advocacy, and organizing campaigns.
Category: Just Energy: Shifting Power to People
New York Foundation, New York, NY
$150,000 | 1 year
To support the Neighborhood First Fund, a philanthropic collaborative designed to help low-wealth communities and communities of color lead equitable development initiatives.
Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs, Calabasas, CA
$75,000 | 1 year
To support the Building Equity and Alignment Initiative (BEAI) in hosting a Just Transition forum to find alignment and build strategy across the grassroots, large environmental organizations, labor and philanthropy. Category: Integrated Infrastructure
Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, Los Angeles, CA
$250,000 | 2 years
To build community support for water infrastructure projects and public financing mechanisms in Los Angeles that advance water resilience while creating good jobs and multiple environmental and social benefits for low-wealth communities most impacted by poverty and pollution.
Category: Urban Water Management
Thriving Cultures
CGDCNY, Inc, Yonkers, NY
$150,000 | 3 years
General operating support.
Category: Community Engaged Design
Design Futures, Brooklyn, NY
$100,000 | 2 years
To support Design Futures’ programmatic and field-building activities serving future and current practitioners in the field of community-engaged design.
Category: Community Engaged Design
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
$190,000 | 2 years
To support the Institute of Contemporary Art’s out-of-school Teens Program.
Category: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Paper Monuments, New Orleans, LA
$90,000 | 1 year
To support Paper Monuments, a project designed to elevate the voices of the people of New Orleans.
Category: Artists Engaging in Social Change
Queens Council on the Arts, Astoria, NY
$80,000 | 2 years
To support the Queens Council on the Arts’ High School to Art School portfolio-development program, which offers free college-preparatory visual-arts and life-skills training to low-wealth students in New York City.
Category: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
SAY Si (San Antonio Youth Yes!), San Antonio, TX
$150,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Category: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Urbano Project, Inc., Boston, MA
$100,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Category: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
$200,000 | 2 years
To support CultureBank, a new model for mobilizing community cultural assets, to aid artist entrepreneurs and their enterprises in ways that achieve high impact solutions to difficult social and economic problems.Category: Artists and Economic Development
Zaccho Dance Theatre, San Francisco, CA
$160,000 | 2 years
General operating support.
Category: Teens’ Artistic and Cultural Advancement
Flexible Grantmaking Fund
Center for Community Investment, Washington, DC
$150,000 | 1 year
General operating support for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy’s new initiative, Center for Community Investment (CCI), which is devoted to strengthening the ability of disadvantaged communities to achieve their economic, social and environmental priorities through finance and systems change.