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Amalgamated Foundation’s commitment to racial justice and frontline workers

June 12, 2020
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Amalgamated Foundation

We are sharing two important messages about the work of the Amalgamated Foundation today.

First, the Foundation released today the first round of donations through Frontline Workers Fund totaling $85,000. The Frontline Workers Fund was started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with a $50k commitment from the Foundation and Bank, to address needs of essential workers serving communities across the country. The Fund targeted support to nonprofits supporting workers in the labor movement and beyond, to meet immediate needs. More than 35% of the resources to date have gone to partnerships with central labor councils. We also recognize that a majority of the “new” essential workers are People of Color, immigrants and women, and that COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on the black community in particular. More than 60% of the resources went to directly supporting those workers and communities.

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Frontline Workers Fund and supported the needs of essential workers.

The list of Frontline Worker Fund grantees includes:

While we are excited to announce this docket of grants, the movement moment sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, is calling all of us to consider what more we can do to address the legacy and ongoing systems of racism, including within the financial system. Therefore, we are compelled to seek ways to be more explicit and redouble our efforts.

Foundation Giving: Most financial institutions focus their giving on mainstream cultural institutions that are historically white-centered, or financial literacy which does not address root causes of the racial wealth gap. Since the launch of the Amalgamated Foundation grantmaking strategy in 2019, more than 75% of our grantmaking has gone to efforts led by Black, Indigenous and People of Color, to address systemic economic and political inequities. Going forward, we will be looking to reinforce racial justice as a core principal of our overall approach to power-building and collective action.

This moment is a catalyst for change. Amalgamated Foundation is committed to mobilizing resources for racial justice. In addition to our own direct grantmaking work, we are proud to facilitate the work of the Emergent Fund – which supports BIPOC-led organizing groups; The Emergency Fund For Racial Justice in partnership with Color of Change; Truth Fund; Equis Institute; Return to the Heart and the Native COVID-19 Action Fund; Families and Workers Fund; among others.