We are thrilled to announce our first round of grantees for Black Girl Freedom Fund (BGFF) and to extend gratitude to the youth who invested time, wisdom, and love to make the selections!
The #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign and The Black Girl Freedom Fund were launched in September 2020 in order to resource the braintrust, innovation, health, safety, education, artistic visions, research, and joy of Black girls, gender-expansive youth and their families. Black Girl Freedom Fund (BGFF), the largest initiative of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, is thrilled to announce our inaugural round of grantmaking since the fund’s launch.
BGFF supports work that centers and advances the well-being and joy of Black girls, gender-expansive youth and their families, advocates for Black women’s equal pay, and advances the power of Black girls through organizing, asset mapping, legal advocacy, and narrative work aimed at eradicating structural violence impacting Black girls and Black gender-expansive youth.
This spring, our first cohort of BGFF Youth Advisory Committee members came together to define what wellness and safety means to them, to share their wisdom to better serve Black girls and gender-expansive youth in philanthropy, and to co-create our vetting process for funding.
Most importantly, they served as the final decision makers for this inaugural round. The six grant recipients are organizations that the youth agreed truly center the wellness and safety of Black girls and Black gender-expansive youth.
The six organizations that were selected to receive grants are:
- The F.I.N.D. Design (Nashville, TN)
- Get Smart B4U Get Sexy (California)
- Healing the Black Body (National)
- The Hive Community Circle (South Carolina)
- Pretty Brown Girl (National)
- 3D Girls (Atlanta, GA)
We are filled with joy to celebrate these incredible organizations! We chose to root this first round of grants in the wellness and safety of Black girls and gender-expansive youth because they have told us time and again that freedom work must be rooted in healing, and that it begins with listening to them, recognizing their wisdom, protecting them without diminishing them, and prioritizing their total wellness so they can show up as their true selves.
“We affirm that Black girls are sacred, and are deserving of love and abundant resources to heal, grow, and thrive,” says Dr. Monique W. Morris, President and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, and cofounder of #1Billion4BlackGirls. “Black girls present some of the boldest, wisest, most creative articulations of justice in our society. We’ll all benefit when we listen to their experience and needs, and fund their solutions.”
We are grateful to each of our donors for answering the call to co-invest with the Black Girl Freedom Fund into the lives of Black girls, gender-expansive youth and their families.
This summer, we will reflect on our decision making process and the work of the first BGFF Youth Advisory Committee as we prepare to launch our next round of grantmaking. Future rounds will include an open application process for organizations that are committed to centering and elevating the brain trust, innovation, health, safety, education, artistic visions, research, and joy of Black girls, Black gender-expansive youth and their families. We invite you to stay connected with us via our social media, website, or email us at [email protected].
Take good care,
Cidra M. Sebastien
Manager, Black Girl Freedom Fund