Monique Couvson was at Columbia University working on her master’s thesis on residential juvenile correctional facilities when her interactions with the young people in those centers led her to a realization: “Education is the foundation for everything.”

“When I walked into that juvenile detention center and I met with the girls that were there, I realized that there was very little difference between me and them, and the critical difference between us was that I had education and I had other tools to express my discontent,” says Couvson, now the president and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC), a philanthropic intermediary that invests in the leadership of girls and gender-expansive youth of color.

Couvson, 52, has three decades under her belt as a scholar and criminal-justice advocate dedicated to studying and countering the criminalization of Black girls in schools, and she works with what she calls a “participatory worldview.” What that means, she explains, is trying to center the views and desires of the communities she works for. For instance, through speaking to young people of color, she learned that while many of the young leaders she was working with did identify as girls, many identified as gender expansive.

“Here was a fluidity to gender that we felt was important for our organization to represent and to reflect,” Couvson says. “I would hope that any philanthropic body or any other organization would also seek to be a learning institution, because there’s power in knowing and there’s power in bringing in a collective way to explore very complex issues.”

In just four years with G4GC, Couvson has helped convene 100 funders from the U.S., moved more than $26 million to 400 organizations, and developed four signature funds–the Black Girl Freedom Fund, the New Songs Rising Initiative for indigenous girls, the Holding a Sister Initiative for trans girls of color, and the Love Is Healing Fund–and she co-founded the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign.

“It’s about our young people being able to step into that leadership and in those capacities on their own, not in a tokenized way, not in a way that is exploitative or extractive, but in a way that honors their brilliance and leans into means to trust them and their wisdom in this very critical moment that impacts their lived experiences,” she says.

In 2014, Couvson founded the National Black Women’s Justice Institute, which works to interrupt school-to-confinement pathways for girls and reduce the barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated women. She noticed that no institution was dedicated to examining data specifically about how Black girls and women are experiencing the carceral system and how they might experience justice. “So I founded it,” she says.

But she knows organizations alone are not the answer. So over the years, her work has taken many forms: public speaking, documentary film, a novel, a graphic novel, a book of statistics, a nonfiction book. She loves when students and fans don’t just experience her work—like Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools or Charisma’s Turn, a fictional account of a Black high school student navigating school and family life—but respond to it.

“My favorite thing is when people come to see me at a book talk or at a lecture and their pages of Pushout are scratched up [with] ears on the page, and they mark it up, and they’re working with it, and they have questions in the margins,” Couvson says

Her goal, she says, is to reach diverse audiences about the conditions of society that uniquely affect Black girls. “I believe that in order for us to be transformative, in order for us to really move the public consciousness to the place where they begin to understand some of these really big concepts that are sometimes very academic and divorced from how people actually talk, you have to talk to multiple people at once,” she says. “You can’t just talk to policymakers or just talk to law enforcement, you have to also talk to the community.”

Correction, February 6

The original version of this article misidentified one of G4GC’s four signature funds; #1Billion4BlackGirls is a campaign, not a fund, and the Love Is Healing Fund was omitted.

TIME’s ‘The Closers’ magazine issue hit newsstands in print on Friday, February 14. You can read the full article HERE.
See other awardee’s of TIME’s 2025 Closers HERE.

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I still remember the day I met Tina Turner at Tower Records as a 5-year-old Black girl. She filled the room with her lovely laugh, big smile and even bigger energy. It was exhilarating to see her, a Black woman artist owning the entire store. I was in awe of the presence of this powerful  example of a Black woman artist.

As I got older and my world became bigger, I grew to even more deeply appreciate the power of Black artists and innovators, and what they offer to Black people living in a world that is not built for us. This is why I now work to move institutions and donors to invest into the artistic visions, innovation, health, safety, research, brain trust, and joy of Black girls and gender-expansive youth. Black Girl Freedom Fund, an initiative of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, is one example of that work. In addition to mobilizing investments, BGFF and #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign co-hosts the Black Girl Freedom Week, a weeklong space where Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth across the country can see themselves and be celebrated.

The theme of this year’s series of events centers the artistic vision, activism and innovation of Black girls and gender expansive youth. From February 13 to February 19, we will gather virtually to spotlight Black women, girls and gender-expansive youth, including award winning director, writer, and producer Gina Prince-Bythewood, who most recently directed the blockbuster hit “The Woman King”, and Leila Mottley, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Oprah’s Book Club pick, and Booker Prize nominee debut novel “Nightcrawler.” 

These luminaries not only light the way for the next generation of Black artists and innovators, they are the cultural influencers who help us see the full embodiment of Black girls’ and Black people’s lives, beyond tropes of tragedy and sadness, to include the infinite possibilities that await them and the liberated futures they are creating. They help shift the narrative and change hearts and minds about Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth, who are essential to achieving a more just world. Yet, we know that Black girls, femmes and gender-expansive youth are the least seen, recognized, or invested in. Research shows that less than $15 million, about 4.2%, of philanthropic giving was specified as benefitting Black women and girls in 2017, the most recent figures available. Black women and girls received $17,000 less in grant support compared to a median of $35,000 for all foundation grants. 

The Black Girl Freedom Fund and the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign aim to change that. Since 2021, the Black Girl Freedom Fund has invested more than $7 million into over 80 organizations across the United States. From cultivating educational opportunities in STEM, to deep healing, leadership development, and beyond, the work our grantee partners are doing is not just changing the lives of Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth — they are fundamentally changing how others understand the role of Black girls in our communities and the world. 

The #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign is the first-of-its-kind movement to mobilize a $1 billion dollar investment in Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth. The eight co-founders of the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign drive the strategic direction and priorities of the campaign, and they continue to advocate for investment in Black girls and gender-expansive youth through each of their respective organizations and personal advocacy work.

“The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible,” goes the saying from legendary cultural and community worker Toni Cade Bambara. We know that art, culture, innovation, and ingenuity are integral parts of a continuum of social justice, advocacy, and healing. We get to invest in our Black girl, femme and gender expansive creators because they deserve it. They are the light of possibility that is so necessary in these turbulent times. 

Cidra M. Sebastien is the Fund Manager of the Black Girl Freedom Fund, an initiative of Grantmakers for Girls of Color. The organization is a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Sebastien is an auntie, educator, youth advocate, and runner. To learn more and donate, click here.

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Trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color deserve to be safe, free, and thriving.

But today, trans and gender-expansive communities are facing multiple, interlocking systems of oppression. Across cities and states, trans communities are under attack from anti-trans legislation that aims to direct physical, psychological, and spiritual violence in homes, schools, facilities, and communities. This includes legislation that specifically targets youth, as well as trans folks who are Black or come from other communities of Color.

In 2022 alone, there have been more than 100 bills introduced in state legislatures across the country targeting young trans people. Beyond political targeting and systemic discrimination, too many young people coming into their trans and queer identity find themselves on the streets compared to their cisgender counterparts.

One year ago, Grantmakers for Girls of Color and the Black Trans Fund, incubated at Groundswell Fund, created the Holding a Sister Initiative, the first national fund explicitly dedicated to resourcing and uplifting trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color. We created this necessary space for cis and trans girls of Color to build solidarity and community with one another. To date we have invested $2 million in more than 20 organizations serving, and led by, trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color through this initiative alone.

Our incredible grantees work everyday to ensure that trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color have access to gender-affirming care, which includes hormone replacement therapy, mental health support, as well as affirming clothing and spaces, all of which serve as healing tools. They work to ensure trans youth can meet their basic survival needs including help with securing short- and long-term housing, food, and other necessities. Our grantees do the important work to shift and dismantle the systems that continue to perpetuate violence on trans youth of Color. They are engaged in work to advance research, respite and healing, activism towards liberation, policy work, and –most importantly– joy, play, and power.

This is why the Holding a Sister Initiative was created: to resource places to heal, find joy, and to co-create a world in which trans girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of Color thrive. Through our work of deep listening and relationship building with our grantee partners, we affirmed two critical and primary needs we need to fulfill to achieve this goal.

First, we need to create and hold dedicated spaces for our trans girls and gender-expansive loved ones to heal from the layers of trauma they have accumulated throughout their lives. Second, trans girls and gender-expansive youth need to feel safe in their own bodies and in all aspects of their lives. They need connection among one another so they can build a community of care, affirm their own humanity, advocate for themselves and their rights, and have access to opportunities for growth and development. They need their own spaces to celebrate their authentic and unapologetic selves.

Trans people deserve to exist as the artists, healers, visionaries, caregivers, and builders that they are and have always been. When we look back to history, trans people were held up as divine keepers of deep knowledge that exists beyond masculinity and femininity. In Native culture, two-spirit identity was widely believed to be the result of supernatural visions or dreams. In many Native Nations, two spirit people filled special religious roles as healers, shamans, and ceremonial leaders. And in the Hijra community in South Asia, they are considered to be a third gender and have been revered throughout history.

Trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color are their own examples of people leading successful, happy, loving lives. They have a depth of knowledge and wisdom that we can all benefit from, if only we let them. By centering the leadership of Black trans women and girls, we can secure all of our safety and vitality.

As funders, those of us who support racial and social justice must also resource our trans, femme, and gender-expansive youth of Color siblings, niblings, and cousins.

Philanthropic organizations and leaders can invest deeply into and partner with existing funds and foundations created by and for trans people, especially those led by and serving Black trans and other trans people of Color. They can invest in queer and trans led intermediaries and philanthropic serving organizations like the Black Trans Fund, Third Wave Fund, Funders for LGBTQ issues, Fund for Trans Generations, and our own Holding a Sister Initiative. They can take the GUTC pledge and begin the journey to meaningfully increase and track their investments in trans communities, and ensure that trans girls of Color are included in those investments. Finally, they can help influence their philanthropic colleagues to follow their example of centering trans communities.

As we commemorate this year’s Trans Week of Awareness and Trans Day of Remembrance, let us memorialize our Black and Brown trans femmes and folks. Let us keep creating and expanding space for trans joy, and working towards a world where trans girls and gender-expansive youth of Color are robustly invested in – and loved.

Dr. Monique Couvson (formerly Dr. Monique W. Morris)
Dr. Couvson is an author and social justice scholar whose work has been profiled by Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, MSNBC, CSPAN2, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and PBS, among other national and local print, radio, and television media. Dr. Couvson is the President and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color, the nation’s only philanthropic intermediary explicitly focused on resourcing movements and organizations led by, and in support of, cis and trans girls and femmes of color. Her research and practice intersects race, gender, education and justice to explore the ways in which Black communities, and other communities of Color, are uniquely affected by social policies.

Nahr Suha
Nahr Suha (they/she) is a Black environmentalist and advocate for trans & gender-expansive youth. They manage the Holding a Sister Fund Initiative at Grantmakers for Girls of Color.

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Black women and girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth of color deserve abundant investments in supporting our liberated futures. Tragically, philanthropy has always underfunded us.

In 2018, just $15 million out of almost $428 billion in philanthropic giving in the United States reached Black women and girls. That means less than 1 percent goes toward supporting the voices, visions, and experiences necessary for the liberation of Black girls and all people. The lack of funding in the Global South is even more dire: Funding for Black women, girls, and trans people constitutes roughly 5 percent of funding designated for human rights efforts—both in dollars and number of grants.

In the past two years, a growing movement of Black women leaders have been working to transform this inequality. In September 2020, we partnered with a collective of other outstanding Black women leaders to launch the #1Billion4BlackGirls campaign. Our goal was to mobilize robust investment in Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth’s leadership, genius, wellness, power, and capacity to thrive. The campaign was launched on the anniversary of the racist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four Black girls—Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley–and wounded another, Sarah Collins.

Black girls and young women must play a central role in discussions about discrimination in education, health care, sexual assault, and policing. Yet, our stories are notably absent from public narratives, policies, and justice movements most crucial to addressing inequality and racial trauma. A bold call for investing $1 billion over 10 years in organizations and movements focused on supporting the liberated futures of Black girls, femmes, and gender-expansive youth shows us the way forward.

The $1 billion goal is not only achievable; it is also an intelligent and essential investment. We established two signature funds—the Black Girl Freedom Fund and the Black Feminist Fund—that have demonstrated how investments in Black girls and gender-expansive people not only remains an urgent need, but produce direct and residual outcomes for others in their homes and neighborhoods. This return on investment makes these funds essential agents for community economic development, and we know that Black women and girls are worthy of investment even without such evidence.

In the two years since we launched those funds, other essential initiatives centering Black women and girls have emerged and/or expanded, including the Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium’s Black Girl Dream Fund, the Children’s Rights Innovation Fund, and the Black Women and Girls Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation. Together, we have invested millions more into the brain trust, innovation, health, safety, education, artistic visions, research, and joy of Black women, girls, and their families.

While we celebrate this milestone and the necessary gains, we must keep this momentum going.

The same energy that led organizations in the philanthropic, public, and private sectors to pledge significant investments—more than $4 billion—toward racial justice efforts in recent years should also drive decisions to invest in Black women, girls, and femmes in this moment. Now is the time to fulfill those unmet commitments. Philanthropic efforts that lack an intersectional analysis, and those that deprioritize funding racial justice efforts at the intersections of our communities’ identities, contribute to the harmful narrative that Black girls and femmes do not require investment. This lack of intersectional analysis will only undermine efforts to grow funds that resource young people whose experiences are often the result of compounded traumas associated with race, gender, sexuality, and age.

Philanthropists who care about racial justice must realize that people who are closest to the problem must be part of the solution. Black women are political, social, and cultural leaders. We are power players shaping our country today despite being grossly underfunded, under-resourced and underestimated. We must keep giving abundantly to this community because we know that all social justice efforts benefit when we place value in Black girls’ and women’s lives and leadership. And we must center Black women-led funds.

Imagine what 2030 will look like if there is a significant investment in the lives and livelihood of Black girls and women’s leadership, innovation, wellness, and advocacy. We will be closer to our vision of collective freedom and liberation.

Dr. Monique Couvson is president and CEO of Grantmakers for Girls of Color. Tynesha McHarris is founder and principal at Black Harvest and co-founder of Black Feminist Fund.

Originally published in philanthropynewsdigest.org

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