Radical Connection: Building our Multiracial Democracy
In December of 2020, amid masks, fear, and social distancing, Deborah Scott and her team of organizers and leaders based in Atlanta were out knocking on doors, fighting for our democracy.
For months, they had been talking to their neighbors, educating and motivating people to exercise their right to vote at a crucial moment for Georgia and for the country. Deborah told the New York Times during that time, that when she first founded Georgia STAND-UP in 2004 as a ‘think and act tank’ for working communities, it was hard to persuade donors and foundations that focus on grassroots organizing to take investing in Georgia seriously.
Deborah Scott of Georgia STAND-UP (image: New York Times, 2020)
The Veatch Program stepped up a few years later to become one of Georgia STAND-UP’s earliest core funders. Today, Deborah reflects “Georgia STAND-UP is not just an organization, it’s a movement” that is “reshaping Georgia and the American South” based in “one of the most economically unequal cities in America.”
From the Movement Center it has created in Atlanta, Georgia STAND-UP now serves as a grassroots hub for hope, possibility, and action. It supports community coalitions determined to expand Medicaid and to make housing affordable. In partnership with organized labor, it is equipping young leaders with trade skills, and the ability to demand fair wages and benefits.
In 2023, Veatch grantees throughout the country, including here in New York State and on Long Island, continued to lead the hard work of building our multiracial democracy. As they cultivate the full participation that democracy requires in order to endure, Veatch grantees are bringing people together every day. They are forging connections across differences as they address the issues of our times.
Veatch grantees are confronting another epidemic recently named by the U.S. Surgeon General – that of loneliness and isolation. Recognizing the many shifts in institutional life, Dr. Vivek Murthy has urgently proposed “a national framework to rebuild social connection and community in America.”
Through organizing and serving as resource hubs, Veatch grantees are on it. In communities throughout the country, grantees are leveraging long-term, unrestricted support from Veatch to forge community-led spaces for political education, voter engagement, skills training, culture, and care – all to be sustained across generations.
In rural America, as divisive politics pulse above the radar, our grantees are building community. CAPACES, based in rural Oregon, raised funds locally to purchase 60 acres of organic farmland to expand a new initiative called the Anahuac Farm where Indigenous community peoples can reclaim their ancestral culture, traditions, knowledge, values, and restore balance with nature.
In another example in Oregon, as white nationalism continues to threaten the region, the Rural Organizing Project is connecting its members across vast geographic areas to combat hate. It is reaching people through its community radio stations in rural communities and reviving Rural Roots Rising, a podcast highlighting organizing victories nationwide.
In Brooklyn, VOCAL-NY’s community-center for “justice, compassion, and love” is welcoming people confronting addiction to access needed support. This sustains its statewide organizing with people directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, mass incarceration, homelessness, and the drug war.
Vocal-NY Staff and Members
And right here on Long Island, our newest New York-based grantee, SEPA Mujer, is training vulnerable Latina immigrant and Indigenous women to move ‘from victim to survivor to leader’ from the safety of its community center in Patchogue.
This is the power of long-term support for social justice organizing. Throughout the country, the impact of the Congregation’s commitment to putting UU values into action through Veatch is helping diverse communities to change hearts and minds, while protecting and expanding rights and dignity.
In this 2023 Annual Report to UUCSR members, you can read about the many organizations the Veatch Program funds and see a chart of how funds were distributed among our program areas. Within each of these organizations are the stories of everyday people showing up for their communities and combating isolation. They demonstrate how a functioning multiracial democracy is one in which we all have a role and can all thrive, together.
Members of SEPA Mujer
We invite you to take a moment to be uplifted and inspired by these brief snapshots. For the latest news and stories about Veatch grantees, please be sure to visit the Veatch Blog here, throughout the year ahead.
Finally, we hope you will join us on Veatch Sunday, January 28, 2024 to meet and hear from our featured grantee speaker, Deborah Scott, CEO of Georgia STAND-UP, who will speak from the pulpit. We will also welcome Rosemary Rivera, Executive Director of the Public Policy and Education Fund, a New York statewide organization, to our Annual Meeting at 1pm. You can learn more about Veatch Sunday here.
Radical connection means putting UU values into action. Veatch grantees are activating their rights in a multiracial democracy to be connected to one another, to live with joy, and to be free.
Every UUCSR member is a part of this legacy.
Toward Justice,
Diane Cohen
Chair, Veatch Board of Governors
Joan Minieri
Executive Director
Unitarian Universalism
Church of the Larger Fellowship $45,000 — To build a global spiritual community in which Unitarian Universalist faith is grounded in a quest for meaning, a commitment to justice and equality, and daily practice of empathy and compassion.
Community Funds, Inc. for Long Island UU Fund $410,000 — To foster social, economic, environmental, and political justice on Long Island via a Unitarian Universalist regranting program.
Faith in Public Life $50,000 — To promote faith in the public square as a force for justice.
InterValley Project $40,000 — To support a regional network in New England that consists of several affiliated organizations comprised of 125 labor union locals, community groups, and faith-based organizations.
Long Island Area Council of Unitarian Universalist Societies, Inc. for Student Activity Fund $40,000 — To encourage Unitarian Universalist high school seniors and college-age young people to become more aware of social and economic problems confronting society through work with nonprofit organizations.
Meadville Lombard Theological School for the Fahs Collaborative $75,000 — To forge educational pathways that spark the human spirit by creating a laboratory for leaders in faith education to experiment and for congregations to engage in programs that expand human potential for deeper learning, justice, and inclusion.
Public Religion Research Institute $50,000 — To conduct high-quality public opinion surveys and qualitative research on the intersection of religion, values, and public life in America, including the niche that Unitarian Universalism occupies.
Unitarian Universalist Association $975,000 — To support programs increasing denominational growth and furthering social justice.
Unitarian Universalist Association for Beacon Press $175,000 — To support an independent publisher of books that reflect Unitarian Universalist principles and promote social change.
Unitarian Universalist Association for the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program $1,418,000 — To support the grantmaking and administrative needs of the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program.
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee $850,000 — To recommend matching funds for general operating support for FY24.
Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry $40,000 — To support an anchor Unitarian Universalist institution in its efforts to offer congregations a way to live out Unitarian Universalist values, to understand race and racism, and to take action in their own communities.
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee for the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice $75,000 — To increase the scope, quality, and durability of social justice engagement by Unitarian Universalists, both as individuals and as congregations.
Civil Rights & Sustainable Communities
Civil And Constitutional Rights
BYP100 Education Fund $40,000 — To provide flexible support for a youth-led network that dreams of a better life for Black people.
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights $50,000 — To organize domestic workers, day laborers, undocumented students, and immigrant families for an inclusive economy and humane immigration policies across California and nationally.
Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition $40,000 — To advance immigrant rights and improve the quality of life for immigrant families in Colorado.
Florida Immigrant Coalition $60,000 — To increase the ability of Florida’s immigrant communities to promote their civil rights and improve their living and working conditions.
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights $50,000 — To build electoral power in Black, immigrant, and refugee communities in Illinois by increasing the capacity of member leaders to participate fully in our democracy and economy.
New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice $50,000 — To build worker power for low-wage workers of color across southern Louisiana.
One Fair Wage, Inc. $60,000 — To support a national movement to eliminate subminimum wages and advance a living wage and better working conditions in the service sector.
OneAmerica $60,000 — To oppose arbitrary detention of immigrants and support immigrant rights in Washington State and at the national level.
Partnership for Safety and Justice $40,000 — To advocate for policies and approaches to crime and public safety issues that serve justice and equity and foster safe and healthy communities.
Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower and Rebuild $50,000 — To advance racial and economic justice by uniting people of multiple faiths and races under a set of shared justice principles in Pennsylvania.
Proteus Fund, Inc. for the RISE Together Fund $60,000 — To provide support to grassroots organizations in Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities throughout the country.
Southeast Immigrant Rights Network, Inc. $50,000 — To build regional power with immigrant organizations in the Southeast, where leaders can come together, fully engage as equal partners with allies and advocates, and determine the direction of immigrant rights work.
Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition $60,000 — To strengthen a statewide immigrant and refugee-led coalition to defend immigrant rights and organize for progressive reforms.
Transgender Law Center $50,000 — To defend and advance rights for transgender communities.
United We Dream Network $60,000 — To strengthen a national network that builds the power of undocumented youth to expand access to legal status, higher education, and protection from law enforcement harassment.
VOCAL-NY for VOCAL-KY $50,000 — To build healthy communities in Kentucky, expanding on the successful model of Veatch grantee VOCAL-NY, by building grassroots power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness.
Voces de la Frontera $60,000 — To defend civil liberties and organize immigrant workers and families in Wisconsin to win economic and social justice.
Environmental Justice
Asian Pacific Environmental Network $40,000 — To develop the leadership and power of low-income Asian Pacific Islanders in California.
Centro por la Justicia $40,000 — To support a multigenerational environmental and reproductive justice organization in Texas.
Common Counsel Foundation for Native Voices Rising $70,000 — To fund the Native Voices Rising fund, a research and regranting project that supports grassroots groups led by and for Native American communities.
Communities for a Better Environment $40,000 — To support organizing of low-income and people of color burdened by toxics in California.
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights $60,000 — To advance a vision of community safety grounded in restorative justice, economic empowerment, dignity, and a culture of care that moves away from incarceration and punishment by restoring community power and self-determination.
Environmental Health Coalition $45,000 — To achieve environmental justice in San Diego and Tijuana and build organizing alliances statewide.
Environmental Health Coalition for California Environmental Justice Alliance $45,000 — To strengthen the environmental justice movement in California.
Farmworker Association of Florida, Inc. $50,000 — To support Florida farmworkers in securing decent wages and healthy workplaces.
Forward Together $60,000 — To promote the health and well-being of women, girls, gender non-conforming individuals, and their families.
Tides Center for PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights) $40,000 — To support community-led resilience strategies at the intersection of environmental and economic justice.
Western Organization of Resource Councils Education Project $60,000 — To support organizing for environmental and economic justice in the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains region.
Economic Equity & Fairness
Economic Equity and Democracy
Center on Policy Initiatives $45,000 — To support the progressive movement for economic equity in the San Diego region.
Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy $50,000 — To promote economic and social justice organizing in the Central Coast region of California.
Community Labor United $40,000 — To advance public policies that promote quality jobs, affordable housing, and environmental justice.
East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy $45,000 — To build a faith-based, labor, and community movement for equity and accountable economic development in California’s East Bay region.
Georgia STAND-UP $60,000 — To promote civic engagement and regional economic justice through research, advocacy, and organizing.
Grassroots Global Justice $50,000 — To build a national grassroots movement for social, economic, gender, and climate justice.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement $60,000 — To organize rural and urban communities to challenge factory farming in the livestock industry.
Land Stewardship Project $60,000 — To support the revitalization of rural economies in Minnesota by challenging factory farms and supporting local and sustainable family farms.
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy $45,000 — To advance and promote accountable and equitable economic development in the Los Angeles area.
Missouri Rural Crisis Center $60,000 — To strengthen rural organizing in Missouri.
National Save the Family Farm Coalition $45,000 — To support a national network of family farm organizations to counter the power of corporate industrial agriculture and to push for federal policies that are positive for farmers, consumers, and the environment.
Neighborhood Funders Group for Labor Innovations for the 21st Century (LIFT) Fund $60,000 — To support innovative partnerships and worker organizing.
Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development $40,000 — To empower Orange County residents and workers to shape economic policies that affect their lives.
PowerSwitch Action $60,000 — To support a national federation of regional power-building organizations working on political, economic, and racial justice.
SCOPE $50,000 — To support an integrated program of grassroots organizing, alliance-building, and alternative policy development in California.
United for a New Economy $60,000 — To promote and protect the interests of working families in Colorado.
Working Partnerships USA $70,000 — To advance a people- and worker-led equitable and sustainable economy in Silicon Valley.
Worker Rights
Campaign for Migrant Worker Justice $60,000 — To obtain democratic rights, environmental protection, and a decent standard of living for farmworkers.
Central Florida Jobs with Justice $50,000 — To strengthen Florida’s progressive landscape by bringing together community groups and labor unions.
Coalition of Immokalee Workers $60,000 — To improve the wages and working conditions of Florida farmworkers.
Education & Training Institute, Inc. $60,000 — To build the collective power of and ensure a voice for low-wage workers in their workplaces and communities.
Jobs with Justice Education Fund $130,000 — To support a national network of labor, community, faith-based, and student groups committed to economic and social justice movement building.
Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance for CLEAN Carwash Campaign $40,000 — To organize a movement of carwash workers that raises the wages and improves the working conditions of this low-wage workforce.
Missouri Jobs with Justice $60,000 — To build a base of Missouri residents and workers capable of winning good wages and working conditions that protect disadvantaged residents.
National Day Laborer Organizing Network $80,000 — To support a network of day laborer organizing groups whose goal is to protect the rights of their members.
National Domestic Workers Alliance $75,000 — To strengthen the national domestic worker rights movement and promote policy change.
National Farm Worker Ministry $40,000 — To build religious and community support for farm workers organizing for economic justice efforts.
Nebraska Appleseed $60,000 — To support grassroots organizing in rural Nebraska that advances state, local, and federal progressive reforms of economic inclusion, family stability, and justice.
NEO Philanthropy for National Black Worker Center Project $60,000 — To use research, leadership development, technical assistance, and strategic communications to challenge systemic racism and anti-Blackness in the economy.
Portland Jobs with Justice Education Fund $55,000 — To support a coalition of labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations fighting for economic, racial, and social justice.
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United $75,000 — To build a national movement of restaurant workers that will improve their wages and working conditions.
Teamster Rank & File Education and Legal Defense Foundation $60,000 — To democratize the Teamsters Union by supporting the development of a rank-and-file movement committed to social justice.
Tenants and Workers United $40,000 — To build a powerful working people’s organization in northern Virginia that can influence public policy outcomes.
United for Respect Education Fund $60,000 — To support the organizing and mobilizing of Walmart workers fighting for dignity and respect on the job.
Willamette Valley Law Project $60,000 — To reform state labor rights policies in order to improve the working conditions of farmworkers in Oregon.
Worker Rights Consortium $40,000 — To combat labor rights abuses in the United States and the Global South.
Workers Center for Racial Justice $50,000 — To organize marginalized Black workers and their families to address the root causes of the high rates of unemployment, low-wage work, and over-criminalization plaguing Black communities in Illinois.
Workers Defense Project $60,000 — To build a diverse, powerful base of construction workers, immigrants, and low-wage workers implementing innovative strategies to win progressive change for working families in Texas.
Making Democracy Work
Community Organizing
ACCE Institute $40,000 — To strengthen the civic engagement and housing advocacy of low-income communities in California.
Arizona Center for Empowerment $50,000 — To support the economic justice and civic engagement organizing of working class, youth, BIPOC, and immigrant communities in Arizona.
Californians for Justice Education Fund, Inc. $40,000 — To engage low-income youth of color, typically of high school and college age, in policy advocacy and oversight of the democratic process in California’s main metropolitan areas.
Capaces Leadership Institute $60,000 — To support capacity building, political education, social justice leadership training, and cultural enrichment for a network of immigrant and farmworker movement organizations in Oregon.
Causa Justa :: Just Cause $50,000 — To engage low-income residents of San Francisco and Oakland and people of color in campaigns for affordable housing, to prevent foreclosures, and to secure community benefits in new local development.
Center for Popular Democracy $65,000 — To strengthen a national network that supports the local organizing of low-income communities and communities of color and coordinates them in national campaigns.
Common Counsel Foundation for The Movement for Black Lives $50,000 — To promote the dignity and full humanity of all people by supporting the infrastructure for the Movement for Black Lives and its network of Black-led and Black-facing organizations.
Community Change $100,000 — To strengthen the effectiveness of organizations led by low-income and people of color involved in national and statewide movements for social justice.
Community Change for United Today, Stronger Tomorrow $50,000 — To support base-building and policy change efforts in the Great Plains and Intermountain West regions.
Deaconess Foundation $60,000 — To increase Deaconess Foundation’s capacity to fund grassroots organizing and advocate for progressive policy in Missouri.
Faith in Florida, Inc. $50,000 — To build a network of faith-based leaders and activists representing low-income and working class communities of color in Florida who organize on various social justice issues that affect them.
Faith in Indiana $60,000 — To support a statewide organization coalescing faith communities to build a grassroots base for progressive power.
Gamaliel Foundation $60,000 — To train community and faith leaders to build political power and create organizations that unite people of diverse faiths and races.
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights $60,000 — To build the organizing power of immigrant communities and strengthen progressive infrastructure in Georgia.
Hoosier Action Resource Center $60,000 — To build low-income community power committed to social justice and racial equity in a predominantly rural state through strong narrative and civic engagement work.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement for Food and Ag Justice Collaborative $50,000 — To effect major changes in the U.S. food and agricultural system by changing public narratives and waging policy campaigns challenging the power of corporate actors.
ISAIAH $60,000 — To support a state federation of faith-based community groups organizing for affordable housing, racial equity, immigrant rights, and other issues that benefit Minnesota families.
Kentucky Coalition, Inc. $60,000 — To strengthen a multi-issue, statewide organization working to protect the land and the people from the devastation of the coal industry, raise the minimum wage, and increase voter engagement.
Miami Workers Center $40,000 — To build dynamic movements which center the experiences, realities, and leadership of Black and Brown women.
People’s Action Institute $150,000 — To strengthen a national network of power-building grassroots organizations.
Rural Organizing Project $50,000 — To support social justice organizing in rural Oregon communities.
Somos Siembra $50,000 — To support immigrant organizing that has an impact on civic engagement efforts and builds progressive infrastructure in North Carolina.
Southern Echo $40,000 — To empower African American, vulnerable, low-wealth, and marginalized communities throughout Mississippi and the Southern Region.
Southerners On New Ground $60,000 — To build, sustain, and connect a southern base of LGBTQ+ people transforming the region through community organizing.
Texas Organizing Project Education Fund $60,000 — To empower low- and moderate-income people of color in Texas through statewide community organizing and civic engagement.
The People’s Lobby Education Institute $60,000 — To support organizing and coalition-building to create statewide community power in Illinois.
Unite Oregon $60,000 — To support the statewide leadership development, power-building, and policy campaigns of a group successfully organizing across race, class, and urban/rural divides in five counties in the state of Oregon.
Washington Community Action Network Education & Research Fund $60,000 — To organize people of color, women, low-income people, people with disabilities, and immigrants to challenge economic inequality and structural racism in Washington State.
We Are Down Home $60,000 — To build power for small town and rural communities in North Carolina.
Democratic Participation
Basic Rights Education Fund $50,000 — To protect the rights and ensure the equity of LGBTQ+ communities in Oregon by building an intersectional movement through organizing, leadership development, and advocacy.
BVM Capacity Building Institute $60,000 — To build electoral power in Black communities by increasing the capacity of rural-based organizations to participate fully in our democracy.
Center for Empowered Politics Education Fund for Oakland Rising $40,000 — To educate and mobilize low-income, immigrant, and people of color to vote and build power in Oakland.
Colorado People’s Alliance $50,000 — To build power for Colorado’s diversifying communities in order to advance workers’ rights, climate justice, and safety for immigrant communities.
Florida Rising Together $40,000 — To support an organization that is at the center of the state alignment work in Florida, addressing systemic issues that affect communities of color.
Illinois People’s Action $50,000 — To develop a strong statewide coalition in Illinois through leadership development, voter education, and policy advocacy.
Maine People’s Resource Center $60,000 — To strengthen the grassroots membership base of a statewide social change organization in Maine.
Missouri Organizing and Voter Engagement Collaborative $50,000 — To change culture and governance in Missouri in support of a multiracial, pluralist democracy that works in the interest of low-income and people of color communities.
Neighbor to Neighbor MA Education Fund $40,000 — To advance a working-families agenda in Massachusetts through voter engagement, policy advocacy, and organizing.
New Virginia Majority Education Fund $50,000 — To organize communities of color, women, working people, and youth for a progressive Virginia.
Ohio Organizing Collaborative $60,000 — To support power-building organizing and civic engagement that builds progressive infrastructure in Ohio.
OutFront Minnesota Community Services $50,000 — To support LGBTQ+ communities throughout Minnesota through community education and organizing to change policy and the hearts and minds of people in the state.
Pennsylvania Stands Up Institute $50,000 — To support multiracial base-building in overlooked regions of a key state in the national political map.
Power California $50,000 — To advance the civic engagement of grassroots groups and individuals, particularly youth and immigrants, across the state.
Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada $60,000 — To support multiracial organizing that is increasingly successful in a state that is key to the success of a federal progressive agenda.
Right To The City Alliance $40,000 — To build a national grassroots movement for land, housing, and development justice.
Somali Action Alliance Education Fund $40,000 — To build voter engagement and civic participation programs within Minnesota’s Somali community to empower them to more fully participate in the civic and political life of the state.
TakeAction Minnesota Education Fund $60,000 — To strengthen a progressive statewide coalition that is modeling how to build a large grassroots base, win local power and experiment in co-governance, shift collective narratives, and achieve significant policy changes.
The Virginia Civic Engagement Table $50,000 — To build the capacity of progressive community organizations to effectively engage underrepresented voters through a statewide civic engagement strategy in Virginia.
Tides Center for Detroit Action Education Fund $50,000 — To support multiracial base-building organizing in a key geography in Michigan.
Tides Foundation for Center for Working Families Fund $60,000 — To increase the capacity of people in disenfranchised communities to combat inequality, impact policy-making, and participate in the democratic process.
Western States Center $60,000 — To build an inclusive democracy and defend it from the threat of White Nationalism and other discriminatory ideologies in the U.S. Northwest and nationally.
New York
ALIGN $50,000 — To create good jobs, vibrant communities, and an accountable democracy for all New Yorkers.
Center for NuLeadership on Urban Solutions $40,000 — To shift the paradigm and practice of public safety from one of criminal justice to human justice.
Coalition for Economic Justice $40,000 — To support a coalition of community, labor, and faith-based groups in Buffalo.
Community Funds Inc. for The Good Neighbor Fund $20,000 — To support the Good Neighbor Fund which fosters social, economic, environmental, and political justice on Long Island.
Community Voices Heard $60,000 — To organize low-wage workers and people on public assistance by advocating for affordable housing, public-job creation, and other issues of concern to the poor.
Long Island Jobs with Justice $45,000 — To support a critical nexus of labor and community organizing on Long Island.
Make the Road New York $60,000 — To promote economic opportunity and democracy in New York State through organizing and collective action.
MinKwon Center for Community Action $60,000 — To support grassroots organizing efforts in the Asian American Pacific Islander community in Queens.
NEO Philanthropy for New York Civic Engagement Table $50,000 — To build long-term power for progressive social change in New York State.
New York Communities Organizing Fund, Inc. $60,000 — To organize low-income communities on Long Island, utilizing democratic engagement for social and economic equity.
New York Community Trust for GoVoteNYC Fund $50,000 — To collaborate with philanthropic partners in a pooled fund to increase voter participation in New York City.
New York Taxi Workers Alliance $60,000 — To build the collective power of taxi and for-hire drivers to improve their working conditions.
North Star Fund for Communities United for Police Reform $40,000 — To end discriminatory and abusive policing practices and increase police accountability.
North Star Fund for the Let Us Breathe Fund $50,000 — To provide support to organizations led by people of color to fight against police violence and structural racism through the Let Us Breathe Fund.
Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition $60,000 — To build enduring progressive power within the Bronx with a focus on those most impacted by issues at the center of decision-making.
PUSH Buffalo $60,000 — To support community organizing and leadership development programs in Upstate New York.
Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, Inc. $60,000 — To build a powerful statewide membership organization for economic and social justice.
SEPA Mujer, Inc. $50,000 — To support and empower Latina immigrant and Indigenous women on Long Island to be a transformational force for change across the region and the state.
Tides Center for NYC Coalition for Educational Justice $40,000 — To support the coordination of a coalition working to improve public schools in New York City.
VOCAL-NY $60,000 — To build long-term power for low-income people affected by drugs, homelessness, and mass incarceration.
WDN Resource Center $50,000 — To support the leadership of women and gender-expansive people to change the conditions that deteriorate maternal mortality and reproductive health on Long Island.
Social Justice Infrastructure
Capacity Building
Amalgamated Charitable Foundation for Organizing Resilience $50,000 — To support an organization that uses disaster events as moments of transformation and openings to drive toward equitable change.
USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture for the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute $40,000 — To develop a robust and coordinated network of leaders and organizations representing America’s diverse Muslim communities.
Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity $40,000 — To build effective Black organizations that can develop community leaders, healers, and political leaders, for equity and liberation.
Center for Popular Democracy for The Forge $50,000 — To support an online journal and forum that informs the organizing sector’s efforts to create a more impactful progressive movement.
Common Counsel Foundation for RoadMap $40,000 — To foster strong organizations that can lead a sustainable and increasingly powerful social justice movement.
Grassroots Power Project $50,000 — To help social, economic, and environmental justice organizations engage in strategic practice.
Midwest Academy $60,000 — To provide strategic organizational support and training for community-led organizations.
re:power Fund $40,000 — To provide capacity-building support to grassroots organizations.
Rutgers University for Center for Innovation in Worker Organization $60,000 — To serve as an incubator for innovative strategies that develop the capacity of economic justice organizations.
Smartmeme, Inc. dba Center for Story-based Strategy $60,000 — To equip grassroots organizers with framing and messaging strategies to build movements for systemic social change.
Veatch Program Communications and Campaign Minigrant Fund $30,000 — To help Veatch grantees become more sophisticated in messaging and respond strategically to timely media opportunities.
Veatch Program Organizational Development Minigrant Fund $75,000 — To strengthen the work of Veatch grantees by supporting organizational development activities.
Veatch Program Rapid Response Minigrant Fund $70,000 — To support urgent work that may arise for Veatch grantees in their work to organize marginalized communities throughout the country.
Veatch Program Travel and Technical Assistance Minigrant Fund $53,120 — To strengthen the work of Veatch grantees by supporting travel to meetings, conferences, or trainings.
Informed Public Discourse
Democracy Now! $50,000 — To ensure the public discourse includes a diversity of voices seeking to promote progressive change.
Institute for Policy Studies $60,000 — To support the social justice movement through research and policy analysis.
Institute for Public Accuracy $45,000 — To broaden the public discourse by gaining access for voices commonly excluded by the mainstream media.
Labor Education and Research Project (Labor Notes) $55,000 — To build a democratic and socially-just labor movement by strengthening networks of union organizing groups, promoting peer-to-peer learning, and raising awareness of the labor movement’s nationwide impact.
Political Research Associates $60,000 — To ensure that progressive social change organizations and the public are informed about the strategy, movements, institutions, and ideologies of the Far Right in the United States.
Progressive Philanthropy
Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice for The Funders’ Collaborative on Youth Organizing $50,000 — To support a funder collaborative that leverages funds for youth organizing and builds awareness of the youth organizing field.
Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees $20,000 — To increase philanthropic support for immigrant rights advocacy and organizing.
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy $20,000 — To make philanthropy more responsive to the needs of socially, economically, and politically disenfranchised groups.
Neighborhood Funders Group $55,000 — To strengthen the capacity of organized philanthropy to understand and support community organizing for social justice.
NEO Philanthropy, Inc. for Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation $20,000 — To increase funding for nonpartisan civic participation and to educate funders so that their grantmaking more effectively strengthens the progressive movement for social justice.
New York Foundation for Engage New York $50,000 — To support a network of progressive funders in New York State.
Philanthropy New York $20,000 — To support a connected, engaged, and activated philanthropic community in New York.
Women’s Funding Network $20,000 — To support a network of funders dedicated to gender equity.
Fiscal Year 2023 Grants Allocation Summary
Total Allocations: $13,001,120
Veatch Program Board of Governors
Fiscal Year 2023
Corinne Hayden, Chair
Diane Cohen, Vice Chair
Janet Bendowitz
Barbara Grosmark
Diane Lombardy
Patti Paris
Ron Roel
Cheryl Schwab
Rick Schwartz
Rebecca Smith
Jane Weiler, BOT Representative
Rev. Dr. Natalie Fenimore, Ministerial Liaison
The Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock provides support for efforts within the religious and spiritual mission of the congregation where there purposes are best served by outside agencies acting under the Veatch Program and the congregation