Our No Small Change Stories
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Mac’s Story: Making Grassroots Change with the Chinook Fund
Mac’s a donor with the Chinook Fund in Colorado because she believes in the power of local activists and organizers making the important decisions about their own communities. Chinook funds organizations working for social change by challenging the root causes of oppression, rather than treating the symptoms–and the work is led by the people it affects. Watch their story and get inspired to make big change with us.
25 Years of Social Justice in Appalachia
Appalachian Community Fund has been supporting social justice work in the states that make up Appalachia for the past 25 years. As a part of the FEX Network, ACF provides a sustainable base of resources for grassroots organizations working to promote racial justice, economic justice, LGBT equality, youth empowerment and so much more.
Small donations have a great impact on organizations like ACF, and others working for social justice around the country. Give as little as $10 today and create a ripple effect for change!
Closing the Achievement Gap – Headwaters Foundation
Crossing Barriers is a grantee of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice, one of 16 member foundations that make grants to local grassroots organizations working for social justice as part of the FEX Network. This is a story about education equality, race and empowerment (aka young people making BIG changes).
Get a glimpse of the radical, paradigm-shifting work supported by our member funds and see that when youth are empowered, there is NO SMALL CHANGE. Help sustain social justice philanthropy with your $10 gift.
Occupy Wall Street, FEX Rapid Response Fund
Through our Rapid Response Fund, FEX has been collecting donations to support the national Occupy Movement. We work with Occupy Wall Street’s fiscal sponsor, individual donors and movement leaders to secure funds where they are most needed. While OWS’s physical presence has shifted in downtown NYC, the movement for economic justice continues! Our nimble structure and long-standing community connections allow us to support cultural transformation on a national scale while engaging our supporters in popular movement building. We love our job!
Daniel Palomino, DREAM Activist
In September 2011, we saw first-hand the brutal discrimination against immigrants by the state of Arizona. We met with activists and donors, and now we’re ready to take bold action to build a progressive infrastructure in AZ to fight back. A FEX ally, Daniel Palomino, tells his story of how the AZ DREAMers made a big change. That is a hallmark of FEX; when times are most bleak, when it seems that there is little support for a fledgling movement, we step in and organize to provide the seed money. (While FEX doesn’t fund partisan political activity, we stand with our allies and support their efforts.)
Changing Perceptions of Undocumented Youth, MRG Grantee
Artists and documentary filmmakers whose media activism addresses critical social and political issues have received funding from FEX and our Member Funds for the pre-production and distribution of film, video, radio and print projects. Anne Galisky, Film Director of “Papers: Stories from Undocumented Youth” was supported by two donor-advised-fund grants at one of our Northwest member funds, McKenzie River Gathering. When artists have visions for how their work can impact social justice, and they receive the support from the FEX Network, they can accomplish something truly transformative and inspirational.
Alison Goldberg, Resource Generation
FEX’s unique approach to philanthropy, Activist Advised Grantmaking, directly involves community activists and leaders in philanthropic decision-making, shifting power to those who work on the front lines and best understand what solutions are most effective in our communities. Alison tells us about her realization that the power to give should actually rest with the people who have the most experience instead of the people with the most money. We aim to revolutionize giving by cultivating a strong collaboration between donors, local activists, national movement leaders and philanthropists.
People’s Production House, FEX Grantee
As a grantee of FEX, People’s Production House (PPH) exemplifies how FEX’s approach to grantmaking results in substantive changes in our communities. PPH is a journalism training and production institute focused on producing stories that bring unheard voices (students, immigrants, and working families) to the fore, creating ground-breaking news critical to a vibrant democracy. We are committed to changing the balance of power, providing seed money to innovative experiments, and nurturing effective new organizing strategies.
