Statewide Grant Announcement

In March, Engage New York launched two grant processes through our Racial Equity Pooled Fund. The Racial Equity Pooled Fund was established in 2019 to help build and strengthen the community organizing infrastructure, and to ensure statewide campaigns and coalitions are more inclusive of the various regions and voices throughout New York State. In 2020, and 2021, Engage New York supported statewide campaigns and coalitions at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the Fund launched both a statewide process and a local process to achieve its goals.

The first process Engage New York launched this year continued to focus on supporting statewide infrastructure projects that are deepening, strengthening, and advancing community organizing as a strategy to uplift and amplify community voice. The following organizations/coalitions received $50,000 to support their efforts:

• Advocacy Institute -This grant will support the launch of a new cohort training series for organizers that aims to develop the leadership skills of advocates from different regions of the state focused on BIPOC leaders. The new training series combines the Advocacy Institute’s trainings, strategic consulting, and peer coaching. This new leadership series builds off the 2020 pilot that Engage New York supported during the COVID pandemic which helped AI pivot to an online training model that brought leaders from different regions, which differed from their regional training model.

• Black Farmers United of New York State - The purpose of this grant is to assist Black Farmers United of New York State to grow its network and continue to build power amongst Black farmers throughout the State. BFU-NYS is a member-led organization of over 70 Black farmers, growers, and food justice advocates committed to co-creating a racially equitable food system. This network is focused on building collective power, promoting generational wealth, and ensuring access to fertile and abundant land that will equate to a more equitable New York.

• Long Island Social Justice Action Network (LISJAN) -This grant will support the growth of LISJAN’s organizing and advocacy work by broadening its base across Long Island, but also in other key regions of the state including the Hudson Valley and the Capital Region to advance their Justice Roadmap. The Justice Roadmap is a bold agenda to decarcerate New York prisons and jails and addresses the harms of the criminal legal and immigration system. They are a network of over 200 individual members and 60 organization members. Their network is empowered by a growing number of justice-impacted women that are highlighting the need to analyze the criminal justice system through a gender lens. 

• Stand Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) - The purpose of this grant will be to help SURJ build and resource infrastructure to connect their 7 regional, all-volunteer-led hubs in New York State through organizing and base-building efforts. SURJ’s focus on building a pluralist society includes organizing white people to be effective members of multiracial campaigns for racial and economic justice. SURJ was established in 2009 when Black organizers called on white people to organize their communities. As the rise of white nationalism and white supremacy continues to be more mainstream, this type of organizing has been named a key strategy in the fight for racial justice.

• VOCAL-NY - The purpose of this grant is to help VOCAL-NY expand and bolster its Western New York and Central New York organizing and building power for people impacted by HIV/AIDS, drug use, mass incarceration, and homelessness. 

We encourage all funders to learn about these important projects and movements in New York. All of them are focused on racial equity and uplifting the voices of communities impacted by injustice.