2019 Giving Project(Top from left to right) Jennifer Long, Zach Huelsing, Julian Hendrix, Christine Cupaiuolo, Julie Knorowski, Makkah Ali, Lisa Schergen, Andrea Meza, Jane Kimondo, Sheila McAnanly (Middle) Angela Lin, Carolina Gallo, Abbey Hambright, Chandra Palmer, Aaron Johnson, Salpi Apkarian, Daris Jasper, Ola Faleti (Bottom) Margot Babington, Ryn Osbourne, Cassandra Solis, Lizette Garza, Tami Cohen, Emmanuel Garcia (Not pictured: Cory Stevenson) Crossroads Fund is excited to announce that our 2019 Giving Project cohort – a multi-racial, cross-class, intersectional group of 23 people – raised $144,823 from 282 donors!This purposeful amount of money enabled us to make grants to 29 grassroots groups fighting and organizing for change in Chicago! This cohort illustrates the impact we can have when we pool our resources together and invite others to do the same.Giving Project members laugh during their last meeting as a cohort.We want to recognize the commitment each member made to be part of this experience. Over six months, the cohort participated in deep and challenging conversations on race and class; made an individual monetary donation that was significant to them; raised funds from their network through a process of “donor organizing;” and practiced participatory grantmaking to support strategic, necessary, and underfunded social justice organizing work around the city.“I feel like I accomplished my goals for the Giving Project. Doing the project pushed me out of my comfort zone in a lot of my relationships – especially in talking about money! I am proud of myself and the money I raised, yet I feel like I could always do more.” – 2019 Giving Project Participant The Giving Project program is part of Crossroads Fund’s commitment to racial justice. Through staff-facilitated trainings that explicitly named anti-blackness, white supremacy and centered the experiences of People of Color, the group had in-depth and nuanced discussions on the realities of structural oppression in our society and how our race and class show up in fundraising and grantmaking. Join us in congratulating them on their boldness and determination to fund groups fighting on the front lines for change. The 2019 Giving Project cohort discuss their site visits on the grantmaking decision day. Since 2015 the Giving Project program has raised more than $500,000 from over 900 donors. Crossroads Fund’s Giving Project is an innovative model for democratizing philanthropy and grassroots organizing. Through political education that explores race and class, alumni of the Giving Project are equipped with fundraising and grantmaking skills, to be stronger advocates in raising money for progressive movements. Crossroads Fund is a public foundation that supports grassroots organizations for racial, social, and economic justice. Interested in joining the 2020 Giving Project? Please complete the form below and a Crossroads Fund staff member will contact you in November 2019 as we begin recruiting for the next cohort.
