This year, Black Freedom Fund is investing $4.6 million in organizations building power across California. Our 2026 grants support 119 organizations advancing healing, housing justice, immigration justice, civic engagement, economic equity, and more through advocacy, organizing, and long-term movement infrastructure. These organizations are keeping tenants in their homes, fighting for increased wages, protecting immigrants, ensuring students succeed, and advocating for more expansive health services.
Our investments reflect a deliberate strategy to strengthen the broader ecosystem of Black-serving organizations across communities and regions throughout California during a challenging moment for the field. But this work is about more than responding to the challenges of the present.
Black Freedom Fund was created from a belief that Black communities deserve more than survival. We believe Black communities deserve the resources, infrastructure, and power needed to shape their own futures and thrive for generations to come. We believe in a future where Black communities across California can live with dignity, safety, opportunity, and self-determination. A future where communities have real power to shape the decisions, policies, and systems that impact their lives – and where our democracy is stronger, more inclusive, and more representative because of it.
We envision communities where organizations rooted in and accountable to the people they serve have the stability and support needed not only to respond to crisis, but to imagine and build what comes next.
At a moment when support for racial justice and powerbuilding in Black communities is contracting across philanthropy, this work matters more than ever.
There’s a pattern playing out right now across American philanthropy. Commitments made just a few years ago are being scaled back at the very moment communities are navigating growing political attacks, economic instability, and deep uncertainty. And yet, the organizations doing the hard and necessary work of building community power continue to show up every day for their communities.
At Black Freedom Fund, we believe this moment calls for sustained investment in those leaders and organizations; not retreat from them.
2026 Strategy
We approached this year’s grantmaking cycle with a deep awareness of the challenges facing the field and the growing attacks on racial justice work across the country.
As support for racial justice work continues to contract across philanthropy, many organizations are navigating growing uncertainty while continuing to meet the needs of their communities every day. The pressure is especially acute for organizations operating with smaller budgets and deep community roots – organizations that are often closer to the work and the people most impacted.
Our responsibility, as a Black community foundation rooted in power building, is not simply to respond to this moment, but to help sustain the ecosystem through it.
That informed our approach to this year’s grantmaking cycle. We made a deliberate choice to broaden our reach across communities and regions throughout California while continuing to invest in the leadership, relationships, and infrastructure needed for durable, community-led change.
This grant round also reflects the breadth and diversity of California’s Black communities. As our largest grant round to date, we prioritized reaching historically under-resourced regions, deepening our commitments to organizations serving communities under attack, and expanding the ecosystem by resourcing even more organizations building power.
What the Cohort Reflects
This year’s grantmaking investments support organizations advancing work across advocacy, organizing, civic engagement, health equity, worker rights, criminal legal reform, healing, culture change, housing justice, immigration justice, and long-term movement infrastructure.
This 2026 cohort reflects:
- $4.6 million invested in organizations building power across California
- 119 organizations funded statewide
- 24% first-time grantee partners
- A 59% increase in organizations funded in underrepresented regions, including Northern California, the Central Coast, the Inland Empire, and the San Joaquin Valley
- A 133% increase in organizations funded in the San Joaquin Valley, including organizations in Fresno, Kern, Kings, and Tulare counties
- A 140% increase in organizations working on immigration justice
- An 89% increase in organizations advancing housing and homelessness advocacy
“At a moment when support for racial justice work is under increasing attack, we believe it is more important than ever to invest in the organizations and leaders building lasting power in communities across California.”
-Marc Philpart, President & CEO, Black Freedom Fund
A Moment That Calls for Sustained Commitment
We are living through a defining period for racial justice philanthropy. The challenges facing Black-serving organizations are real, and the need for sustained investment in community leadership has not diminished. At Black Freedom Fund, we believe this moment calls for continued commitment to the organizations and leaders building long-term power across California.
The organizations in this year’s cohort are helping communities navigate immediate challenges while also building the long-term conditions for safety, opportunity, civic participation, and collective power. They are organizing for more equitable systems, protecting vulnerable communities, expanding representation and access, and creating pathways for communities to shape the decisions that impact their lives.
This work matters not only because of the moment we are in, but because of the future it makes possible.
To our 2026 grantees: thank you. Your leadership, vision, and commitment to community continue to move this work forward every day. We are proud to stand alongside you.
To our broader community, partners, supporters: thank you for continuing to invest in the future Black communities deserve. This work remains urgent, and we are committed to help sustain it for the long haul.
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