JustVA Fund

JustVA Fund is sponsored by Weissberg Foundation. The JustVA Fund supports organizations building organizing, economic, political, and narrative power of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color primarily in Virginia.

Innovative Grantmaking – Weissberg Foundation We are resourcing organizations and efforts building the organizing, economic, political, and narrative power of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color primarily in Virginia. Internalizing Racial Equity Our grantmaking focuses on building the power of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color to transform the systems that have impacted their lives, across issues areas.

We know power is multi-faceted which is why we support organizing, narrative, economic, and political power building. This represents a shift from an issue-focused lens to an intersectional and people-centered approach. Contact Us to learn more.

Supporting grassroots community organizations and social justice movements led by People of Color who have been systems-impacted is the pathway to building advocacy and organizing power. Building the wealth of Black and Indigenous people through land ownership and stewardship, and working for acknowledgment, apology, atonement, and repair of the generational harm of structural racism.

Building political power to make democratic institutions more responsive to and more representative and inclusive of Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color. Supporting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color authored narratives that challenge anti-Black, Native erasure, and racist narratives that have been used to advance structural racism.

Who, How, and where we Fund The Foundation prioritizes funding to power building organizations that are led by and/or accountable to Black, Indigenous, and Communities of Color. We proactively identify organizations building power through Staff research and input from grantee partners and community members, removing the burden on these organizations to find us and engage in time-intensive application processes.

Endowments of BIPOC-led organizations are nearly 4x smaller than white-led organizations. https://ssir. org/articles/entry/bipoc_organizations_and_the_hamster_wheel_of_philanthropy# Only 25% of family foundations use formal diversity, equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals or strategies to guide their giving.

https://ssir. org/articles/entry/overcoming_the_racial_bias_in_philanthropic_funding Only 0. 4% of philanthropic funding explicitly benefits Native Americans.

https://nativephilanthropy. org/2020/11/17/native-americans-are-2-of-u-s-population-but-receive-0-4-of-philanthropic-dollars/ General Operating Support We strive for the majority of funding to be multi-year, general operating support. We also provide limited program and capacity building support.

Half of the Virginia nonprofits surveyed in a recent report had budgets under $500,000. https://www. thecne.

org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Virginia-Nonprofit-Sector-Report. pdf While nonprofits report that multi-year, general operating support is the most useful kind of support, in 2020, only 12. 7% of grants were multi-year , general operating support grants.

Center for Effective Philanthropy, New Attitudes, Old Practices: The Provision of Multi-year General Operating Support. Downloaded from: https://cep. org/portfolio/new-attitudes-old-practices/ We are committed to funding not just in Virginia’s major population centers, but across the Commonwealth, especially in rural areas, as well as regional efforts inclusive of Virginia.

Half of the Virginia nonprofits surveyed in a recent report had budgets under $500,000. https://www. thecne.

org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Virginia-Nonprofit-Sector-Report. pdf There are nonprofit revenue disparities across Virginia’s regions , including Central Virginia, Northern Neck, Southside and Southwest which are under resourced compared to their share of population. https://www.

thecne. org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023-Virginia-Nonprofit-Sector-Report. pdf In addition to our strategic grantmaking, the Foundation supports two legacy programs: Human Rights & Social Justice at Beloit College The Weissberg Program in Human Rights & Social Justice empowers Beloit College students to take informed action to address complex global problems.

As founder of the Weissberg Foundation, intrepid traveler, and life-long learner, Marvin Weissberg’s interests and commitments ranged beyond municipal, even national borders. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Marvin Weissberg, and his partner of 17 years, Judith Morris, were lifelong supporters of the Washington, DC theatre community.

Wolly Mammoth Theater was a beneficiary of Marvin and Judith’s philanthropy and from 2016-2019, participated in the Foundation’s Fund for Diversity in Theater. Following Marvin’s passing, the Foundation supported Woolly in launching its first dedicated commissioning program. Through the Weissberg Commissions , Woolly plans to honor Marvin by supporting art influenced by the Washington, D.

C. , suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia (DMV) region and/or with a focus on exploring racial justice. The Weissberg Commissions will give generative artists the opportunity to innovate and take artistic risks in the creation of new theatrical works.

The Foundation’s current grantmaking strategy has been informed by many of the learnings from past, archived funds including those below. Number of Organizations Supported: The JustVA Fund supported efforts at the intersection of criminal and racial justice in Virginia.

Virginia’s history of colonization and slavery have resulted in a longstanding legacy of racism that surfaces in the criminalization of Virginia residents who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

Through this fund, the Foundation sought to support organizations working to make changes across the criminal legal system to advance critical shifts, ones that actively dismantle structural racism within the Commonwealth to create a more equitable and just world for Virginians.

The Fund supported Black, Indigenous, and People of Color led and centered organizations working in Virginia across various and intersecting issues in the criminal legal system actively making critical changes toward equity and justice.

These organizations take a strong and active approach to anti-racism; uplift truthful narrative and amplify voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; center and celebrate the value and dignity of lived experience; intentionally and strategically build the power of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities; and take a holistic approach to their work around the criminal legal system that is intersectional, responsive to historical and present-day traumas, and allows for collective imagination in this work.

DMV Power: Disrupt, Move, Voice Power Fund Number of Organizations Supported: The DMV Power Fund supported organizations dedicated to building power – through advocacy, organizing, and civic engagement – by and for People of Color in Washington, D. C. , suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia as a strategy to dismantle structural racism in pursuit of a more equitable region.

Learnings from DMV Power largely informed the Foundation’s current grantmaking strategy which focuses on building organizing, economic, political, and narrative power in Virginia. In January 2020, the Weissberg Foundation awarded four-year grants to ten organizations.

Though each grantee partner took a different approach to how they disrupt, move, and voice power, each works to build leadership capacity and visibility of People of Color; brings a deep knowledge of their communities and an expansive understanding of issue areas; advances a societal infrastructure that works to shift hearts and minds, while also pushing systems and institutions to be more racially equitable; strategically uses advocacy, organizing, and/or civic engagement to advance systems-level reform; and makes meaningful success in achieving goals, including making transformational progress in advancing racial equity and building power in Communities of Color.

Number of Organizations Supported: The current US criminal justice system is built on a foundation of false narratives – it weaves together stories that tell the American public that People of Color can and should be criminalized; that system-impacted individuals cannot and do not stray from a pipeline; and that incarcerated bodies do not deserve the same value and care as those outside the walls of prisons and jails.

Additionally, the criminal justice system does not accommodate the unique needs and circumstances of women, girls, trans, and gender non-conforming individuals, while disproportionally harming People of Color. Learnings from Equitable Justice largely informed the Foundation’s JustVA Fund.

Through Equitable Justice, the Weissberg Foundation sought to advance organizations and efforts approaching justice reform with an intersectional lens and centering system-impacted women girls, trans, and gender non-conforming individuals of color.

The fund supported small, community-based organizations in Maryland, New Mexico, New York, and Washington, DC that were building the leadership and advocacy capacity of system-impacted women, girls, and gender non-conforming individuals of color to advance equity and change the narrative about who they are, what our criminal justice system is, and what it can be.

Fund for Diversity in Theatre Number of Organizations Supported: The Foundation believes in the power of theater (and art more broadly) to enhance our humanity, stir us to action, and connect us to each other while simultaneously entertaining us.

However, along with many who care about theater and social justice, we were concerned about equity, diversity, and inclusion in theater—on the stage, behind the stage, and in the audience—and what this portends for the future vibrancy of theaters and the communities in which they exist. Through our 2016-2019 Fund for Diversity in Theater, we sought to accomplish the following.

Engage and expand new voices and audiences in Washington-area theater so it is more accessible, inspiring, and compelling to a broad range of theatergoers now and in the future. Nurture an honest, self-examining community of theater leaders who will be open and committed to working together to share learning and ideas for increasing diversity on stage, in audiences, and behind the scenes.

Scan the landscape of, support, and learn hand-in-hand with local theaters engaged in diversity work to inform our foundation’s own grantmaking, governance, and operations. Share lessons learned and best practices generated throughout this initiative with the broader theater community and our peers in philanthropy.

Internalizing Racial Equity In 2019, Tamara retired as president of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers where she envisioned and implemented “ Putting Racism on the Table ”. Currently, she co-facilitates The Onion Dialogues, a racial justice training. In 2018, her memoir, Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond who grew up in the Civil Rights Era was published.

Her latest book is REVEALED: A Once a Week Reading on Racism, Prejudice and Bias . She loves walking and traveling, having visited all fifty states and countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.