Justice Funders

Justice Funders is a partner and guide for philanthropy in reimagining practices that advance a thriving and just world. We envision a world that honors the sacredness of our natural resources and recognizes the inalienable rights of all. We assert that philanthropy must take an active role in building this world by redistributing all aspects of well-being, democratizing power and shifting economic control to communities. Redistribution requires us to reject the accumulation of wealth and power. It means letting go of two narratives that currently dominate philanthropy: 1) charity, which perpetuates power dynamics between givers and receivers without tackling root causes of injustice; and 2) investment, which expects a financial return to the ultimate benefit of the investor. By embracing redistribution, we are following the lead of the most courageous movement leaders of our time, who are standing in their power and unapologetically asserting their rights to live with dignity and to thrive. We are deeply inspired by this movement moment and recognize that now - more than ever - philanthropy must be just as bold and relentless. What this means for philanthropy is that, rather than accumulating wealth and power, we must use it to resource movements that fight the systems that oppress us and also support the creation of new, local, resilient economies that build wealth in low-income communities and communities of color. We are guided by the Just Transition principles for building political and economic power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. As such, a Just Transition for philanthropy requires philanthropic institutions to shift their practices away from extraction towards regeneration, which requires fundamentally shifting our underlying assumptions about capital and our underlying approach to philanthropy. At Justice Funders, we are re-imagining a world that works for all of us, and philanthropy's role in creating it.