National Day of Racial Healing Watch Party Mini-Grants

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National Day of Racial Healing 2023 Watch Party Mini-Grants

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is proud to announce mini-grants designed to support local watch parties across the state of Louisiana as part of the National Day of Racial Healing. The National Day of Racial Healing is a part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation efforts. FFL has been the home of TRHT Louisiana since 2016.

We define racial healing as a process that seeks to acknowledge, heal, transform, and restoratively repair ongoing wounds from the history and presence of racism and injustice. FFL believes authentic racial healing dismantles systems of oppression, advances racial equity and racial justice, and transforms pain into power.  

We define racial equity as the condition that would be achieved if one's racial identity no longer predicted, in a statistical sense, how one fares. When we use the term, we are thinking about racial equity as one part of racial justice, and thus we also include work to address the root causes of inequities, not just their manifestation. This includes eliminating policies, practices, attitudes, and cultural messages that reinforce differential outcomes by race or that fail to eliminate them.

We define racial justice as the proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, and outcomes for all.

These definitions have emerged over time from our work with nonprofits, community leaders, grassroots formations and other key allies and co-conspirators.  We believe this work is dynamic and evolving, and we continually seek to be responsive and learning centered, leaning into our organizational values of community wisdom, integrity, courage, and transparency.

Grant and Purpose

Grants in the amount of $500 are available to individuals or organizations to host local watch parties anywhere in the state of Louisiana as part of the 2023 National Day of Racial Healing. Funds can be used for any relevant expense; examples include purchasing food and drink, renting space, supporting on-site childcare, providing honoraria to facilitators, healers, and/or artists, internet connectivity, audio-visual equipment, and so on. Please note that grants made to individuals will be treated as taxable income by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Application and Timeline

FFL uses Submittable as our grants management system. To apply, interested parties should create a free Submittable account or sign in with Google or Facebook credentials to submit the application form. Resources and support for using our online application portal Submittable is available here. APPLY HERE

Selection Priorities

While applications are open to all, we are particularly keen to see applications that prioritize multi-racial gatherings/cross-racial dialogue, include policy makers/influencers or political leaders, center community leaders, and/or are led by or focused on youth or young adults.

Reporting

We would love to learn from your experience of hosting a National Day of Racial Healing by inviting you to a participate in a post-event online group conversation with other hosts or a follow up survey in early February. 

We will ask you to share information on the number of people who attended your watch party. In advance of the event, we will provide you with an optional sign-in sheet for people who are willing to complete an anonymous feedback survey and/or would like to be kept up to date on our racial healing and racial justice work.

Need Help?

We want to help you succeed! If you have questions about eligibility, application, or anything else, reach us via email at kjackson@foundationforlouisiana.org or via phone/text at (225)95400418.

About Foundation for Louisiana

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a social justice philanthropic intermediary founded in 2005 as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation to invest in the immediate recovery of Louisiana’s communities after hurricane Katrina. While FFL was founded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, our founders recognized the need to address the longstanding inequities that have shaped life outcomes for the most marginalized of Louisianans. Our programs grew in response to these needs, and today FFL focuses on racial justice, climate justice, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, LGBTQ organizing, and support for Louisiana's vibrant arts and culture via a three-pronged strategy: 

  • Invest: FFL makes grants and loans to support organizations and movements throughout Louisiana in our key program areas. We attract and invest resources to support on-the-ground projects, many of which can’t access traditional philanthropy. Through fiscal sponsorship, we support innovative ideas responding to unmet needs throughout Louisiana.
  • Build: We build power to effect change in Louisiana communities. Our TOGETHER initiative convenes community leaders and provides training in organizing, policy change, leadership, public speaking, and facilitation to tackle issues of climate change, police accountability, health disparities, housing access, and more.
  • Transform: By fortifying movements, we shift systems and shape regional and national narratives. We re-imagine how our communities are governed and funded in order to redefine how residents are able to thrive in them.

Since its inception, FFL has invested $55 million in more than 250 mission-critical nonprofit organizations working across the state towards building a more just Louisiana. As a social justice philanthropic intermediary, FFL’s work unapologetically advances racial justice while moving Louisiana forward. Foundation for Louisiana engages communities in both program co-design as well as its grant-making process, in order to expand opportunities and move communities towards a more just future.