Posts in category: Updates

Partners & Friends,

After years of bold advocacy from diverse coalitions, yesterday President Biden signed an expanded version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) into law. This overdue renewal will provide funding for organizations offering lifesaving programs, services, and resources to survivors of gendered and sexualized violence, including expanded provisions for those who have long been invisibilized yet disproportionately impacted like Indigenous, immigrant, and trans women. These much needed funds will go a long way, and we have survivors from communities across the country to thank for it.

As we celebrate this victory, we cannot forget the fact that the original VAWA was passed under the premise that carceral responses to domestic violence keep us safe. Our grantee partners, many of whom are often the first line of defense in their communities, have made it clear: an increase in funds for policing is just further investment in a violent system that harms survivors, instead of supporting them. To end increasingly pervasive gendered and racialized violence, we must resource the community-rooted solutions that truly keep us safe.

Collective Future Fund calls on philanthropy to reject narratives that define violence narrowly as individual, interpersonal acts and instead recognize the scale and interconnectedness of violence as experienced by survivors. We cannot disconnect domestic and sexual violence from the overarching crises of state violence — mass incarceration, police brutality, family separation, the imprisonment of sexual assault survivors for acts of self-defense — that disproportionately harm survivors of color.

Philanthropic donors should fulfill their commitments to racial and gender justice and meet this historic moment by funding the organizations led by survivors, QTBIPOC women and gender expansive people that are cultivating community, building impactful movements, and sustaining transformational work.

We look forward to joining together with you in this work.

In community,

Aleyamma Mathew

The following statement was issued by Aleyamma Mathew, Director of the Collective Future Fund, in response to the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin and the death of 16 year old Ma’Kiah Bryant: 

“The pain and trauma experienced by Black Americans and their allies in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd has proven to be a catalytic event for racial justice across the globe. At Collective Future Fund, we mourn, march, and mobilize in solidarity with all those demanding that Black lives be valued, cherished, and protected. Today, we remember and grieve for George Floyd alongside the ever expanding list of those murdered in similarly unjust circumstances: Breonna Taylor, Duante Wright, Toledo, Atatiana Jefferson, Brianna ‘BB’ Hill, and Tony McDade, and too many others.

Above all we hope that this guilty verdict provides some closure to the family and friends of George Floyd, and provides some relief to the Minneapolis community that has suffered so much as a result of Derek Chauvin’s heinous actions. This is not justice, only a modicum of accountability. We do not celebrate because true justice would have George here with us today. But we do share in the relief of so many at the unanimous, unambiguous decisions on all three counts from the jury. 

This moment of accountability was brief and fleeting though, and does nothing to protect the lives of Black girls, boys, men, women and non-binary people whose lives continue to be threatened by the oppressive, racist, dangerous police. Within moments of the verdict being read, we were outraged and heartbroken that a 16 year old child, Ma’Kiah Bryant, was killed by police. 

While we remain limited to carceral forms of justice in the present, we also strive for a future of liberation and justice where Black people can live their lives in peace, free from the threat of violence from the state. 

No verdict could restore life. This guilty verdict cannot amend the ongoing, systemic violence of the system that brought about the murder of George Floyd in the first place. It was this system that led Derek Chauvin to believe he could murder George with impunity. It is this system that continues to steal resources, health and Black lives from our communities every single day. This violence is inextricable from the sexual and gendered violence we fight to erase, because it is all built upon the shared foundation of dehumanization, patriarchy, and white supremacy. 

We must demand abolition. We must fight for meaningful accountability from everyone who upholds the systems that continue to inflict harm on Black communities. We must fight for Ma’Kiah as we fought for George. At Collective Future Fund, we will continue to place our resources and support with the survivors creating a future free from patriarchal violence, rooted in justice, healing and liberation.”

The following statement was issued by Aleyamma Mathew, Director of the Collective Future Fund, in response to the murder of eight people in Atlanta on March 16th, six of whom were Asian women.

“We grieve today for the lives tragically lost in Georgia: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun and Paul Andre Michels, and we send our support to their loved ones and communities. After a year of rising anti-Asian violence as a result of racist comments by the former President, his political allies, and media personalities, too many of us knew that a moment of abhorrent violence like this was on the horizon. 

This violence is not new, and we cannot ignore the fact that it is rooted in white supremacy and misogyny. The fetishization and dehumanizing sexualization of Asian women – and these workers in particular – makes this an undeniable case of sexualized violence based on race. 

In addition to grieving this appalling loss of life, the AAPI community and survivors of gendered, racist violence are also facing another layer of trauma and pain. Even in the face of such clear racist and sexist violence, it is not being named as such. We are seeing the violent impact that the erasure of the experiences of AAPI women has in the narratives coming out of this tragedy. We see the humanity of the perpetrator prioritized over the humanity of his victims. We see media and leaders struggle to articulate and understand the intersecting, interwoven oppressions that made this white man choose to attack these women, in these workplaces. And we see that the carceral systems, supposedly intended to deliver ‘justice’, will continue to criminalize and ostracize the very communities that are hurting the most in the wake of this violence. 

We stand in solidarity with all those who face continued xenophobia, racism, and white supremacist violence. We stand in solidarity with survivors of gender-based and sexual violence. And we commit to continue supporting the visionary leaders working to build a collective future where all survivors live free from all forms of racist, patriarchal violence, in shared abundance, safety, dignity, and power.”

Please find below a list of organizations we have partnered with at the Collective Future Fund, who are working on the ground across the country to support AAPI women, queer, trans*, and non-binary people, and survivors. 

Please consider supporting their work if you have the means to do so.

• AAPI Women Lead
• Monsoon Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity
• API Chaya 
• Freedom Inc.
• Transforming Generations

Black Women’s Lives Matter. Black Girls’ Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. 

The Collective Future Fund stands in solidarity with movements calling for a future of justice and liberation, where all Black lives are valued. Alongside all those who have taken to the streets, we declare our ever-deepening commitment to challenging white supremacy and anti-blackness in all its forms. 

Our grantee partners, which are Black-, Indigenous-, LGBTQ- and women-of-color-led organizations, have been mobilizing people to raise their voices and put their bodies on the line in the streets, in addition to providing direct relief and organizing support to frontline workers and survivors of all forms of violence during the pandemic. 

As we mourn and mobilize for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, we also say the names of Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Brianna ‘BB’ Hill, and Tony McDade, among so many others who have lost their lives to racist violence. We cannot ignore the fundamental underlying connections between the state violence that has been perpetrated against Black people for centuries, the pervasive harassment and violence that Black women and girls experience in their homes, workplaces and schools, and the tragically high rates of Black maternal mortality. We cannot ignore the connections between the extreme violence against Black trans women and the sweeping criminalization and incarceration of Black communities. 

And this targeting, undervaluing, and underprotection of Black lives is evidenced within so many systems in our society. When COVID-19 hit, it began taking the lives of Black people at three times the rate of white people, and brought an economic recession that has left 30 million people unemployed with Black workers impacted the most. The police’s militarized response to protests, coupled with vigilantism, has traumatized communities further. This leaves communities confronting multiple crises of safety and survival at once. 

As we witness this unfold in the United States, we also see expressions of solidarity around the world, pointing to the fact that anti-black racism is a problem globally, and solidarity efforts are required with other oppressed groups to address it. In the US and globally, women, queer, and trans people of color are holding down the resistance at the same time that they are reimagining systems and showing us what a world free from violence could look like. Collective Future Fund’s grantees are leading the way with fierce, strategic, and compassionate efforts to end gender-based violence.

The Collective Future Fund is committed to continuing the work of healing, resourcing, and mobilizing together. We must ensure that Black and Indigenous women, survivors, and their communities have support to process the violence and racism inflicted on them, while facilitating processes of truth and reconciliation. 

We are whole-heartedly committed to longer term work around the actions this week as driven by the Movement for Black Lives: we stand in solidarity with protestors around the world, and we are committed to strategies for divesting from police and prisons and investing in communities. We are dedicated to advancing immediate relief for Black communities, building community control, and ending the war on Black people once and for all. 

We will deepen our efforts within the philanthropic sector to challenge white supremacy, grow resources for movements to end gender-based violence, and shift cultures and systems in support of girls and women of color.

Together, we must build a future that protects and honors Black and Indigenous lives, because our collective liberation depends on it. 

As the pandemic continues to unfold, fissures in the systems that are at the core of how this country operates have been magnified. These systems are failing women of color and their communities. 

Women of color and survivors of violence are facing amplified risks as a direct result of the pandemic. We know that there is a surge in domestic violence and child abuse, racialized violence, and state violence against migrants and people in prison and detention. Women make up two-thirds of the roughly 24 million workers in the 40 lowest-paying jobs in America, many of which are deemed essential in this crisis. We know that over 30 million people continue to access unemployment, and with states reopening across the U.S. there is still the threat of another wave of COVID-19 outbreaks. And we know that this crisis is making billionaires out of millionaires through the stimulus package and other supports that prop up large multinational corporations while small businesses and community groups continue to struggle.  

We are writing to reaffirm our commitment to support women of color survivors through this crisis and into the future, as well as to mobilize new philanthropic resources to this end. While survivors, women of color, gender non conforming and trans people of color will suffer at a disproportionate rate from the lasting effects of the public health and economic crises, they will also be the ones to build power and lead with creativity, brilliance, and interdependence. 

For far too long, philanthropy has under-resourced women-of-color-led organizations, especially Black- and trans-led organizations, with only 0.6% going to efforts led by women of color. As Vanessa Daniels, Executive Director of Groundswell Fund, wrote in a New York Times op-ed, “Our misdirected philanthropy is costing us beyond measure. A mountain of evidence shows progressive victories are surging up from groups led by women of color, particularly black women, that build power on the ground — not trickling down from large Beltway organizations headed by white men.”

Yet there are some encouraging signs. During this period of COVID-19, we have seen philanthropy respond in exemplary ways: initiating rapid response funding, simplifying grantmaking processes, eliminating reporting requirements, and offering more multi-year support. We are excited to see these efforts, and hope that funding institutions will continue these practices to create a “new normal” within philanthropy. It’s a critical time for funders to step up — both in how we fund and how much we fund — if we want to ensure that lasting change can emerge from this crisis. 

That’s why the Collective Future Fund continues to uphold our existing funding commitments and partnerships, and why we’re ever more committed to being nimble in our grantmaking. We will continue funding as a response to the ongoing crises, while also moving towards multi-year grants to help stabilize organizations that are led by survivors of violence and women of color. 

As we navigate these perilous times, we hope the philanthropic community can come together to reimagine what is possible. We hope we can join together as philanthropy, survivors, and social movements to heal, resource, and mobilize toward creative, transformative solutions that prioritize and value the women of color and survivors who are leading the way to a collective future.