SEATTLE, WA – “As we are faced, yet again, with the heart-wrenching news of Black people murdered by police in our country, Marguerite Casey Foundation will take immediate action. The foundation is making rapid response grants totalling $600,000 to Black-led abolitionist organizations in Minneapolis, Tallahassee, and Louisville,” said Dr. Carmen Rojas, President & CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation and Jonathan Jayes-Green, Vice President of Programs, in a joint statement.
“We want Black leaders whose work we fund, our Foundation’s Black staff and board members, and Black families whose lives are at the center of our mission to know that we stand with you in the darkness of this moment. While many in philanthropy await pragmatic change, we are doubling down on leaders in communities who believe each and every one of our family members deserves to be free from police surveillance, police violence, and murder at the hands of the police. We are committed to using the resources we steward to expand the aperture of justice. On our first day as President and Vice President of Programs at Marguerite Casey Foundation, we want the loved ones of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Aubery, David McAtee, and George Floyd to know that we are seeking and seeding a more just future in their memory.”
“Today we call on everyone in philanthropy to join us in the continued, critical fight to demand justice and dismantle our country’s white supremacist police and incarceration system.”
Marguerite Casey Foundation’s grant funding will go to the following organizations:
- Black Visions Collective in Minneapolis, Minn.
- Black Lives Matter in Louisville, Ky.
- Dream Defenders, based in Miami, with a chapter in Tallahassee, Fla.
MEDIA CONTACT:
media@caseygrants.org
About Marguerite Casey Foundation
Marguerite Casey Foundation, the philanthropic foundation nurturing the national movement of low-income families advocating on their own behalf for change, has awarded more than $3.5 million in rapid response grant funding directly related to timely needs created as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically funding nonprofit organizations like Color of Change who are on the frontlines of addressing structural racism, immigrant criminalization, and decarceration in real time as additional immediate needs are exposed. Marguerite Casey Foundation’s resources continue to be used to, among other things, create systemic changes and support work that ends the practices holding back People of Color.
