Grantmaking Program

Our grantmaking program supports organizations that advance an explicit racial justice analysis and practice. In addition to financial and capacity-building resources, we provide our grantees with opportunities to build relationships with each other — relationships that will help allow them to develop into a strong, coherent racial justice movement.

We operate three separate funds: the Race and Place Fund, the Building a Movement Fund, and the Strategic Opportunity Support Fund. The first two funds make long-term commitments and provide multi-year support to a small number of grantees. The latter provides short-term support to RAP and BAM grantees to meet specific goals.

Race and Place Fund (RAP):

Building Racially Just Communities

Time and time again, local stories and struggles have captured the collective imagination and sparked national and even international movements.  Take, for example, the Birmingham Bus Boycott, the Stonewall Rebellion or the Soweto Uprisings.  The Akonadi Foundation believes that Oakland can be the next place to provide this kind of inspiration to the country.  That is why we started the Race and Place Fund (RAP).

RAP aims to help build the political, social and cultural power in Oakland necessary to assert racial justice values and generate just alternatives to existing structural racism.  To that end, RAP supports:

• groups engaged in grassroots organizing and intermediaries developing local infrastructure and capacity;
• groups working for racially just legislative and policy change on a local, regional or statewide level; and
• groups that build community and advance public discourse on race through cultural work.

In addition to local groups, RAP supports key allies throughout the region working with Oakland-based organizations towards regional racial justice outcomes.

[See Our Race and Place Grantees]

Building A Movement Fund (BAM):

Racial Justice Movement Building

Our analysis has revealed a racial justice movement that is fragmented. It lacks a shared vision, shared analysis and shared language. That is why we started the Building a Movement Fund (BAM).

The Building a Movement Fund, aims to help the racial justice movement develop a shared theory, analysis and strategy on a national level.  BAM supports organizations across the country whose core work is to deepen our understanding of structural racism; to disseminate an explicit racial justice theory; and advance strategic action toward racial justice.  Specifically, BAM supports:

• innovative scholarship and policy analysis;
• applied research, think tanks and cultural work;
• public policy advocacy; and
• training and capacity building intermediaries.

These organizations can not only help develop shared values, vision and practice for the racial justice movement, but can also open up a much-needed national dialogue on race and racial justice in the broader public.

[See Our Building A Movement Grantees] 

Strategic Opportunity Support Fund (SOS)

The Strategic Opportunity Support Fund (SOS) complements and enhances RAP and BAM by providing rapid-turnaround grants. SOS has two aims:

• to give RAP grantees the capacity to address specific organizational needs; and
• to bring RAP and BAM grantees and their allies together.

SOS funds help RAP grantees develop and refine their racial justice analysis and incorporate a racial justice practice into their everyday work. SOS also gives RAP grantees easy access to the innovations of our BAM grantees by sponsoring racial justice convenings. These convenings help disseminate theory, analysis and strategy, as well as encourage strong relationships and alliances among grantees and their allies.