Social and Economic Justice | Opportunity Fund

OPPORTUNITY FUND PROVIDES $1,340,501 IN GRANTS TO THE ARTS AND SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

By opportunity-fund
November 20, 2023
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Opportunity Fund Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, November 22, 2023 — Opportunity Fund announces grantmaking support in the total amount of $1,340,501 in the second half of the foundation’s ninth year. The foundation reviewed 147 requests for funding, requesting a total of $3,024,397. This cycle, each of the 70 full applications were reviewed by one of the following: an arts community panel, a social & economic justice community panel, or the Opportunity Fund’s Board of Directors who review both arts and social & economic justice applications.

Opportunity Fund’s aspiration is to nurture reciprocal relationships with its partners and community members. Trust is key to building strong relationships and, in turn, being in community. General operating support is a type of funding that is unrestricted and allows organizations to use it as they best see fit to meet their goals. The majority of this year’s grant funding, 82%, is unrestricted general operating support. Black-led organizations make up 51% of this year’s total grant partners, 32% are white-led, and 17% have Asian, Latinx, and/or Native leadership teams. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.

OPPORTUNITY FUND PROVIDES $1,040,750 IN GRANTS TO THE ARTS AND SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

By Opportunity Fund
May 22, 2023
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, May 25, 2023 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $1,040,750 in its ninth year of grantmaking. The Board of Directors and two community panels funded 62 out of 152 requests, plus 3 discretionary grants, that were seeking a total of $2,527,971. 31% of the dollars are for the arts and 69% for social and economic justice. The majority of this funding, 77%, is for unrestricted general operating support that can be used flexibly. 75% of grant partners are BIPOC-led organizations or organizations with multi-racial leadership teams; 66% are Black-led organizations. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.

Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 980 grants totaling nearly $14 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.

OPPORTUNITY FUND PROVIDES $1,447,000 IN GRANTS TO THE ARTS AND SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

By Opportunity Fund
December 2, 2022
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, December 7, 2022 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $1,447,000 in the second half of its eighth year of grantmaking. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels, funded 79 out of 145 requests that were seeking a total of $2,350,536. The majority of this funding, 77%, is for unrestricted general operating support that can be used flexibly as needed. 64% of grant partners are BIPOC-led organizations or organizations with multi-racial leadership teams; 50% are Black-led organizations. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.

Since its inception in 2015, the foundation has awarded 914 grants totaling over $12.8 million. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.

Respite for Black Women: A New Opportunity Fund Initiative

By Opportunity Fund
August 24, 2022
Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

“I believe that shifting culture is necessary for systems change. Rest results in strength. Healing creates energy. Joy sparks creativity. Connection creates community. Dreaming leads to transformation. This is where the potential lies.”
Maria De La Cruz

Respite for Black Women (#r4Blw), a new Opportunity Fund initiative, has been underway since spring of 2022. Inspired by local activists, Opportunity Fund board and staff invited a multiracial, multicultural, intergenerational group of local, national, and international individuals to ask questions, explore, and dream with Opportunity Fund about what it could mean for philanthropy to provide resources that fund the “right to rest” to Black women, in the full gender expression of that term. A flurry of questions emerged—from what does it mean for Black women to be funded to create a way of being that is accessible and considers the whole person? What does it mean to rest? Where does one go to rest? How do we in all of our complexities begin to visualize spaces for Black women and their families to simply rest and just be in their bodies?

Support Black-Led Organizations

By opportunity-fund
July 6, 2022
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

Many of us want to support groups who are rising up to meet this moment in powerful ways — but don’t know where to look. Or who to trust. Below is a list of Black-led groups who know what this moment demands of us. We encourage you to flow your resources to them as we do.

_{Please note that some of the entities listed below are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations, and some are not.}

OPPORTUNITY FUND PROVIDES $934,879 IN GRANTS TO THE ARTS AND SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

By opportunity-fund
May 26, 2022
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, May 31, 2022 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $934,879 in the foundation’s eighth year of grantmaking. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels, funded 73 out of 106 requests that sought a total of $1,798,679. The majority of this funding, 72%, is for unrestricted general operating support that can be used flexibly, as needed. 47% of grant partners are BIPOC-led organizations or organizations with multi-racial leadership teams; 32% are Black-led organizations. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.

Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 833 grants totaling over $11.4 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.

Opportunity Fund Stands in Solidarity with Coalition Calling Upon Colcom to Stop Funding Anti-Immigrant Political Work

By opportunity-fund
February 28, 2022
Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

A broad coalition of organizations and agencies, being convened by several of our grant partners, is asking Pittsburgh-based Colcom Foundation to stop funding white nationalist political work around the U.S.

We stand in solidarity with this coalition by signing the open letter to call on Colcom to stop funding the network of anti-immigrant groups it has long supported. We advocate for the legal rights of immigrants and refugees to stay in the U.S. without fear and believe in the humanity of those who face enormous harm due, in no small part, to Colcom’s funding.

OPPORTUNITY FUND PROVIDES $1,478,750 IN GRANTS TO THE ARTS AND SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE

By Tiffany Wilhelm
December 13, 2021
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, December 13, 2021 — The Opportunity Fund announces support totaling $1,478,750, the largest cycle ever in its seventh year of grantmaking. The Board of Directors, along with two community panels, funded 81 out of 142 requests that were seeking a total of $2,516,525. A complete list of awarded grants can be found below.

Including this current grant cycle, the foundation has awarded 752 grants totaling over $10.3 million since its inception in 2015. Grant cycles take place twice a year. Letter of Inquiry deadlines are January 15 and July 15 each year. Full information about applying for grants is available in the “For Applicants” area of our website.

To Advance Racial Justice, a Foundation Tries Leaving the Room

By opportunity-fund
December 7, 2021
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

CONTACT: Jake Goodman, Executive Director, jgoodman [at] theopportunityfund.org

PITTSBURGH, PA, December 7, 2021 – For some, the uprisings for racial justice in the summer of 2020 came and went. But for the Opportunity Fund and its Executive Director, Jake Goodman, the energy of that time offered “a precious moment of potential.” This moment “revealed the anti-Blackness that is baked into American life, which results in an ever-evolving and systematic devaluation of Black life that is designed to protect and grow the standing of white people. Once exposed, it is vulnerable.”

A subsequent evolution occurred within the Opportunity Fund, beginning with a recognition that, every grant cycle, proposals flow in to address problems existing within systems: housing, transportation, human services, criminal justice, social services. The vast majority of applicants report that these systems create the very worst outcomes for Black people. “If we truly do not accept the current status quo of many Black people living and dying under worse conditions than almost everybody else,” says Goodman, “then we need to change the way we generally go about business at the Opportunity Fund. Otherwise, we are tacitly accepting that status quo.”

By opportunity-fund
June 18, 2020
Arts,Opportunity Fund,Social and Economic Justice

To Our Community,

The thing about a moment is that it comes and goes. We have seen moments when the hope of racial justice seemed within reach and, every time, we have seen them go.

We are now in a precious moment of potential. The racism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness that is baked and caked in/onto American life—and that results in an ever-evolving but systemic devaluation of Black life, meant to protect and grow the standing of white people—is, for growing masses of us, exposed. And vulnerable.

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