What We Learned from Five Years of Funding Community Safety and Transforming Policing – Inside Philanthropy

Too often, those of us committed to equity-driven philanthropy wait to respond to unimaginable trauma instead of funding community organizers working to build safety up front. The horrendous killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor followed by a summer of nationwide uprisings against police violence are among the latest examples of this cycle of violence, outrage, backlash and complacency. Sadly, state violence against Black people is not an aberration in the United States; it is a painful norm. And philanthropys response to this reality often falls short.

Borealis Philanthropys Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) exists to resource Black, Indigenous and people-of-color (BIPOC)-led grassroots organizations in every stage of their fights against police violence and the adverse effects of the carceral system. We provide funding and support in an effort to reshape philanthropys relationship with grassroots organizers and invest in community healing and safety from the start.

This July, the CTPF celebrates five years of supporting this transformative work, having moved nearly $15 million and counting to over 70 grassroots groups since July 2017.

This work is personal

The CTPF is led by Program Director Jeree Thomas, who was called to this work through her experiences as a youth justice attorney and a national policy director. For Jeree, witnessing the impacts of the criminal justice system on her family, friends and clients as well as the killing of George Floyd hit close to home and helped her approach the work of the CTPF with thoughtfulness and intention.

Im a person who grew up seeing both sides of the criminal legal system. One of my earliest memories is losing my uncle to gun violence. I also had family [members] who cycled in and out of incarceration. For a lot of people in our country, particularly Black and brown people, these systems are ever-present in our lives.

When Borealis first launched the CTPF, the fund focused on resourcing local models of police reform, such as procedural justice reforms at the legislative level. Soon, however, we realized that these measures were not enough to prevent violence and harm. What I heard very loud and clear from all of our grantee partners was, we have tried the procedural reforms and our folks are still dying, says Thomas, who recalls connecting with grantee partners and community leaders to tune into the needs of folks on the ground. As a result, the fund started to place a greater emphasis on expanding community services in order to help people who may be vulnerable and curb violence before it starts.

For example, shortly after Thomas joined the CTPF in 2019, one of our grantee partners, the African American Roundtable and their Liberate MKE coalition partners, fought successfully to redirect nearly $1 million from Milwaukee, Wisconsins police budget toward community-based programs. And in March 2020, the CTPF deepened our commitment to grassroots organizing efforts led by individuals most impacted by policing and those working to reallocate power and resources to communities while creating safety for all of us.

As grassroots organizations across the country made stronger demands for defunding the police, our fund was in the prime position to provide the foundational support to smaller, emergent groups, many of whom were advocating for their communities, and needing to connect with larger funders. Thats just what we did.

Shifting power and decision-making to the people

After many community conversations, the CTPF recognized that in addition to providing more organizational support to our grantee partners, it was time to restructure our model of giving to more directly center the communities we serve.

In 2021, we launched our first participatory grantmaking process to align our internal processes and practices with our mission and values of centering and shifting decision-making power to those most impacted by policing and carceral institutions. Our grantee partners selected committee members from across the country who have both direct experience with carceral violence as well as experience advocating against it alongside grassroots organizations. The committee worked together to review applications and select new grantee partners. Committee members brought their valuable perspectives to the grantmaking process, and in June 2022, the CTPF awarded $3.9 million in multi-year grants to 26 organizations.

We know that its not just about dollars its about relationships, reflects Thomas on the lessons learned from collaborating with committee members. We want to help build relationships that can get organizations and their communities more funding and support. We want to help our partners connect and strategize. Our approach to grantmaking is relational, not transactional.

Hopes for the future

Security, joy and the desire for true freedom for BIPOC folks are what drive us in this work. All people have a right to safety, and current systems and frameworks dont provide that. Its critical for philanthropy to help communities of color and grassroots organizers establish what safety looks like for them at a local level.

Looking ahead, the CTPF team hopes to expand our impact into other locales, continuing to support folks working to divest funds from policing and the carceral system and invest resources into BIPOC communities and organizations to expand local movements. Our fund is also making a push to integrate the values and practices of healing justice and disability justice in our work. Community safety impacts all of us which means that our work has to be inclusive and intersectional, says Thomas. And we have to be very intentional about how we are addressing the harm folks continue to experience and the healing necessary to move this work forward together.

As the country continues to grapple with racial injustice and reimagine what true public safety looks like, Borealis Philanthropy and the CTPF require continued support from funders to invest in grassroots organizing for the liberation, joy, safety and advancement of BIPOC communities.

Organizing is the center of power-building work and thats ultimately what we need to see societal shifts, Thomas says. This work is generational, so we have to fund it accordingly.

If youre interested in learning more about the Communities Transforming Policing Fund and how your organization can become a donor partner, visit borealisphilanthropy.org for additional information and resources.

Jeree Thomas serves as the Program Director for Borealis Philanthropys Communities Transforming Policing Fund, which she has been part of since 2019. Khadeaja Carroll is a writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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What We Learned from Five Years of Funding Community Safety and Transforming Policing - Inside Philanthropy