Third Wave Fund

"Climate catastrophes make it clear: gender justice requires climate resilience. We need secure roofs over our heads, clean water to drink, and solid ground beneath us if we want to sustainably organize for trans liberation, abortion access, and bodily self-determination. When unnatural disasters like Hurricane Helene and the West Coast wildfires strike, grassroots organizers must be able to pivot to mutual aid as a matter of survival." Check out our latest blog from our Director of Development, Maryse Mitchell-Brody, on how they learned first-hand the importance of climate resilience to our collective liberation. https://lnkd.in/gvtSJ8mJ

In recognition of International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers, a day to gather around the world to mourn those we’ve lost and fight like hell for the living, the Sex Worker Giving Circle (SWGC) is honored to announce our 2024 grantee partners. These fifteen incredible organizations are leading the fight for sex workers’ rights and freedoms across the country despite being critically under-resourced and organizing through ongoing political attacks. The SWGC was founded in 2018 as the first sex worker-led fund housed at a U.S. foundation that uses a participatory grantmaking model. Over the last six years, the SWGC has grown significantly, from distributing $200,000 in 2018, to giving out $750,000 to new and returning grantee partners from across the U.S. and U.S. territories in 2024. This accounts for a total of over $3.8 million dollars redistributed to the sex worker organizing field since its inception! Learn more about the work of the SWGC and our new, returning, and renewed 2024 grantee partners in our latest blog 🌹 https://lnkd.in/g8yHThzn

"The fear of doing both rapid response and long-term commitments that exists in a large part of philanthropy is actually an investment in a scarcity mindset that is not real. And when philanthropy says that providing unrestricted, long-term funding to queer, BIPOC-led organizations is “risky,” we say no, it’s necessary." In our latest blog, two of Third Wave Fund's Program Officers, Rachel Caïdor & mai doan, talk about the need for funders to become agile, experimental, and more deeply connected in the face of heightened political attacks on our communities. https://lnkd.in/gG8G2mbJ

What does it means to be a funder committed to gender justice in this movement moment? As a gender justice funder for the last 25+ years, we're ready and honored to take part in this always timely conversation. Join our Co-Director, MARS. I. Marshall, on Wednesday, December 11 at 12pm PT / 1pm MT / 2pm CT / 3pm ET in conversation with Omni Romero at Pride Foundation, Sherri Hart at Emergent Fund, and Lanita Morris at Groundswell Fund—shoutout to Neighborhood Funders Group for hosting and organizing us! https://lnkd.in/gkBXEi7s

We each have a role to play in the fight for gender justice. In fact, gender justice is an integral part of every movement* for justice!  Today we’re sending big strength and solidarity to Chase Strangio, civil rights lawyer and Co-Director of ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, as he presents oral arguments to the Supreme Court in a landmark case challenging Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth. We’re also taking a moment to recognize the grassroots gender justice organizing that makes it possible for us to fight for upholding the necessity of gender affirming care today. ✊🏼 Whether it's in the courts, in our classrooms, or in our streets, it will take every tactic and every person everywhere to win. Our role at Third Wave Fund is moving your dollars directly to the QTBIPOC youth-led groups that continue pushing the line and demanding gender justice in our lifetime. Our 100+ grantee partners are on the frontlines and backlines of the fight for bodily autonomy every single day, and activist donors like you make their innovative and responsive work possible. So whether you’re giving Tuesday, Wednesday, or any day of the week, we’re grateful to count you among our community of supporters as we fortify for the work ahead—your contribution is solidarity in real time. 🌹 bit.ly/jointhirdwave 🌹 Continue to show up for gender self-determination wherever you fit in!  *Artwork by our Director of Comms, Monica Trinidad. They said "There are sooo many movements for justice, I just couldn’t fit them all! Shoutout more in the comments ⬇️"

Land acknowledgments are a good and free way to begin to practice solidarity, but social justice funders can and must do more. In our role as a by-and-for community funder, we hold a profound responsibility to help resource the repair, reconciliation, rematriation, and self-determination of Native peoples. Since 2019, we've responded to the creative call from Indigenous peoples’ funds, such as the Manna-hatta Fund, Shuumi Land Tax, and Real Rent Duwamish, for settlers and people not indigenous to this land to “pay rent” to the Native peoples whose land we live on. Paying rent has been a small yet tangible way that we resource our staff to support the self-determination of Native communities wherever they reside, even as we still have more to do to fully answer the call. In 2024, we increased our Real Rent contributions for the first time in three years, knowing we still have more to do to fully answer the call. Learn more about who we paid this year in our latest blog. https://lnkd.in/g598XFKd

Coya White Hat-Artichoker was a visionary leader and advocate for Indigenous reproductive justice, who worked tirelessly to uplift Indigenous women and Two Spirit youth, and ensure philanthropy invested in their leadership. We offer our deepest condolences to the staff at Solidaire, and to all who knew Coya and whose lives were shaped by her fierce commitment to justice and liberation.

On Trans Day of Remembrance/Resilience/Revenge, we honor the lives of our trans siblings—those still with us and those we’ve lost to the violence of transphobia, white supremacy, patriarchy, and all systems of oppression. And, we continue to fight like hell for the living: By centering on trans joy and love and self-determination, by defending trans young people’s rights to gender-affirming care, by demanding that trans people also have access to reproductive health. And by organizing from the knowledge that policing, prisons, and borders will never keep our trans siblings safe—we do. Our fights are so intertwined, so let’s commit to deepening our liberation frameworks rather than ceding ground today. We foresee a future in which our young trans siblings become thriving elders. Invest in grassroots, trans-led organizing today. Artwork by Kah Yangni.

Third Wave Fund was built for moments like this. Our proud tradition of audacious grantmaking helps fortify us against fear and despair. We’re rooting into our legacy of bravery alongside our hundreds of monthly and annual donors. We’re here for our grantee partners, and we’re not going anywhere. The resources that grassroots, gender justice movements receive don’t just appear. They exist because directly impacted people come together, demand that they exist, and make it happen. There are tangible things we can do together to reduce the harm ahead, both in the immediate moment and in the long-term. The only way through this moment is to be in solidarity with those who have both the most to lose and the power to win.  Whether it’s hope, fear, or anger that has brought you to our work asking “What can we do?”—the task ahead is clear. We are in a battle for our future and we trust communities most impacted by oppression to lead the way. We must make good on our feelings and resource grassroots, gender justice movements like our liberation depends on it. Join us today.

Our Co-Director, Morgan Willis, will rep Third Wave Fund this week at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees 2024 convening, Mobilizing Philanthropy, Shifting Power! Mo will be speaking on the closing plenary, discussing Joy, Wellness, and Movement Resilience with some fabulous folks. If you're already a GCIR member, you can view the livestream for this plenary here on 10/30 at 9:45AM ET: https://lnkd.in/gzxz-PST