Meet our 2023-2025 Own Our Power Fund Grantees

We’re so excited to welcome some incredible new organizations to the Own Our Power Fund for our 2023-2025 grantmaking cycle! We’re supporting these organizations in capacity-building, increasing the agency of their communities, and building leadership sustainably. Learn more about their work below.

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Fandom Forward | National

Fandom Forward is a research and organizing project that connects online communities across fandoms using a strategy that draws parallels between pop culture and real-world issues impacting trans, queer, BIPOC, and/or abortion-seeking communities. 

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support the second phase of Fandom Forward’s work in building a cross-racial, multi-issue coalition of online fandoms to counter gender and racial oppression within their communities. 

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The Feminist Front | National

The Feminist Front is a youth of color-led organization uniting 15-35 year-olds fighting campaigns for abortion access, voting rights, and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). They also provide direct support to abortion seekers in the U.S. Southwest traveling to California for abortion care.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support Feminist Front’s base building of Feminist Hubs across the U.S. by supporting internal infrastructure and capacity. 

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Fireweed Collective | National

Fireweed Collective is a collective by and for mad and disabled queer folks with intersecting identities who offer resources, support groups, crisis support, and emotional rapid response to other mad and disabled queer community members experiencing altered states and suicidality – experiences that are too often left out from traditional healing justice and disability justice spaces.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support Fireweed’s rebuilding of their operations and programming capacity after a major leadership transition. 

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I Am Human Foundation | Ellewood, GA

I am Human Foundation is a Black, trans-led organization that aims to create a safe space for individuals who are homeless, living with HIV, and trans youth, with a focus on those who experience discrimination due to their lifestyle or gender identity.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support ongoing fundraising efforts with the help of a grant writer.  Funds will also support training for youth organizers to grow IAHF’s base.  

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Liberation Library | Chicago, IL‍

Liberation Library is currently a volunteer-led and democratically organized prison abolition organization that began by providing books and magazines to incarcerated youth in Illinois to support their education, personal growth, and healing. In 2020, they launched a new support initiative: a quarterly magazine called Free the Dream$ that provides a platform for incarcerated youth to share their own stories and connect with others in similar situations and to distribute the publication widely.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support making Free the Dream$, a collaborative project led by incarcerated youth and young people outside with the goal of minimizing isolation and improving conditions for incarcerated youth. 

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The McKenzie Project Inc. | Miami, FL

The McKenzie Project Inc. was founded in 2020 to meet the needs of Black TGNCNB+ people in South Florida, especially those who engage in survival sex work and are disproportionately affected by HIV. They work to change the root causes of the many health and wellness disparities experienced by Black TGNCNB+ people in South Florida through gender justice work and programming promoting entrepreneurship and creative arts. They also provide direct supportive services, including a Hurricane Response Team hub, which trains Black transgender folks to become educators and first responders in their community during climate and environmental justice emergencies.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support a community-based participatory action research project focused on developing a Reproductive and Gender Justice ecosystem map for Black TGNCNB+ people in both Miami-Dade and Broward Counties.

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NativeWomanshare | Grants Pass, OR

Nativewomanshare is an Indigenous Sovereignty movement and community-building project guided by the Takelma tribe and serving Inter-Tribal women, youth, and Two-Spirits of rural Oregon. They empower Indigenous women, youth, and Two-Spirits in Southern Oregon to unite, heal and reclaim pride; to strengthen networks for mutual aid in Indigenous community; and to fight racism, sexism and oppression against Native women and Two-Spirits through public education, community support, healing, and visible representation.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support Nativewomanshare’s new leadership training and coaching for Takelma women and youth inner-circle leaders in administration, finance and financial sovereignty, and community building as they continue to re-matriate their land in Grants Pass.

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St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline | St. Louis, MO 

St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline (SQSH) is a grassroots, community-based, queer, and immigrant-led organization facilitating healing spaces and providing holistic support for queer St. Louisans to thrive. Their mission is to support and empower the St. Louis LGBTQIA+ community through peer-based emotional support and non-judgmental space holding, and facilitating education and advocacy to uplift queer St. Louisan stories.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support SQSH  expand capacity for regional distribution of the 2023 ‘Dreaming Towards Liberation’ Queer Community Anthology, which promotes wider engagement with community-sourced creative works by and for queer St. Louisans and creates greater financial stability for SQSH by widening an avenue of grassroots fundraising. 

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Students for Educational Justice (SEJ) | Hamden, CT 

Students for Educational Justice (SEJ) is a youth-led, membership-based, intergenerational organizing body. The group’s membership consists of local high school students and recent graduates, almost all of whom are BIPOC and represent working-class and underserved urban communities and households.

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support SEJ in launching a student-led and powered podcast in which members will embark on a non-traditional participatory action research project with Hamden area high school students. 

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Taller Lumpen | Mayagüez, PR 

Taller Lumpen is a collective of street artists and activists who use art and urban space design as tools for social change, popular education, and socialization of resources to combat the growing inequality in the Barrio Pueblo neighborhood of Mayagüez, PR. 

The Own Our Power Fund (2023-2025) is providing a two-year grant to support a participatory research process with the children and youth of Mayagüez in order to co-create educational programs for the children and youth who are currently not enrolled in schools. The Participatory Action Research project will also gather and distribute research from children and youth in Mayagüez about how public space should be reclaimed in order to encourage youth engagement in public life and to combat encroaching gentrification and privatization of public space and resources.