Holding Our Own Inc

Holding Our Own is excited to invite you to be part of growing our new Movement Building Fund. We will create competitive fundraising teams and some of us will race in the Freihofer's Run for Women.

The Movement Building Fund is an emergency response grant program that makes grants of up to $1000 available on a rolling basis for activities, actions and community-wide organizing efforts  that fight the right wing’s ongoing attacks on the poor, women, people of color, immigrants, the environment, and the basic tenets of our civil and democratic society. The Fund is an antidote to the sense of helplessness, uncertainty, and anxiety many of us felt on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, after witnessing  the success of a political campaign fundamentally built on misogyny, bigotry, racism, and fear. What became rapidly clear is that the only effective response to surging injustice is a wall of resistance —  a network of people committed to justice and each other, equipped with skill and talent and the ability to mobilize. The Movement Building Fund supports this mobilization. Organizers in the Capital Region are invited to submit requests for financial support for materials, trainers and experts, transportation, and any other resources needed to build and strengthen the wall of resistance that will get us through this period and beyond.

Every day, people are organizing, sharing  information, and strategizing on how to protect ourselves and the  people and communities we love, how to build power and safety, and how  to strengthen and sustain communities that value the preciousness of every being. Across issue areas and strategies, across identities, in nonprofits, community centers, college campuses, and  in neighborhoods, people are resisting the idea that we are powerless against the currently powerful. Holding Our Own is proud to fund that work -- join us!

 

 

 

About Holding Our Own

Holding Our Own, Inc., the women’s foundation of New York State’s Capital Region, was established in 1982 to create and advance feminist social and economic change. As a multiracial, multicultural foundation led by women of color, HOO occupies a unique position among New York’s Capital Region’s philanthropic, advocacy, and social justice organizations. We form a bridge linking many directions: connecting the various communities of color, the philanthropic community and social change work; between heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, and predominantly white led and predominantly people of color led organizations.

The following values guide and inform Holding Our Own’s board and staff as we make the difficult decisions about which projects to fund. Projects requesting support from Holding Our Own should describe in their applications how their proposed programs uphold and/or demonstrate these principles.

Guiding Principles

♦ Holding Our Own defines feminist social justice as the presence of structures, policies, and practices within a community that empower women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming (GNC) individuals and recognizes that every person is equally and infinitely precious. Feminist social justice work involves challenging those structures of power and privilege in society that cause harm to and destroy the life chances of individuals, families, and communities.

♦ Holding Our Own believes that the leadership of those most affected by violence and oppression, particularly women, girls, trans, and GNC individuals, is essential to effectively demanding resources and changing the power structure in our communities, in our society, and across the world.

♦ Holding Our Own is committed to supporting projects that would not typically be supported by mainstream funding sources, especially those initiatives that are radical, risk-taking and non-traditional.

♦ Holding Our Own believes collaborations and coalition building across communities are central to successful and sustainable change. We are especially committed to multigenerational efforts.

♦ Holding Our Own supports cis-men and boys as partners with women, girls, trans, and GNC individuals in combating violence and ending sexism.