2010 Grants
Congratulations to our new cohort of grantees!
Seasons Fund is pleased to announce our new grantees from the Networks and Coalitions category: Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice/EMERJ Network, Alliance for Education Justice, Center for Community Change, National Training and Information Center, The Partnership for Working Families, Service Employees International Union/Rockwood Leadership Institute, and Steps Coalition.
Networks and Coalitions With this round of grantmaking, Seasons Fund granted awards to high-impact coalitions, networks and collaborative efforts that are committed to transformational social change practices and methodologies. In order to advance this transformative model on a large scale, Seasons provided funds to take reflective and contemplative practices deeper into these networks’ chapters and affiliates. Priority was given to coalitions collaborating with intermediaries who train, guide and support the coalitions in taking the transformative work more strategically into their organizational cultures.
Alliance for Education Justice { $50,000 }
The Alliance for Education Justice is a new national alliance of youth organizing and intergenerational groups working for educational justice. AEJ aims to bring grassroots groups together to bring about changes in federal education policy; to build a national infrastructure for the education justice sector; and to build the capacity of our organizations and our youth leaders to sustain and grow the progressive movement over the long haul. Movement Strategy Center been selected by AEJ member groups to coordinate the initial development and growth of AEJ for the next two years. Through their partnership with MSC, the alliance will incorporate transformative practices in their work with youth organizers as a way of building a new movement culture among the next generation of progressive leaders.
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice/EMERJ Network { $80,000 }
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice promotes and protects reproductive justice through organizing, building leadership capacity, developing alliances and education to achieve community and systemic change. ACRJ is a key founder and anchor of EMERJ (Expanding the Movement for Empowerment and Reproductive Justice), a national movement initiative. Since the launch of EMERJ, their main goals for achieving social change—capacity building, leadership development, and agenda alignment—have found their deepest expression in the development of their transformative practice, Forward Stance. By integrating Forward Stance into the infrastructure of the emerging Reproductive Justice Movement from the ground up, ACRJ helps to build power and strengthen the capacity of the Progressive Movement as a whole. Forward Stance is a mind-body technology which applies principles found in Zen training and spiritual development – energy, synergy, rhythm, momentum, positioning, leveraging, and awareness – which are all necessary elements for collective and strategic action. Forward Stance practices provide a daily way to embody “the change we hope to see within ourselves, our organizations and our society.”
Center for Community Change { $70,000 }
The Center for Community Change’s mission is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, particularly low-income people of color, to change their communities and public policies for the better. They work with grassroots community organizations across the country to advance policy change, develop and strengthen the field of organizing, and build new ideas, leaders, organizations and alliances for the future. CCC’s vision is for all low-income people to have the tools, alliances and resources to make their voices heard and to fully participate in determining the policies that will affect them. They aim to play a significant role in advancing federal policy change that will improve the lives of low-income people. CCC came to the work of transformative practice through a pilot leadership development program designed by staff with Rockwood training. The program covered a range of elements including organizing, campaigns, personal mastery, structural racism theory, purposeful writing, relationship building, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and proactive communication.
National Training & Information Center { $80,000 }
The National Training & Information Center’s core purpose is to develop the ideas, talent, and organizations that will help reclaim our democracy and advance racial and economic justice. The grassroots organizations supported by NTIC are affiliated into the National People’s Action (NPA) Network, which includes more than 140 organizers and staff representing metropolitan, regional and statewide power structures across 14 states and the District of Columbia. NTIC also operates as a policy, research and training center, with a comprehensive platform for social and economic change based on these core strategies: (1) Build the field through strategic power planning, electoral organizing, and organizer and leadership training; (2) Coordinate breakthrough issue campaigns where others are not; and (3) Build far-reaching alliances that will propel larger, more ambitious social change efforts. The NTIC network has been using transformative practice since its inception; silent reflection and ecumenical invocations have been part their network gatherings for years, along with guided imagery, centering exercises and journaling.
The Partnership for Working Families { $50,000 }
The Partnership for Working Families is dedicated to building power and reshaping the economy and urban environment for workers and communities. They work to ensure that low and middle income workers and communities inform the process and share in the benefits of economic growth and development, emphasizing the creation of high quality jobs, affordable housing, environmental health, and career pipelines for shared prosperity. Several leaders on their national board have been through Rockwood training, and believe that internalizing transformational practices into the culture of the growing movement is essential if they are to break the mold of traditional campaign-driven coalitions and move toward a true transformation through their organizing.
Service Employees International Union/Rockwood Leadership Institute { $70,000 }
Service Employees International Union is the largest union in America and is the fastest growing union in the key sectors of healthcare and property services (security, food service, cleaning); it is also the largest union of immigrants in this country. The Rockwood Leadership Institute is the nation’s largest provider of multi-day, transformative leadership trainings for social change nonprofit communities, training in personal mastery, interpersonal skills, organizational leadership and large systems change. Funds are sought for a partnership between SEIU and the Rockwood Leadership Institute to introduce the Rockwood transformational personal and organizational change model to the largest union in America as well as to pilot a cross-labor transformative process. This partnership would focus on both the inner work that centers leaders in their purpose as well as organizational change that would deepen and widen the potential to redesign the labor movement from a social justice unionism frame, prioritizing justice inside and outside the worksite and building real power in working class communities on a massive scale.
Steps Coalition { $50,000 }
The mission of the Steps Coalition is to build a democratic movement to create a healthy, just and equitable Mississippi Gulf Coast. Comprised of over 35 local, state and national non-profit organizations, Steps develops local leadership, empowers communities to advocate for themselves, and facilitates collaboration. Through community dialogue, organizing, policy advocacy, and media advocacy, Steps’ members work to transform oppressive systems, structures and policies impacting five social justice “pillar” areas: affordable housing, environmental justice, economic justice, preservation of historic communities, and human rights. Steps was founded in 2006 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to act on the opportunity to create an infrastructure that would approach the task of recovery and rebuilding on a more unified and collaborative basis. Steps is committed to implementing transformational social change practices that will create the space for authentic reflection, renewal and respect for people’s ability to learn, act and shape their own lives. Steps has integrated transformative practice into its network through “resiliency retreats” and story circles.
Seasons Fund is also pleased to announce our new grantees from the Open category: Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Brooklyn Congregations United, c-Integral, Domestic Workers United, Good Old Lower East Side, Jewish Organizing Initiative, Just Cause Oakland, La Plazita Institute, LAANE, Mediators Foundation, Mothers on the Move, New York Jobs with Justice, SCOPE, and Women and Girls Collective Action Network.
Open Call With this round of grantmaking, Seasons Fund considered proposals from organizations falling within our criteria of transformative social change work. We provided funds to both frontline groups that are experimenting with these transformative practices and intermediaries that are providing transformational and contemplative training and consulting to frontline organizations.
Asian Pacific Environmental Network { $10,000 }
APEN works to create a world where all people have a right to a clean and healthy environment in which their communities can live, work, learn, play and thrive. Through building an organized movement, they strive to bring fundamental changes to economic and social institutions that will prioritize public good over profits and promote the right of every person to a healthy, safe, affordable quality of life, and the right to participate in decisions affecting their lives. In Spring 2009, APEN launched its Transformative Organizing Initiative, a dedication to deep, transformative changes—from individual leadership, organizational culture, to movement infrastructure—in order to meet the current political opportunities and take their work to the next level.
Brooklyn Congregations United { $10,000 }
Brooklyn Congregations United is a multi-ethnic, faith-based community organization which is developing powerful grassroots community leaders and building strong relational networks within and among congregations to transform conditions for low and moderate income families in Brooklyn. BCU works for policy changes at local and state levels in the areas of immigration, community policing, education, and quality of life. They follow the PICO model and analysis of power, believing that power rests in relationships and that through the one-to-one to process people build power through connections and numbers. They are in the process of testing how the power of story telling, prayer and meditation can make internal changes which allow leaders (congregational members) to build power and make concrete improvements in their communities.
c-Integral { $15,000 }
c-Integral seeks to develop integral awareness, deepen critical understanding, and foster the use of transformative practices among community organizers, social and spiritual activists, cultural workers, organizational leaders, students, educators, and other change agents in Puerto Rico and the United States. Using a consciousness-in-action approach to integral social and cultural transformation, they guide, train and mentor change agents to more effectively and appropriately respond to critical challenges they face in their lives and work. Their approach is derived from twenty-plus years of Latino leadership development and multicultural community organizing work; the establishment of c-Integral reflects a broader and deeper application of its principles and practices and the vision that guides this work.
Domestic Workers United { $15,000 }
Domestic Workers United is a membership-based organization of Caribbean, Latina and African domestic workers organizing to build the power of the domestic workforce, raise the level of respect for domestic work, establish fair labor standards in the domestic work industry of New York City and help build a movement to end exploitation once and for all. DWU’s activities largely fall within 6 areas of work: base-building, leadership development, grassroots organizing campaigns, culture and communications, organizational development, and alliances. Their organizing staff trains at Social Justice Leadership’s Transformative Organizing Initiative, where they gain skills in centering, feedback, and leadership development practices, which they then share with members through their collaboration with work committees.
Good Old Lower East Side { $15,000 }
GOLES is a neighborhood housing and preservation organization that is dedicated to tenants’ rights, homelessness prevention, economic development and community revitalization. GOLES works with community residents to advocate and organize, with long-term goals to build the power of low-income residents to address displacement and gentrification, preserve and expand the low-income housing stock, assert community self-determination over the use of public space and ensure a clean and healthy environment where people live, work, and play. A grant from Seasons will allow for a second year of staff training in Social Justice Leadership’s Transformative Organizing Initiative.
Jewish Organizing Initiative { $15,000 }
Jewish Organizing Initiative trains the next generation of Jewish social justice leaders, and helps them develop the organizing skills and experience to build powerful Jewish and community organizations throughout their lifetimes. Through its Fellows and alumni, JOI engages community leaders to build power and take effective and sustainable action on a range of systemic justice issues. Transformational social change practices such as Shabbat observance, structured written and verbal reflection, and storytelling as a form of reflective practice are central to the JOI program.
Just Cause Oakland { $15,000 }
Just Cause Oakland’s mission is to create a just and diverse city by organizing Oakland residents to fight for housing as a human right, and to mobilize large numbers of people to secure policies that will produce racial and economic justice in low-income communities of color. The primary goal of JCO’s work is to secure and protect fair, affordable housing for low-income communities of color in Oakland and nationally. As an organization, JCO practices somatics, allowing volunteers, members and staff to heal around their histories of trauma, violence and oppression and build their resilience toward becoming more powerful contributors to social justice in their own lives and in the communities they serve.
La Plazita Institute { $10,000 }
La Plazita Institute is a grassroots organization that engages young people and their families in a comprehensive, holistic approach toward youth and community development. They also provide transformative training and consulting services to staff and administrators in the justice system. Their programming facilitates inner awareness and personal development for their youth and previously incarcerated staff through ritual, ceremony, deep dialogue and storytelling. They provide a lens through which justice system personnel can begin to understand the lives and circumstances of the youth they serve, and so learn to approach them in a manner that will help them gain the trust of youth—thus increasing their ability to help these youth to succeed.
LAANE { $15,000 }
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy’s mission is to transform the economy and uplift low-income communities by involving people in initiatives that impact their lives very directly in terms of job quality, access to employment and healthcare, neighborhood services, equal rights, and a clean environment—using research, organizing, coalition-building, policy and communications to achieve their goals. They have had some leadership training that included introductory Rockwood-influenced “leadership stands,” trust and team building, personal ecology, leadership styles and listening and communication skills. LAANE seeks this grant to continue the work they’ve only just started but recognize as essential to creating real visionary and committed leaders.
Mediators Foundation { $20,000 }
Conceived by Robert Gass, the mission of The Mediators Foundation’s Social Transformation Project is to play a supportive role in building the field of social transformation, in order to facilitate a shift in the way social change is done: from fear and reaction to hope and positive vision, from piecemeal efforts to true partnership and systemic change, from activity to powerful results, and from burnout to a lifetime of sustained engagement.
Mothers on the Move { $15,000 }
Mothers on the Move/Madres en Movimiento is a member-led social justice organization that organizes working class and low-income people of color to lead strategic campaigns that produce concrete improvements in the lives of local residents. MOM members prioritize three issue of work: Environmental Justice, Housing Justice and Youth/Education Organizing. All current MOM full-time staff have received at least two years of training through SJL’s Transformative Organizing Initiative, and MOM has a deep organizational commitment to embodying SJL’s “5 Core Practices Leadership for Social Justice.”
New York Jobs with Justice { $20,000 }
New York Jobs with Justice is a permanent coalition of worker and community organizations working to secure good jobs and strong communities for all New Yorkers. They develop and implement organizing, policy, and communications campaigns for New York City and State that promote social change and build the movement for economic justice. NY JwJ began incorporating a transformative approach to organizing and leadership development into their network in 2003. (Two senior staff participated in the year-long Rockwood Leadership Program and soon after began to incorporate learning from that program as well as from their own personal practices and organizational development experience into the culture of NY JwJ.) In 2004, NY JwJ became part of the founding collaboration of Social Justice Leadership. Since then, NY JwJ has been continuously engaged in the programs of SJL, including ACTIVATE! and both year-long Transformative Organizing Initiatives.
SCOPE: Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education { $15,000 }
SCOPE builds grassroots power to eliminate the structural barriers to social and economic opportunities for poor and disenfranchised communities. They combine community organizing, leadership development, strategic alliance building, research, training and capacity building, and policy advocacy to pursue their mission at the local, regional, state and national levels. Their objectives are to exercise power and influence local, state and federal resources and policies toward prioritizing union jobs and investment in low-income communities of color; build a politically conscious core of grassroots leaders and members to mobilize a mass bass of support for green jobs and job training in low-income communities; position SCOPE’s new Training and Policy Education Department to provide training and capacity building assistance to social justice organizations, to provide a consistent source of revenue. Several senior staff have participated in the Rockwood Leadership Program’s Art of Leadership workshops.
Women and Girls Collective Action Network { $10,000 }
Women & Girls CAN is a center for consciousness-raising, training, dialogue and action around issues that matter to women and girls. They strengthen connections across communities to promote collective action; provide resources and support to create safe spaces for girls and women to develop as leaders, learn from one another, and take action to promote social justice; and aim to build a world free of interpersonal and gender-based violence. Their transformational approaches include writing circles, visual arts, healing circles and self care.
2009 Transformative Leadership Awardees
The Seasons Fund is pleased to announce the winners and finalists of our inaugural Transformative Leadership Awards. The Fund received over 80 applications from collaborative teams across the country. We were inspired by the breadth of work integrating transformative practice into progressive social change initiatives. Ultimately the Fund chose to honor six leadership teams who are defining this emerging field of social transformation and developing new models of leadership itself. Each team received a $30,000 award. The Seasons Fund also created a finalist category (offering $5,000 awards) to acknowledge the phenomenal work happening in two additional organizations.
Congratulations to the Awardees and the Finalists! Their work exemplifies some of the most exciting and innovative practices in the field:
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE – Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, Rev. Bridie Roberts, Diana Mendoza and Rabbi Alison Abrams)
CLUE-CA is a grassroots alliance of fourteen affiliates who have come together to build a faith-rooted movement for economic justice. The larger collaborative campaigns in which they participate are led by the working poor—understanding that those who are most impacted have a responsibility and role in affecting change in their communities. CLUE practices an original model called “faith-rooted” organizing, which focuses on personal awareness and religious disciplines as a way to sustain and guide their work. CLUE utilizes symbols, texts, principles, music, rituals and practice—individual and communal—to communicate moral authority and inspiration to the larger economic justice movement.
ForestEthics (Tzeporah Berman and Merran Smith)
ForestEthics’ approach entails persuading Fortune 1000 companies to use their purchasing and brand leverage to have a positive impact on forests for the people and wildlife that depend upon them. They have been successful at changing confrontational relationships into constructive partnerships. ForestEthics has cultivated an organizational culture of integrity and authenticity in part by sending its entire staff to the trainings of another Seasons Fund Awardee, Rockwood Leadership Program.
With the tools learned at Rockwood, Tzeporah Berman and Merran Smith have—in their work on the Great Bear Rainforest campaign—helped bring together one of the most diverse coalitions imaginable: major corporations, logging companies, indigenous groups, government officials and environmental leaders. Thanks to this great work, the team forged a collaborative solution that is already serving as a model for governments, organizations and movements across the globe.
Generative Somatics (Staci Haines) and Social Justice Leadership (Ng’ethe Maina)
Staci Haines of Generative Somatics and Ng’ethe Maina of Social Justice Leadership are working to integrate transformative practice into the social and environmental justice movements by using the innovations of somatics and neuroscience to support change agents in their work. Their partnership is informed by their joint assessment that personal and social transformation are interdependent. They believe that somatic methodologies make a radical contribution to the effectiveness and capacity of the progressive left. Their shared social change objective is to alter the way that structural power is organized so that it supports social justice, environmental sustainability, personal and collective well being and spiritual awakening.
Make the Road New York (Ana Maria Archila, Andrew Friedman, Deborah Axt, Julie Quinton, Irene Tung, Oona Chatterjee and Theo Jose Oshiro)
Make the Road New York (MRNY) was formed in 2007 by the conscious coming together of leaders from two dynamic grassroots organizations: Make the Road by Walking and the Latin American Integration Center. This long-lasting collaboration has created the largest community-based, participatory, democratic organization of low-income immigrants in New York City. Make the Road New York tackles the challenges faced by low-income immigrants and people of color in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Community members are organizing around workers’ rights, access to health care, decent and affordable housing, civil rights, equitable and excellent public education and environmental justice.
MRNY is committed to supporting the health and wellness of grassroots leaders by integrating inner awareness practices into their work. Partnering with Social Justice Leadership (another Seasons Fund Awardee), they are building organizational effectiveness and capacity through rigorous analysis and practices that cultivate self mastery and spiritual growth in order to enhance their organizational culture.
Rockwood Leadership Program (Akaya Windwood and Robert Gass)
Rockwood seeks to promote social change by providing key individuals, nonprofit organizations and policy advocacy centers with powerful, effective and transformative training in leadership and collaboration. Rockwood provides hundreds of change agents with the skills needed to lead organizations powerfully and sustainably. Rockwood recently “graduated” its 2,250th alumnus, making it the nation’s largest provider of multi-day, transformative leadership trainings to social change nonprofit communities. Inner awareness practices are core to all of Rockwood’s programs.
Akaya Windwood and Robert Gass are the architects behind much of Rockwood’s work, including their signature ‘Art of Leadership’ training. Their eight year partnership is a cornerstone of Rockwood’s success. Ultimately, they seek to create a major shift in the effectiveness, health and sustainability of those working for a more just and sustainable world.
stone circles (Claudia Horwitz and Jesse Vega-Frey)
The mission of stone circles is to sustain activists and strengthen work for justice through spiritual practice and principles. stone circles now runs The Stone House, a center for spiritual life and strategic action on 70 acres of land. Inner awareness is woven fully into the fabric of stone circles’ goals and programs. As a result, The Stone House has become a touchstone for over 1,000 people from across North Carolina and the country.
Claudia Horwitz and Jesse Vega-Frey have been working together since 2003. Through their powerful partnership, they have produced a wide range of programs rooted in the integration of spirituality and social change. Their team has reached people locally, nationally and internationally from a variety of constituencies, including young people and campus-based activists, nonprofit leaders, advocates, service providers and organizers.
FINALISTS:
Kindred (Cara Page) and Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative (Sonali Sadequee)
Kindred’s mission is to honor and resource healing traditions as tools for liberation. Kindred seeks to manifest the physical, environmental, spiritual and emotional well being of its communities. This is achieved by responding to the impact of oppression on minds, bodies and spirits with tools for wellness, resilience and sustainability.
The Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative is a group of organizers working to transform state, communal and interpersonal responses to violence. Together, Atlanta Transformative Justice Collaborative and Kindred use sacred space and ritual as a means of radical transformation and exploration. They are creating a cross-movement alliance that supports healing, health and wellness in their communities.
Miami Workers Center (Gihan Perera, Randy Jackson, Sushma Sheth and Tony Romano)
The Miami Workers Center is a strategy and action center that builds the collective strength of working class and poor Black and Latino communities in Miami. They work to increase the power and self-determination of these communities by initiating and supporting community-led grassroots organizations that confront the critical social issues of our time: poverty, racism and gender oppression. Infused throughout their work is the belief that in transforming the world, we transform ourselves—and conversely, that in transforming ourselves we transform the world. The leaders at Miami Workers Center believe that this value holds true at the individual, community, national and global levels and aspire to attain this vision through their powerful social justice work.
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2007 Grants
In December 2007, the Seasons Fund awarded its first set of grants to a wide range of groups that represent pioneering efforts to integrate personal and social transformation throughout their organizations and movements. After receiving over fifty inquiries, and inviting thirty-three proposals, the Fund chose fifteen organizations to receive grants. Grantees were chosen for their capacity to stimulate and strengthen this emerging field as well as for the quality of their individual programs and services. As the field develops, and the Fund’s resources grow, we expect to support a broader range of lesser-known, but similarly solid groups at the frontiers of this vital work.
Among these fifteen organizations, some—like Social Justice Leadership and the Rockwood Leadership Program—offer training and leadership development opportunities to many other groups. Groups like stone circles in North Carolina are sharing knowledge and experience through the development of practical tools and case studies. Others such as Make the Road New York are working on the front-lines of social justice in their local communities. Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice and Native Movement Alaska use reflective and contemplative techniques to deepen and strengthen their work with marginalized groups and communities, while ForestEthics engages with the business sector to improve environmental standards from a base of deep connection, rather than through confrontation alone.
Given that Seasons Fund is a new and collaborative effort, we are interested in working together with our grantees to encourage the growth of this evolving field. We will support efforts to document and evaluate the impact of “integrated social change,” as well as efforts to bring people together to share their experiences and develop stronger programs.
It is a privilege to support the work of organizations consciously working to embody the values of interdependence, accountability, reflective analysis, love and justice. Their efforts are helping to build a more compassionate, sustainable, and effective movement for social change in North America.
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice { $20,000 }
Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice promotes and protects reproductive justice through organizing, developing leadership capacity, building alliances and educating the community about women’s reproductive rights. ACRJ is working with Movement Strategy Center’s Spirit in Motion program to integrate the values and practices of spiritual activism into their core work.
http://www.reproductivejustice.org/
Center for Contemplative Mind in Society { $20,000 }
The center works to integrate contemplative awareness into contemporary life in order to help create a more just, compassionate and reflective society. They offer practices drawn from ancient wisdom and current spiritual disciplines to people interested in incorporating this powerful guidance into all aspects of everyday life. The goal of the Center’s Social Justice Program is to improve the effectiveness of all sectors of the social justice movement by demonstrating the benefits of contemplative practices for activists and organizers.
http://www.contemplativemind.org
ForestEthics { $30,000 }
ForestEthics’ approach entails persuading Fortune 1000 companies to use their purchasing and brand leverage to have a positive impact on forests for the people and wildlife that depend upon them. They have been successful at changing confrontational relationships into constructive partnerships. ForestEthics is committed to sending their entire staff to Rockwood Leadership training in order to cultivate an organizational culture of integrity and authenticity.
http://www.forestethics.org
Gamaliel Foundation { $25,000 }
A faith-based organizing network experimenting with tools for reflection and dialogue aimed at mining people’s profound desire for a vision of larger social change. In 2007 Gamaliel Foundation launched the Faith & Democracy Conversations inviting deep reflection about and sharing tools for resisting individualism, racism, isolation and injustice. These tools link individual transformation with collective impact to create a shared worldview that draws on hope, shared abundance, and community. http://www.gamaliel.org
Institute for Jewish Spirituality { $20,000 }
The Institute has developed expertise in creating contemplative programs for diverse groups of Jewish religious leaders to do deep work of personal and social transformation. IJS plans to bring this work to groups of Jewish activists in a variety of social change organizations and to produce a new social justice curriculum.
http://www.ijs-online.org
Make the Road, New York { $40,000 }
Make the Road New York tackles the challenges faced by low-income immigrants and people of color in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Community members are organizing around worker’s rights, access to health care, decent and affordable housing, civil rights, equitable and excellent public education, and environmental justice. Make the Road New York partners with Social Justice Leadership to build organizational capacity through rigorous analysis and practices that cultivate self mastery and spiritual growth in order to enhance their organizational culture and effectiveness.
http://www.maketheroad.org
Movement Strategy Center { $40,000 }
Movement Strategy Center is working to build a progressive movement by infusing sustainable practices and tools into the organizational cultures and the daily lives of movement leaders and institutions. MSC seeks to change the culture of social change work so that it reflects the deepest values and broadest visions for a more just and sustainable world.
http://movementstrategy.org
Native Movement Alaska { $20,000 }
Native Movement Alaska carries a vision of motivating the world’s people towards balanced relations with each other and Mother Earth. The mission is to encourage, inspire, and support Alaska Native individuals, families, and communities in their pursuit of self-determination, sustainability, and healthy environments. This work is done from a foundation of traditional knowledge and philosophy as well as cultural practice in supporting social change through personal growth and the building of healthy relationships.
http://www.nativemovement.org
Rockwood Leadership Program { $50,000 }
Rockwood seeks to promote social change by providing key individuals, nonprofit organizations, and policy advocacy centers with powerful, effective and transformative training in leadership and collaboration. Rockwood provides hundreds of change agents with the skills needed to lead organizations powerfully and sustainably. Rockwood is currently developing an evaluative tool to measure the impact and outcomes of their transformational leadership training on individuals, organizations and networks.
http://www.rockwoodleadership.org
Social Justice Leadership { $50,000 }
Social Justice Leadership works at building a new generation of grassroots leaders with the personal and organizational skills, analysis, and competency to lead a renewed and spiritually-grounded social justice movement. They provide training, organizational development, and assistance in developing alliances to organizations of people most affected by injustice.
http://www.sojustlead.org
stone circles { $50,000 }
The mission of stone circles is to sustain activists and strengthen work for justice through spiritual practice and principles. Since 1995, stone circles has reached thousands of activists all over the country, introducing people to a new way of thinking, doing and being. They have made an impact locally and nationally with workshops, retreats, media, leadership development and field-building. The organization recently created The Stone House: a center for spiritual life and strategic action on 70 acres of land in Mebane, NC.
http://www.stonecircles.org
Unlimited Love { $9,000 }
The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love focuses on love – deeply unselfish love for all others without exception and compassionate love that inspires people to struggle against injustice. This award was granted for the publication and dissemination of a series of essays entitled, “The Love That Does Justice: Spiritual Activism and Social Science.”
http://www.unlimitedloveinstitute.org
urbanPEACE { $25,000 }
urbanPEACE informs, incites and empowers peacemaking in urban environments by encouraging full integration of self-awareness and community-making practices into the work for personal and social transformation. The focus of urbanPEACE is to articulate, promote and cultivate practice opportunities for developing presence in the work of social change.
http://www.urbanpeace.org
YES! { $20,000 }
YES! connects, inspires, and empowers young changemakers to join forces for a thriving, just and sustainable way of life for all. They seek to help culturally, economically and geographically diverse young leaders to deepen the root system that underlies who they are and the work they do. Through their training, YES! helps young leaders build deep and long–lasting support networks based on friendship, authentic communication, and common vision.
http://www.yesworld.org