The Racial Equity Fund of Santa Barbara County (REFSBC) is an initiative that came directly from grassroots organizing by Black Female leaders in Santa Barbara County who demanded that the County of Santa Barbara invest in the Black community in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing racial justice movement.
Donor Name: The Fund for Santa Barbara
State: California
County: Santa Barbara County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 02/11/2022
Size of the Grant: $500,000
Details:
Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors (the “County”) passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis, made a commitment to racial justice and pledged $500,000 to begin to address equity issues in the county. Roughly half of the funds were allocated to internal/institutional County equity development with the remaining funds to be distributed through the Fund for Santa Barbara’s (“The FUND”) participatory grantmaking process. The FUND has a long history through its grant making program of supporting historically marginalized communities to be full participants in the community’s social, civic and economic life. This funding program aims to build capacity, expand, and/or stabilize historically marginalized, minority led organizations in Santa Barbara County.
Mission: To invest in and strengthen organizations that address anti-racism through systems change strategies in Santa Barbara County. This fund aims to effect the culture and policy for systemic change necessary to advance racial equity and justice, and reverse the legacy of slavery and effects of racism in Santa Barbara County.
Objectives
This fund aims to provide organizational capacity assistance to:
- Strengthen the ecosystem of diverse, anti-racism organizations in the community that share a common goal to address cultural and systemic effects of racism.
- Increase active participation of historically marginalized communities to influence civic matters that impact the community-at-large.
- Develop the pipeline to uplift historically marginalized minority leaders to positions of decision-making and influence.
- Increase and sustain investment to strengthen organizations led by historically marginalized minority leaders who have lacked access to capital.
- Addressing and working to change systemic negative narratives about the legacy of slavery in the community
- Establish and advance organizational capacity in organizations led by historically marginalized minority leaders in the following areas:
- Leadership development
- Advocacy, policy change, legal analysis, and research
- Strategic communications
- Alliance and coalition building
- Organizational development
- Community engagement and organizing
- Innovation and continuous learning
- Develop organizational and programmatic objectives, conduct evaluation, and assess outcomes.
Funding Priorities
Guiding questions used by the Grant Making Committee during deliberation:
- Guidelines: Does this project have the potential to create or advance social, economic, political, and/or environmental change?
- Priorities: Are there elements of Community Organizing, Lobbying, Direct Action, Base-building, Coalition-Building, or Legal Strategy?
Access to Funding: Does this project lack access to funding? Would the project go forward without support from the Fund? - Critical Timing/Need: Does the organization have the capacity to reach their social change goals? Are the key players familiar with other organizations in the same field to further the goal of movement building?
- Impact of Funds: How clear is the budget outline? How well does the budget support the project’s social change goals? Will funding help start-up the organization, stabilize the organization, and/or leverage other funding sources?
- Regional Equity: Will this project help the GMC achieve its objective of providing equity in funding throughout Santa Barbara County?
Eligibility Criteria
- Must be a historically oppressed, marginalized and underrepresented-led group
- Must support community members directly harmed by the racist policies and marginalized by systemic racism
- Must include as a core mission the goal of addressing systemic racism
- Projects must take place in the County of Santa Barbara
- Have a Tax ID Number, Employer Identification Number (EIN), or a fiscal sponsor
- Have an organizational bank account (or a fiscal sponsor)
For more information, visit Racial Equity Fund.
