From author Vu for Nonprofit AF: “Justice has been dealt a significant blow. Many of us are distraught, wondering how we can continue when an unceasing barrage of death and violence continues raining down on our communities day after day. However, many of us are more pissed off than anything. We’re going to keep fighting.”

“However, we need the resources, support, and trust to do our work. And those things have always been in short supply for progressive organizations and movements. We have been running on fumes, on shoestring budgets, on hope and prayer and duct tape, because so many funders continue to be completely oblivious to how destructive their practices are. There are some great funders, but they are rare. The majority just constantly make our work harder, and we need to have a serious discussion.”

“The way right-wing foundations fund has been devastating effective. We need progressive funders to do the same. We lost this battle, but the war against injustice is far from over. If funders who claim to be aligned with equity and justice want to be helpful, here, again, are some things we need you to do:

Fund abortion orgs
Fund organizing and mobilizing
Fund voting rights
Rethink your strategic plans
Get political
Create legal defense funds for progressive activists
Give multi-year, general operating funds
Fund outside your geographic area also
Collaborate with trusted intermediaries so you can get funds out faster
Increase your payout now”

Read the full article here.

“Google’s first-ever Image Equity Fellowship is a 6-month, application-based Fellowship awarded to 20 early-career image-based creators of color in the US. Selected Fellows will receive $20,000 in unrestricted funds to create an image-based project that explores and uplifts community(ies) of color with care and nuance.”

Google describes this program as, “a natural extension of [their] mission, aiming to empower the next generation of image makers of color to tell urgent stories of their communities, in the US.” Fellows must, “self-identify as a person of color,” and “be at least 18 years old (at the time of application submission).”

Read the full announcement here.

“The anemic California polling numbers for this past primary election (12 percent of the population voted) don’t bode well for the fall, but there is a long-sought arts initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot,” said author Michael Zwiebach for Classical Voice. “The California Art and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative has qualified for the general election; as the name states, it’s meant to bolster school arts programs.”

“The initiative would require the state to find a source of revenue to fund K-12 arts education equal, at a minimum, to one percent of the total state and local revenues that local education agencies receive from Proposition 98 funding.” Led by the Californians for Arts and Music Education in Public Schools, it is a direct response to, “the insecurity of arts programs, which are often among the first things to be cut or curtailed when a school district experiences budget difficulties or shortfalls.”

Read the full article here.

From TED: “Famed for enormous black-and-white portraits that are pasted on surfaces ranging from the Louvre to the US-Mexico border wall, multimedia artist JR continues to tackle ambitious projects. In this powerfully moving talk, he shares how he made a giant mural on the courtyard floor of a maximum-security prison — with the help of guards and prisoners alike — and ended up with much more than a compelling image.”

Watch the full video here.