Decolonizing Wealth Project is an Indigenous and Black-led racial justice organization that envisions a world where racial equity has become a societal norm – where new systems ensure everyone can live their best lives, thrive in their cultures, and heal from generations of colonial trauma. Our work aims to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital by offering truth, reconciliation, and healing from the ails of colonization through education, radical reparative giving, and narrative change.

Over the past three years, through our fund, Liberated Capital, we redistributed more than $4M to approximately 30 #Case4Reparations grantee partners to support movement-building & advocacy efforts to advance reparations in the U.S. This first-of-its-kind funding initiative aims to fuel and amplify movement building & campaigns efforts to achieve reparations where wealth (money or land) can be redistributed by institutions and/or governments to Black communities in the U.S.

The United States was built on a history and practice of enslavement, genocide, and extraction of and from Indigenous peoples and African descendants – resulting in more than 400 years of policies and procedures that fueled economic extraction and systemic violence in Indigenous and Black communities.

In 2020, U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) reintroduced legislation to fund the first commission to study and develop proposals for providing reparations to African Americans. The bill was reintroduced in 2021 (as it has been at every congressional session since 1989) and is gaining traction with national support from leaders. This year, the momentum has continued with the legislation nearing the required House votes to pass through to the Senate and pressure building for President Biden to sign an Executive Order. There are also a number of reparative efforts underway to address the historical and ongoing theft and control of land that has led to the extreme concentration of wealth among a small group of people that exists today. In May 2023, Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01) introduced a resolution that forcefully argues why the federal government must provide reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people and people of African descent. The resolution outlines the various forms those reparations should take and has further ignited the movement in its fight.

Because of the effectiveness of social movements over the past few years – coupled with the successful philanthropic organizing of Decolonizing Wealth Project – we are seeing new opportunities to unearth, support, and scale efforts to actualize reparations for Black peoples.

To support this progress, Liberated Capital will provide untethered resources to support organizing and advocacy for community-driven reparations efforts that will help build the case for local, regional, and national policy opportunities that will inform ways wealth can be redistributed by institutions and/or governments.

This funding opportunity aims to source both the spaces and places where reparations campaigns are taking hold, provide vital funding to fuel their efforts and utilize our platform as a reparations fund and field disruptor to document and share this reparations movement ecosystem with our network of philanthropic institutions and donors. The spirit of reparations is that those who hold the bulk of ill-gotten resources and influence (including philanthropy) must hold responsibility for repairing the harms done.

Priority is given to

• organizations and/or coalitions led by Black leaders.
  We will also prioritize current grantee partners engaged in active reparations campaigns and policy work.
• Grant dollars must be paid to a 501c3 nonprofit.
• We accept applications from fiscal sponsors. Individuals are not eligible.
• Applicants must be based in the United States.
• Coalitions and organizations working on advocacy campaigns to shift policies and systems that result in the payback of money or land from governments or institutions in the United States to Black people. This does not include subsidies for direct services, such as affordable housing. Note: previously, we have supported reparations efforts in the Indigenous communities. This year, the #Case4Reparations fund is focused exclusively on the Black community. We encourage Native American partners to review our other Liberated Capital programs, including the Indigenous Earth Fund and National Truth and Healing Fund (in development) for potential alignment.
• Funding must be used for a charitable purpose (no direct lobbying).
• Approximately 25-30 organizations will be selected for funding and grant awards will average $50,000 -$100,000. Proposals will be evaluated by an advisory committee of Black leaders.

Will Cordery | Founder/Principal, Freedom Futures, Senior Advisor at Liberated Capital

Dr. Amara Enyia | Director of Policy & Research, Movement for Black Lives

Dr. Cheryl Grills | Professor of Psychology and Director, Psychology Applied Research Center

Katelyn Johnson | Executive Director, Blackroots Alliance

Jessica Ann Mitchell (JAM) Aiwuyor | Founder, National Black Cultural Information Trust

Nkechi Taifa, Director | Reparation Education Project

Richard Wallace | Founder/Executive Director, Equity and Transformation