DECOLONIZING WEALTH PROJECT AWARDS THIS YEAR’S #CASE4REPARATIONS GRANTS IN FIRST WAVE OF FUNDING SINCE $20 MILLION COMMITMENT IN JUNE

NEW YORK, NY – October 31, 2023 

Today, the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) and its funding vehicle, Liberated Capital, announced $3 million in grants as part of their #Case4Reparations funding initiative – the organization’s largest grants distribution to date. This round of grants is the initial wave of funding that the organization has distributed since their $20 million commitment to boost campaigns for reparations unveiled earlier this year, an exciting first step in what will be a five-year, multidisciplinary project. 

The #Case4ReparationsFund is a first-of-its-kind annual funding vehicle to support local, regional and national movement-building and advocacy efforts to advance reparations in the United States. The funding initiative is aimed at fueling and amplifying conversations and campaigns around reparations to address the racial wealth gap facing Black people in the United States. In 2021, Liberated Capital announced the redistribution of $1.7M to its inaugural cohort of 23 #Case4Reparations grantee partners. By the end of 2022, the fund had grown by 18 percent, and already distributed nearly $4 million. 

DWP’s #Case4Reparations grantee partners and advocates have taken on incredible challenges in the social, racial, and economic justice space, including: restoring California coastal land at Bruce’s Beach back to its descendants; winning key legal victories for descendants of the Tulsa Race Massacre; the delivery of a historic two-year report to state lawmakers from California’s Black reparations task force; the establishment of New Jersey’s Reparations Council; a public hearing in Washington, D.C. on a proposal to pay reparations to the district’s Black residents; and the introduction of new federal legislation calling for $14 trillion in reparations for Black Americans.

“We are so proud of all we’ve been able to achieve in partnership with our #Case4Reparations grantee partners to date, and are thrilled to be able to announce an additional $3 million in funding for the next generation of changemakers,” said Edgar Villanueva, founder and CEO of Decolonizing Wealth Project and Liberated Capital. “It is particularly meaningful for us to be able to award this round of grants as part of our $20 million, five-year long initiative to boost campaigns fighting for reparations.

“I’m grateful to be chosen to be part of this family,” said Zakiya Sankara-Jabar Co-
Founder of Racial Justice NOW!, a new grantee partner. “This is what we needed to move to the next step.”

The Decolonizing Wealth Project’s dedication of $20 million will encompass various initiatives. This includes launching a digital hub for reparations resources, including an interactive map of the reparations movement, which is set to launch in the coming months. Additionally, DWP will deliver a report on its two-year research project designed to identify messages and narrative frames that can increase support for reparations amongst key audiences.

The 2023 #Case4Reparations grantee partners are:

• African American Community Service Agency
• Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII)
• Black Lives Matter Minnesota
• Blackroots Alliance
• California Black Power Network
• Chicago Torture Justice Center
• Conrad Worrill Community Reparations Commission
• DC Justice Lab
• Equal Justice Society
• Equity And Transformation (EAT)
• FirstRepair
• Get Free
• International Civil Society Working Group for PFPAD
• Joanne M. Braxton Institute for Sustainability, Resilency, and Joy
• Justice for Greenwood
• Lowcountry Gullah Foundation
• Malcolm X Grassroots Movement-NY Chapter
• Marijuana Justice
• National Black Cultural Information Trust, Inc.
• National Conference of Black Lawyers
• NCOBRA Philadelphia Chapter
• New Democracy Coalition of Mass Civic Education Fund
• New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
• Racial Justice Coalition of Asheville
• Racial Justice NOW!
• Reparation Education Project, Inc.
• Reparations Finance Lab
• Reparations United
• The Redress Movement
• Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law
• Truth Telling Project/ Grassroots Reparations Cpgn
• Where Is My Land
• Why We Can’t Wait National Reparations Coalition
• ZEAL

Learn more about the #Case4Reparations Fund at bit.ly/dwpreparations.

About Decolonizing Wealth Project

Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP), led by Edgar Villanueva (Lumbee), works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Through its fund, Liberated Capital, DWP moves untethered resources to Indigenous, Black and other people-of-color-led initiatives working for economic and racial justice. DWP’s investment strategy encompasses grantmaking to various Black and Indigenous-led advocacy groups, technical assistance, research and public education efforts, and support for coalition building. www.decolonizingwealth.com 

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