The first round of five-year RJI grants (totaling $2.5 million) have been awarded. Please click the link below to learn more about each organization.
2021-2025 Grantees
About the Initiative
The Racial Justice Initiative:
Strengthens the infrastructure of Black-led organizing and advocacy by providing sustained long-term investment
Centers those most affected by anti-Black racism by recognizing them as the experts in resolving the issue
Advances the efforts of Black-led organizations to strengthen movements for individual and institutional change which build power, transform systems, and achieve racial justice and equity
The Horning Family Foundation (HFF) created the Racial Justice Initiative (RJI) to invest $5 million over a ten-year period to support Black-led organizing and advocacy and to administer the process through a grant-making team made up primarily of members of the community.
RJI will make five-year grants to support efforts to change systems, policies, narratives, and practices that oppress and harm Black communities and other communities of color in Washington DC, Prince George’s County Maryland, Montgomery County Maryland, Alexandria Virginia, Arlington County Virginia, and Fairfax County Virginia.
Our Vision
We believe that investing in newer, Black-led organizing and advocacy efforts in addition to more established entities is an important element of supporting a healthy ecosystem.
We believe in supporting the ecosystem of Black-led organizing and advocacy by investing in the long-term health of organizations and people.
We believe that over the long term, healthy organizations, and healthy people have more success in winning campaigns and changing systems.
Who We Are
The RJI is governed by a Grantmaking Team of thirteen members consisting of eight community members and five HFF board and staff members. Together, the Grantmaking Team will award the first round of five-year grants, totaling $2.5 million.
The RJI Grantmaking Team initial meetings prioritized building relationships amongst the team members, developing group agreements, values, decision making processes, and plans for advancing the initiative. Through our consensus-based decision-making processes we identified a shared leadership structure, developed common language for “Black-led”, “organizing” and “advocacy”, defined the scope and impact of the RJI, and designed an application process.
The Grantmaking Team members bring a variety of experience and discipline and are listed below:
Alicia Robinson
Amanda Misiko Andere
Dara Johnson
Genny Horning
Fiona Horning
Fonda Sutton
Jordan Curry Carter
Kerrien Suarez
Makia Green
Mariah Green
Mike Young
Nkechi Feaster
Rubie Coles
To learn more about the members of the Grantmaking Team access their bios here.
How We Were Formed
This initiative was launched in response to the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on Black and other communities of color, the most recent instances of police violence, and recent calls from activists, organizers, and social change organizations for philanthropy to move money and resources to support the movement for racial justice.
Over a four-month period, HFF worked to determine the amount of new funding for the RJI and decide on a participatory governance process. An Organizing Team of seven individuals (three community members and four HFF members) worked to build out a process to identify and select grant team members, refine the responsibilities and draft a list of key decision points for the grant team.
In January of 2021 members of the Organizing Team identified and invited members of the Black community within their network that have experience and knowledge of Black-led organizing and advocacy movements to be a part of the inaugural grantmaking team. Initial meetings were scheduled for Organizing Team members to share more about the vision of the RJI, and for community members to ask questions about the initiative. The first grantmaking team meeting was held in March.