10+ Causes To Donate To In Support of Black Lives Matter
I know this is a total derailment from the typical content Actor Aesthetic provides.
But we cannot let the oppressor win.
We must listen. We must educate. And we must learn.
I recently asked my followers on social media how I could better inform myself to help serve our aching brothers and sisters of the POC community.
For George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and the countless black lives lost before and after them. If you have the means, please consider donating.
I’ve compiled a list of 10+ causes (bail funds, memorial funds, foundations, collectives, projects, etc.) that we can assist right now.
1. Black Visions Collective
Black Visions Collective (BLVC) believes in a future where all Black people have autonomy, safety is community-led, and we are in right relationship within our ecosystems.
2. NORTH STAR HEALTH COLLECTIVE
The North Star Health Collective was created in response to the Republican National Convention (RNC) in St. Paul September 1-4, 2008. They coordinated and provided health care services, resources, and training to ensure the safety of our community over the weeks before, during, and after the RNC. Thousands of community members and families attended protests against the RNC.
They work in alliance with mainstream and anti-authoritarian organizations to create a safe and healthy events.
3. The National Bail Fund Network
The National Bail Fund Network is made up of over sixty community bail and bond funds across the country. They regularly update this listing of community bail funds that are freeing people by paying bail/bond and are also fighting to abolish the money bail system and pretrial detention.
Click here to donate to specific bail funds by state.
4. Free Them All For Public Health
Free Them All For Public Health is raising money for protesters arrested in New York via Venmo. Venmo @BailOutNYCMay.
NOTE: A false Venmo @BailOutNYCMayH is circulating and to report and avoid it.
5. National Police Accountability Project (NPAP)
National Police Accountability Project (NPAP) is a non-profit dedicated to ending law enforcement abuse through legal action and educational programming.
6. Reclaim the Block
Reclaim the Block began in 2018 and organizes Minneapolis community and city council members to move money from the police department into other areas of the city’s budget that truly promote community health and safety. They believe health, safety and resiliency exist without police of any kind. This cause organizes around policies that strengthen community-led safety initiatives and reduce reliance on police departments. They do not believe that increased regulation of or public engagement with the police will lead to safer communities, as community testimony and documented police conduct suggest otherwise.
7. Official George Floyd Memorial Fund
The Official George Floyd Memorial Fund was established to cover funeral and burial expenses, mental and grief counseling, lodging and travel for all court proceedings, and to assist their family in the days to come as they continue to seek justice for George. A portion of these funds will also go to the Estate of George Floyd for the benefit and care of his children and their educational fund.
8. National Bail Out
National Bail Out is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration.
9. The Innocence Project
The Innocence Project, founded in 1992 by Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck at Cardozo School of Law, exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice.
10. The Black Lives Matter Global Network
The Black Lives Matter Global Network (BLM) is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. BLM affirms the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. The BLM network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.
11. Apollo Theater Foundation
The Apollo Theater is a commissioner and presenter; catalyst for new artists, audiences, and creative workforce; and partner in the projection of the African American narrative and its role in the development of American and global culture. The Apollo Theater envisions a new American canon centered on contributions to the performing arts by artists of the African diaspora, in America and beyond.
12. Black Art Futures Fund
The Black Art Futures Fund (BAFF) is a collective of emerging philanthropists promoting the elevation and preservation of Black arts & culture. Through grant making, board-matching, and organization-to-donor cultivation, the fund seeks to amplify and strengthen the future of Black art. They provide grants to small ($750K or less) nonprofits working to enhance the future of Black arts & culture.
***Brooklyn Community Bail Fund
This fund is committed to liberating those arrested in current demonstrations against police violence and working to coordinate our intervention with community members, grassroots organizations, other bail funds, and public defenders.
NOTE FROM BCBF: In less than 24 hours, the Brooklyn Community Bail Fund has received an outpouring of donations from individuals around the world to pay bail for demonstrators demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and all victims of our violent and racist police state. We will honor these commitments. Given the sheer amount of support, at this time we ask that further donations be directed elsewhere to support the ongoing struggle for liberation, racial justice, and equity.
Instead, click here to donate to specific bail funds by state.
***Prison Book Program
Due to the COVID19 situation, Prison Book Program is suspending all volunteer activities until it is safe to gather in groups. They are not accepting book donations at this time except for purchases from our wish lists at Wellesley Books and Amazon.
However, consider donating financially here.
***Minnesota Freedom Fund
The Minnesota Freedom Fund pays bail for protesters, as well as those imprisoned for immigration and criminal offenses. The group sees pretrial bail requirements to be unjust, wealth-based discrimination.
NOTE FROM MFF: With solemn gratitude, we have been flooded with tens of thousands donations large and small, totalling around $20 million dollars. We did not ask for or anticipate this massive outpouring of support. We simply said yes to the call to support and bail out people jailed for protesting for justice for George Floyd. We will walk with transparency and accountability to use those funds to first and foremost pay bail for those who have shown up in love and grief and rage to demand justice for the murder of George Floyd, and then to post bail in our community for those who are held pretrial simply because they cannot pay and to post bonds to free people from ICE detention. We are dedicated to staying true to our central mission and the intent of these donations--which is freedom.
We now encourage people to generously donate to George Floyd’s family and other local organizations, especially those which are Black and BIPOC led, and which are working to lift up communities, end police brutality, and build a more just future.
Can’t donate? Find other ways to help.
Support Campaign Zero - the comprehensive platform of research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America. More info here.
Sign a petition - Color Of Change designs campaigns powerful enough to end practices that unfairly hold Black people back, and champion solutions that move us all forward . Find it here.
Sign another petition - the “Justice for George Floyd” petition on Change.org already has 8.5 million supporters. That sends a big message. Find it here.
Learn the latest ways to join Actors' Equity Association, including the new Open Access program.