This week, Change.org is proud to announce that we have taken the first steps in our commitment to give $6M directly to Black-led organizations at the forefront of racial justice advocacy. This will be part of a $10 million commitment to racial justice work that will help develop systems to support this movement inside and outside of Change.org.

We are excited to announce our initial group of recipients for the first round of donations. We all know that the movement for racial justice is ongoing, and while we take the coming months to build out a larger grant program, led by Rashawn Davis on the North America team, we also wanted to ensure that we were supporting organizations doing important racial justice work right now.

Selected organizations for this round compliment our mission to empower everyday people to make the change they want to see. The five recipients do a broad spectrum of racial justice work from serving children with an incarcerated parent in Brooklyn, NY to teaching young Black scholars coding skills. 

Our first round of donations will go to:

Black Lives Matter Global Network (International) 

Children of Promise (NYC) 

The Hidden Genius Project (Oakland)

New Jersey Institute of Social Justice (New Jersey) 

Black Swan Academy (Washington, D.C.) 

This round of donations is only a first step and we know there are countless other organizations doing amazing work all over the world. With the development of the upcoming fund, our goal is to continue to put resources in the hands of organizations that are making an impact on the movement for Black lives — and in turn, to do our part to stand by our belief that Black lives matter.

Keep an eye on this space for updates as the racial justice fund is developed and more organizations are added to the above list.