Who we've given to

Field Order 15 Fund

A Reparative Lending Program from HomeSight and Black Home Initiative That Helps Black Home Developers Build Affordable Homes. Nearly 160 years after the Civil War General Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Order 15, the fund will facilitate the building of more homes for sale – and help close the racial wealth divide. HomeSight and Black Home Initiative understand how the affordable housing shortage has impacted the community, and using a community-centric approach, we aim to empower Black developers to help reach the state’s affordable housing construction goals. Having built affordable homes for 30 years, HomeSight knows what challenges lie ahead for developers, and how Black developers have not traditionally had a seat at the table. By strategically empowering Black developers to overcome the hurdles to new home building, the program offers a grassroots approach to solving the affordable housing shortage and reducing the racial homeownership and wealth gaps in western Washington.

Wa Na Wari

Founded in 2019, Wa Na Wari is Black-led art space and center for community organizing in Seattle’s central district. Sited in a fifth-generation, Black-owned home, Wa Na Wari reclaims Black cultural space and makes a statement about the importance of Black land ownership in gentrified communities. Referred to as a "container for Black joy,” Wa Na Wari incubates and amplifies Black art and belonging while providing a safe space for organizing and movement building.

Wa Na Wari offers far-reaching community support through its meal program, a Food Justice Education Series and urban community garden (Bloom), an Oral History program (The Seattle Black Spatial Histories Institute), an artist residency program, and perhaps most notably considering our focus this cycle is their housing justice initiative, CACE 21.

The Central Area Cultural EcoSystem, 21st Century (CACE 21) organizes Black homeowners and cultural workers to learn about and advocate for land use policies that advance anti-displacement work in Seattle. By creating community systems for mutual aid peer support, Wa Na Wari is an active model for how Black art and culture can combat gentrification and displacement.

Black Futures Co-op Fund

Building Black Generational Wealth, Health, and Well-being. As a society, we are called on to change — to disrupt the imbalance of power and create a liberated future with shared prosperity for Black people. The Black Future Co-op Fund is a new paradigm for philanthropy uplifting Black-led solutions that ignite Black generational wealth, health, and well-being. The Black Future Co-op Fund is a cooperative philanthropy rooted in the beauty, soulfulness, and strength of Blackness. Our vision is a Washington state, working cooperatively, where all Black people are liberated, prosperous, and self-determined to fully live our lives.

Africatown Community Land Trust

Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) is committed to cultivating a thriving, resilient Black community in Seattle by addressing the urgent challenges of displacement and ensuring community-led ownership of land. Rooted in the city’s historic Central District, our mission is to acquire, steward, and develop land that preserves and uplifts the cultural, economic, and historical legacy of Black communities across the Greater Seattle region. By reclaiming space and fostering opportunity, ACLT is shaping a future where Black residents not only remain but flourish as creators, leaders, and innovators within their cultural epicenter.

Guided by a board comprised of real estate professionals, business executives, entrepreneurs, and long-time community members, ACLT works to build a resilient, vibrant community where Black residents can live, grow, and thrive without fear of displacement.

Plymouth Housing

Plymouth Housing’s mission is to eliminate homelessness and address its causes by preserving, developing, and operating safe, quality, supportive housing and by providing adults experiencing homelessness with opportunities to stabilize and improve their lives. Plymouth currently owns and operates 17 buildings in King County and serves 1,400 residents annually. Plymouth looks forward to continuing its growth to meet the urgent need for more permanent supportive housing across the region.

Potlatch Fund

Potlatch is essentially a Native-American community foundation and as such, they give grants to Native tribes and people throughout the Pacific Northwest. Their grantees are selected by Native community members who are in close community and have relationships with a wide variety of individuals, organizations, and tribes. Selecting Potlatch addresses our keen interest in growing our capacity to engage in participatory grantmaking, this unique model of grantmaking that addresses the power imbalance inherent in traditional philanthropy. It allows us to practice putting our funds in the hands of the community we aim to support and not directing how, where, and to whom those funds are granted.

Jamestown S’Klallam Nation

Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is located in the Pysht region of the Olympic Peninsula. The purpose of this gift is to support their vision to preserve and enhance the tribe’s historical and cultural identity as a strong, proud and self-reliant community while protecting and sustaining their tribal sovereignty, self-governing authority, homelands, and treaty rights. While our family has had an impact in various parts of Western Washington, this area has a unique resonance to the MFGC. Since the early days of imagining what this giving circle could be, we always wanted to consider how we might make an honest connection with the people of this area in spite of the trauma of our shared past. We see this gift as a first step toward acknowledging difficult truths and initiating a new beginning.

Mother Nation

Mother Nation is a women-led, Native-led housing and human services agency located in Seattle. Mother Nation is a non-profit 501 (C) 3 grassroots organization that offers culturally-informed healing services, advocacy, mentorship, and homeless prevention in Washington state. Mother Nation’s services are custom designed and provided by Native American elders who apply culture to clinical practice. By supporting one another during times of transition through chronic homelessness and gender-based violence, they provide the guidance and assistance necessary to ensure participants have access to the spiritual support needed to remain stably housed over time. 

Climate Justice Initiative

Climate Justice Initiative (CJI) is the first and only Indigenous-led and Indigenous-focused climate change organization in the United States that protects both environmental and human rights. CJI is also the only Indigenous women-led organization that addresses the multifaceted issue of climate change and climate justice in Indigenous peoples, groups, and communities. Climate Change will have a significant and unique impact on Indigenous peoples. The UN Human Rights groups have identified the rights of Indigenous peoples as particularly vulnerable to the disruptive effects of climate change. We see the effects of a warming planet already threatening the livelihoods and cultural identities of Indigenous people across the world.