Non-profit

Collective Future Fund

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The Collective Future Fund is a non-profit advocacy and funding organization that promotes left-leaning social and economic policies in the United States surrounding race, gender, and sexual orientation. The organization is a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, a large funding and program management group that has founded and manages several left-leaning organizations and provided hundreds of millions of dollars to left-leaning groups since its founding in 2002. The Collective Future Fund has also received funding from other notable left-leaning grantmaking organizations including the Ford Foundation, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations. 1

Grantmaking Activity

The Collective Future Fund announced its first round of grants to organizations aimed at ending violence against women in 2020. Described a pooled funding effort from the Shusterman, Ford and NoVo, and Open Society Foundations, the first $3 million in funding was allocated to left-leaning groups including Girls for Gender Equity in New York, the Gender-Based Violence Working Group at Brandeis University, and the International Domestic Workers Federation in Hong Kong. 2

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Collective Future Fund implemented a $2 million round of grantmaking that supported gender-centric advocacy organizations to provide assistance during the pandemic. Organizations supported included the One Fair Wage Emergency Coronavirus Workers Support Fund; National Domestic Workers Alliance’s Coronavirus Care Fund; Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund; Fund for Trans Generations COVID19 Rapid Response Fund for Trans, Gender non-conforming, and nonbinary communities; and Southern Black Girls and Women’s Consortium. 3

Collective Future Fund later followed up with a $1.75 million round of Rapid Response grants to dozens of organizations to offer support during the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizations each received $50,000 in that subsequent round of grants. 4

Notable Supporters

Collective Future Fund gained prominence for being featured in billionaire Mackenzie Scott’s “116 Organizations Driving Change.” 5 Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, rose to prominence in 2020 by announcing that she would give away most of her vast fortune to left-leaning advocacy groups, many of which focus on race and gender issues. 5

In March 2020, Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $2 million to the Collective Future Fund to boost the group’s efforts to register more Black voters ahead of the 2020 general election. The effort had a goal of registering over 500,000 voters in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. 6

People

Aleyamma Mathew serves as the executive director of the Collective Future Fund. Matthew previously worked on gender- and race-related policies for several other left-leaning organizations. Her experience includes serving as the director of the Women’s Economic Justice Program at the Ms. Foundation, policy director at the Partnership for Working Families, program director for the Women’s Institute for Leadership and Development for Human Rights, and as the program director for the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development. 7

References

  1. “Who We Are.” Collective Future Fund. Accessed December 3, 2020.   https://www.collectivefuturefund.org/who-we-are/
  2. Daniels, Alex. “$3 Million in Grants Will Seek to Curb Violence Against Women.” The Chronicle of Philanthropy. March 8, 2020. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.philanthropy.com/article/3-million-in-grants-will-seek-to-curb-violence-against-women/?bc_nonce=t82qrlfsgcntgsxkvmgq4j&cid=reg_wall_signup
  3. “Grantmaking.” Collective Future Fund. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.collectivefuturefund.org/grantmaking/
  4. “Collective Future Fund Announces $1.75 Million in Rapid Response Funding For Women-of-Color-Led Initiatives for Safety.” Collective Future Fund. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.collectivefuturefund.org/collective-future-fund-announces-1-75-million-in-rapid-response-funding-for-women-of-color-led-initiatives-for-safety/
  5. Scott, MacKenzie. “116 Organizations Driving Change.” Medium. July 28, 2020. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d
  6. Perry, Tim. “Bloomberg donates $2 million to register black voters in key states.” CBS News. March 9, 2020. Accessed December 3, 2020.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-bloomberg-donates-2-million-boost-black-voter-registration-key-states/
  7. “Aleyamma Mathew.” Collective Future Fund. Accessed December 3, 2020. https://www.collectivefuturefund.org/aleyamma-mathew-director/
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