Headwaters Foundation for Justice

The organization has moved towards funding anti-police and anti-law enforcement organizations since the death of George Floyd in 2020 which sparked Black Lives Matter-aligned demonstrations and riots that same year. Headwaters Foundation for Justice has dispersed over $10 million to such organizations across Minnesota. ^{2 3}

In 2025, Headwaters Foundation for Justice partnered with the Trust Based Philanthropy Project through its “Meet the moment” initiative. This initiative seeks to bring its supporters together “in solidarity with nonprofits.” The group claims that the political climate could pose risks to nonprofits through reductions in funding, legal concerns, and lack of staff. ⁴

Background

Initially, money for the organization was raised form the friends and networks of a small group of Minnesota donors. As recently as 2014, most donations came from a small group of wealthy donors whom the group described as “white upper-middle-class and high-net-worth baby boomers”. Since then, Headwaters Foundation for Justice President Maria De La Cruz changed sources of funding to focus on acquiring donors based on race, sexual identity, and income level. This focus can be seen in the establishment of new programs such as the Emergency Fund for Black Lives in 2015. ^{2 5}

Racial Ideology

Headwater Foundation for Justice claims to work for “black liberation” and “native sovereignty,” claiming the United States is founded on a violent history against black and “indigenous” people. ⁶

The foundation published an article in July 2020 asserting that “non-black people of color” benefit from the vilification of black people. The group also asserts that everyone is raised with inherently racist attitudes. ⁷

Grantmaking Programs

New Majority Fund

Headwaters Foundation created the New Majority Fund as a fund for “communities of color” requiring at least 50% of grant recipients to be “people of color.” ⁸

The Emergency Fund for Black Lives

The Foundation established the Emergency Fund for Black Lives in 2015. It considers the grantmaking program an “emergency fund” for Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, ⁹ and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC). ¹⁰

The Transformation Fund

The Transformation Fund was created to respond to the death of George Floyd in 2020 and to claims of “white supremacy in our society’s systems and institutions.” The fund raised $1.1 million that year to help African American-owned businesses. After the death of George Floyd, the group took the framework of race-based donations and worked with two donors who put forward $2 million in seed money with the goal of making $2.1 million in grants ¹¹

The organization has asserted that riots that ensued in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May 2020 were “peaceful protests” and asserted without evidence that “far-right militias” and “anti-government extremists” were responsible for actions related to rioting; including setting fires, looting, and “massive destruction.” ¹¹

Activities

Anti-ICE Funding in Minneapolis

In January 2026, amid protests by left-of-center activists in Minneapolis, Minnesota against immigration-enforcement policies of the second Trump administration and actions by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a Headwaters Foundation spokesperson told Inside Philanthropy that the Foundation was providing substantial funds to protest groups. Inside Philanthropy detailed that Headwaters, through its Rapid Resource Fund, was funding 16 organizations “providing a wide spectrum of support to immigration communities” throughout Minnesota since December 2025. These recipients reportedly included community legal observers, hotline operators working to alert illegal immigrants about ICE activities, legal service groups, and mutual aid providers. ¹²

As of January 28, 2026, Headwaters claimed to have spent $225,000 since the start of its fiscal year in October 2025, and had reportedly received over $5 million in requests from more than 100 immigration groups and supporting nonprofit groups. As of February 2026, Headwaters indicated that its Rapid Resource Fund intended to spend approximately $600,000 before the end of the fiscal year. ^{12 13}

According to a February 2026 report, Headwaters had awarded $3,321,013 since 2014 to groups that as of 2026 had begun working to monitor ICE activity and protest the agency’s actions. It claimed these past recipients included Mizna, Unidos MN, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL), Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Jewish Community Action, Voices for Racial Justice, the Minnesota Freedom Fund, OutFront Minnesota, and Gender Justice. All these groups coordinated “ICE Out” demonstrations on January 23, 2026. ¹⁴

Financials

In 2024, the Headwaters Foundation for Justice reported revenues of $5,282,846, expenses of $7,851,691, and net assets of $14,066,956. ¹⁵

Funding

The Bush Foundation, a left-of-center institutional grant maker in Minnesota, had donated $4.6 million to Headwaters Foundation for Justice from 1998 to 2020. ¹⁶

Other known donors include Education Minnesota, Minnesota’s state affiliate of the NEA and AFT teachers unions;¹⁷ Global Greengrants Fund, an environmentalist group;¹⁸ the community foundation Minneapolis Foundation; Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors;¹⁹ Social Justice Fund Northwest;²⁰ the Surdna Foundation;²¹ and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. ²²

In 2020, George Soros’s Foundation to Promote Open Society donated $300,000 to Headwaters “to support fellowships and network-building tailored to strengthen the work of the racial justice movement ecosystem in Minneapolis.” ²³