Southern Partners Fund (SPF)

SPF’s grants and activities support left-of-center organizations and networks advance the critical race theory-influenced concepts of environmental justice, ⁴ racial equity, and economic equity. ³

In 2023, MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, gave SPF $5,000,000 through her Yield Giving project. Scott gave SPF an unrestricted $10,000,000 grant in 2020. ⁵ From 2020 to 2021, SPF also received $3,000,000 from the left-of-center Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. ⁵

History and Leadership

Southern Partners Fund (SPF) originally began in 1994 when United Farm Workers of America activist and Bert and Mary Meyer Foundation (BAMM) founder Barbara Meyer invited 18 activist organizations associated with BAMM to explore interest in forming a new grantmaking organization. In 1998, SPF was officially launched as an independent organization. ^{6 7 5}

Fernando Cuevas, Jr. is the executive director of SPF. Cuevas has received the Bannerman Fellowship. Prior to joining SPF in 2004, Cuevas worked as an organizer with the left-of-center Farm Labor Organizing Committee. ^{8 9}

The SPF is governed by a board of directors, elected by the foundation’s membership, that consists of current or previous leaders of activist groups that have received SPF funding. ¹⁰

Activities

Southern Partners Fund is a left-of-center foundation and grantmaking organization that has given more than $20,000,000 to left-of-center activist organizations in the American south since its founding. ¹

SPF supports organizations and networks to build their capacity to achieve the critical race theory-influenced concepts of environmental justice, ⁴ racial equity, and economic equity in the southern United States ³ and has raised funds for disaster relief efforts. ¹¹

As of December 2023, SPF has 31 members ¹⁰ and operates in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. ⁶ SPF has claimed that poverty in the American South is largely a result of what it calls the region’s history of racially coerced plantation labor, racial suppression, misogyny, and “reactionary labor laws.” ¹²

Southern Partners Fund is a featured client of the labor union-aligned Amalgamated Bank, which holds all of SPF’s grantmaking, operational, and reserve accounts. ¹³

Social Justice Institute

Southern Partners Fund operates the critical race theory-influenced Social Justice Institute (SJI). ² In 2021, SPF spent $311,330 to fund SJI. ¹⁴ SJI aims to advance far-left social justice ideology in the rural south and has worked on various projects, including U.S. Census-related organizing and “election protection” efforts. SJI has worked to oppose laws it claims restrict access to voting such as what it calls “nebulous voter I.D. requirements” ⁵ in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. ¹⁵

SJI was active in 2020 U.S. Census-related and redistricting activities ⁵ and funds various initiatives including the Justice Fund for Disaster Relief and Renewal, the Young Leaders for Social Change Fellowship, and a Capacity Building Fellowship which focuses on left-of-center political activism. ¹⁵

Grantmaking

Southern Partners Fund has regular grantmaking cycles ¹⁶ and has given more than $20,000,000 to more than 110 left-of-center activist organizations since its founding. ¹ Through its Southern Organizing Strategy, SPF focuses 60 percent of its regular grants on left-of-center groups engaged on voting issues and civic engagement, immigration, and changes to the education system. ⁵

SPF’s grants have primarily focused on redistricting activities and put significant resources into SPF’s Social Justice Institute. ⁵ In 2021, Southern Partners Fund made grants of $1,774,793 to a total of 77 different organizations within its 12-state funding region. ¹⁴ That year, SPF’s grant recipients included the left-of-center A. Philip Randolph Education Fund, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (National Farmworker Women’s Alliance), Bay Area Women Coalition, Carolina Justice Policy Center, Coalition for Economic Justice, Equality Florida Institute, Emancipate North Carolina, Gender Benders, Georgia Muslim Voter Project, Georgia Shift, One Voice, Peach Concerned Citizens, South Carolina Progressive Network, and Student Action With Farmworkers. ^{17 18}

Funding

Southern Partners Fund receives its funding from individual contributions and grants. In 2021, SPF reported revenue of $3,037,117 and expenses of $3,146,534. SPF reported revenue of $15,813,174 and expenses of $1,762,504 in 2020. ¹⁹

In 2023, MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, gave SPF $5,000,000 through her Yield Giving project. She also gave SPF an unrestricted $10,000,000 grant in 2020 through the project. ⁵ Scott’s grants were designed to support organizations in the south that support the critical race theory-influenced concepts of racial, economic, and environmental justice. ^{4 20} SPF also received $350,000 from the left-of-center Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in 2023. ²¹

In 2021, SPF received $3,000,000 from the left-of-center Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ⁵ $450,000 from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, $200,000 from the Tides Foundation, and $10,000 from the Chicago Community Trust. ²²

In 2020, SPF received 195,000 from the New Venture Fund. ²³ SPF also received $125,000 from the left-of-center Tides Center ²⁴ and $50,024 from the Peace Development Fund in 2018 ²⁵ and $400,000 from the left-of-center Ford Foundation in 2008. ²⁶