The LIFT Fund

💵 Dollar store workers are taking a stand and making change! 💪 Check out our latest blog by Step Up Louisiana's Co-Executive Director/Co-Founder Benjamin Zucker on their fight to raise wages and create safer working conditions for dollar store workers. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eW7TD_jA

Over the past year, LIFT’s staff, steering committee, grantees, and key stakeholders updated our strategic plan, setting forth a bold and transformative vision of deeper resourcing, collaboration, and investment into building the collective power of workers over the next decade. Rooted in racial, class, and gender justice in the South and Midwest , our strategic goals include fostering relationships, enhancing training and collaboration, bridging organizational differences, encouraging collaborative funding, and strengthening labor-philanthropy partnerships.  To read a summary of our updated strategic plan, click here: https://theliftfund.org/

Earlier this week, The LIFT Fund, Ford Foundation, THE JPB FOUNDATION and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) co-sponsored a strategy session with the funding community and labor unions to highlight the need for deeper investments in worker-led movements to change working people’s lives and strengthen our democracy. The Southern Worker’s Opportunity Fund (SWO) is a remarkable example of what’s possible when philanthropy and labor come together with shared resources and a plan. In just 2.5 years, SWO has invested $11 million in 38 organizations across the South. We’re proud of what our SWO collaborators the AFL-CIO, SEIU and The Ford Foundation have helped to build, while following the lead of people in communities who are closest to the solutions. At the briefing, LIFT executive director Jennifer Epps shared our straightforward theory of change. We unite people, institutions and resources.  We turn that into wraparound, multi-year support for organizers in the South, Midwest and California. We lower the barriers to entry into philanthropy for smaller and newer groups and for those led by women, Black and Brown people - voices that have been systemically ignored, silenced and devalued for generations. We center their organizing because we know it's the right thing to do and will raise standards for everyone. A special thanks to some of the voices at the session: Sarita Gupta, Ai-jen Poo, Liz Shuler, April Verrett and Deepak Pateriya, whose team at SEIU helped shape the session, and Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable’s executive director Cassandra Welchlin and Robin Jackson. We’re also grateful to LIFT steering committee member Maritza Silva-Farrell and co-chairs Christian Sweeney and José García.

Our partners at EBASE (East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy) are launching their 10-year Long-Term Agenda, and are hosting a webinar next Tuesday, Sept 24 where they'll share their vision and strategies for achieving racial and economic justice in the East Bay. Funders are invited to learn how their support can help drive this transformative work. Click below to register: https://lnkd.in/gSFj6PwA

Check out our latest blog post for W.K. Kellogg Foundation featuring the childcare organizing work of our Partnerships grantees New Jersey Communities United!

✊ Happy Labor Day! 🎉 Today, we celebrate the hard work, dedication, and achievements of all workers who contribute to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our communities. Whether you’re clocking in at the office, working from home, or out in the field, your efforts are the backbone of our society. 💪 #LaborDay2024 #workersrights

Our Executive Director, Jennifer Epps, authored a powerful blog on Black executive leadership for National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Click below to read and share!

🎉LIFT would like to announce our new Program Manager, Reece Chenault! Reece has nearly 20 years of organizing experience, beginning with Union Summer '03 in Mississippi, continuing with union locals and Black worker centers, and most recently developing healing and restoration practices for organizers with Wildseed Society. As Program Manager, Reece oversees and supports a cohort of our SWO grantees. Welcome to the team Reece!

🌡️☀️As summer temperatures continue to soar, it's important to remember all the workers laboring in these high heat conditions. National COSH - National Council for Occupational Safety and Health's "Fired Up! Workers for Heat Justice" campaign empowers frontline workers to win lifesaving protections from exposure to extreme heat on the job. Click here to sign their petition calling for the enactment of federal heat protections! https://lnkd.in/dn5pHfpu

✏️☑Our partners at New Working Majority (who recently helped us hire our new Program Manager!) are conducting a salary survey focused on people who work in movement organizations. Visit https://lnkd.in/eMcCzpUs to complete their brief survey and be entered for a chance to win a $50 Visa gift card! 💸