FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2024
Contact: Sarah Goff, sarah@imaginewaterworks.org
Imagine Water Works Welcomed to Grantee Cohort as The Disability Inclusion Fund Moves Over $4.75 Million to Disabled-Led Organizations
New Orleans – Since its establishment in 2019, Borealis Philanthropy’s Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) has been a force in strengthening the disability justice movement, expanding the capacity of grassroots disabled-led organizations, and amplifying its leaders at its forefront. This month, the DIF is proud to announce $4.75 million in awards to 60 disabled-led organizations and visionaries who are advancing disability justice, rights, and innovative technologies to build joyful futures free of ableism.
Through the leadership and wisdom of its participatory grantmaking committee—a dedicated group of disabled organizers, artists, educators, and advocates who each brought deep care and expertise to this process—the DIF is extending continuing support to 36 returning grantees and is also welcoming 15 new organizations, focused in the areas of climate justice, media and storytelling, and economic empowerment, reflecting the DIF’s commitment to long-term power building and nurturing emerging leaders.
This year’s awards also include $700,000 to nine organizations through the DIF x Tech Fund, a partnership with the Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation to bring about transformational change at the intersections of disability rights, justice, and technology. As the only national fund dedicated to this work, these critical investments are bolstering organizers and organizations leading progress in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Together, this cohort of disabled-led and majority BIPOC-led organizations are addressing critical issues nationwide, from affordable housing and voting rights, equitable access to assistive technologies, and reentry support for formerly incarcerated Deaf and/or disabled folks—to holistic health and mental wellness to emergency disasters and preparedness response. These leaders are building bridges across social justice movements, embedding disability justice frameworks in every aspect of their work, and creating a blueprint of liberatory practices for more joyful futures for all.
Imagine Water Works (IWW) – For over a decade Imagine Water Works has reimagined the future through art, science, and connection. IWW’s core focus areas are climate justice, land stewardship, and disaster readiness and response. Since its founding IWW has helped lead the changes we’ve seen locally and globally in how our communities think about disaster readiness and response – and about living and thriving together as a part of nature.
Located in New Orleans and working across coastal Louisiana and beyond, Imagine Water Works is “home grown” and rooted in Creole and Indigenous principles of mutual aid. In New Orleans, the city’s first mutual aid organizations -on record and by that name- were formed as early as the 1700s. Many of these societies have continued to exist throughout the years as Mardi Gras krewes. In keeping with a long tradition of mutual aid, IWW’s work continues to provide for a model for community care, with those most impacted being able to self-advocate and support each other through times of crisis. It is IWW’s position that the ability to self-advocate with the support of a larger collective is central to an anti-ableist framework as well as to a “Just Recovery”, which “requires that all community members be provided with the ability to exercise their agency fully through free and informed choice in support of their personal well-being”. As such, IWW’s work aims to address immediate survival needs in times of crisis while shifting the underlying conditions that created the conditions of the crisis in the first place.
“We are not simply here to do charitable work, which often upholds patterns of normativity and a top-down movement of resources and ideas. Instead, everything that we do is intentionally and strategically planned to be multi-directional, pushing power outward and back to the people. Through our years of reiterating that everyone needs support and everyone has something to offer, we have seen mindsets shift to be less ableist and more empowered, both within our mutual aid group and amongst those who we spend time with in other spaces.,” said Kliebert, Co-Founder and Executive Director.
As we enter a year where we can expect heightened attacks on disabled communities and the disability justice principles that advance justice for us all—our movements must be fortified and protected with urgency. The DIF is grateful for the support of the President’s Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy and our broader donor table, whose partnership makes this critical work possible. The DIF invites other funders to join them and utilize the Fund as a mechanism to pool and distribute strategic and aligned funding to bolster the disability justice movement.
To view a full list of the incredible organizations that belong to the DIF’s 2024-2025 cohort, visit https://borealisphilanthropy.org/2024/12/09/the-disability-inclusion-fund-moves-over-4-75-million-to-disabled-led-organizations/.
To learn more about how to partner with the DIF, please connect with us at DIF@borealisphilanthropy.org.
To learn more about Imagine Water Works, visit www.imaginewaterworks.org or email klie@imaginewaterworks.org.
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