Announcing our End of Year Grantees and Awardees!

Arthere Istanbul is an Istanbul-based non-profit art centre and cultural/social enterprise aiming to empower Syrian artists and promote tolerance and understanding. Arthere Istanbul welcomes artists whether they are from Syria, Turkey, or anywhere else in the world. Arthere activities include art exhibits, concerts, art management education, psychosocial support, and an international residency program with ResArtis Network. Arthere functions as a community workspace to bring artists and the community together and provides the resources for artists to explore their own work and exchange with each other.

AYEISH’s mission is to support political systems and leaders deepening in their capacity to transform conflict to solution, through connection between people.  AYEISH uses a mindfulness + Nonviolent Communication toolset to support people

• identifying the core, shared human needs underneath their and others’ positions, strategies, and actions
• mediating for a solution that works for everybody. Parties mediate their own conflicts!

AYEISH works primarily at the intersection of capacity-building (workshops, coaching) and strategy. AYEISH is collaborating with Syrian NGO WIAM on a peace and unification initiative, and has pilots to support leaders in the U.S., in Congo, and elsewhere.

Groundswell Fund supports a stronger, more effective U.S. movement for reproductive justice by mobilizing new funding and capacity building resources to grassroots organizing and policy change efforts led by low income women, women of color and transgender people.

Christian Michael Filardo is a Filipino American photographer, composer, and curator living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They have exhibited and published both domestically and internationally. Their new book, “The Voyeur’s Gambit” was released in August 2017 on the Santa Fe based publishing operation Lime Lodge. Currently, Filardo helps maintain operations at the Santa Fe based art space Etiquette, and attended a trial residency at Fabrica in Treviso, Italy in September 2017.

Art, culture, creativity and the humanities operate as the backbone of our methodology for regenerating confidence and self-esteem, and the rediscovery of the ingenuity, imagination, and innovation that is inherent in all humanity. We all own these assets, though they may be overwhelmed by circumstance. This is a crucial first step, and coupled with techniques for creative problem-solving and global collaboration, allows for the incubation of new ideas and the inclusion of indigenous learning systems, opening a world of possibilities that lets us live the life we choose, not one we have been forced to live.

Franklin López is an anarchist filmmaker from occupied Borikén (Puerto Rico.) He has produced hundreds of videos and short films under the subMedia banner, a radical film project he kicked off in 1994. He is most well known for “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine” a snarky web news/comedy series followed by thousands. But his work also includes mash-ups, music videos and documentaries. In 2019, Frank left subMedia to start Rad Film School, a project to teach video skills to communities engaged in active resistance.

Photo by Dawn Paley

The Friends of Friendship Park is made up of individuals and organizations working to create unrestricted access for the public to this iconic cross-border meeting place.  Friendship Park is located on the coast at the SD/Tijuana border with a plaza that encircles the historic bi-national monument, some bi-national garden circles of native plants, and a shared beach.  Our coalition advocates on behalf of the many families who depend on Friendship Park to see their loved ones.  We’re working on building a truly bi-national park to reflect a priority of cross-border friendship and collaboration as a means of security and a better future for the region and beyond.

Joi works with two other SpiderWeave Flow Fund recipients, Tiesha Watts and Maria Dominique Villanueva at Fountain Heights Farms.

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The mission of Fountain Heights Farms is to improve the quality of life for the current residents of the historic Fountain Heights community of Birmingham, Alabama, through long term land stewardship by community-led urban agricultural cooperatives focused on meeting the immediate and basic need for healthy fresh foods, and through culturally responsive community education and employment programs that support and inform urban agricultural initiatives in historically underserved areas of Birmingham, Alabama.

Our approach includes:

• Meeting community needs for healthy, fresh foods.
• Meeting community needs for flexible, self-guided employment.
• Meeting community needs for culturally inclusive and responsive education lead by people reflective of our community.

Indie Philanthropy is a creative disruption to the status quo of funding. It gives a common name to decentralized, daring funding alternatives that together are poised to reshape the field of philanthropy.

Kindle Project created the Indie Philanthropy Initiative in 2014 after having been trailblazing experimenters of Indie Philanthropy for over eight years. After incubating the Initiative since its launch, the Indie Philanthropy Initiative spun-off from Kindle Project to become its own independent project in early 2016. Kindle Project remains key friends, allies and a Core Partner to the Indie Philanthropy Initiative.

Kanatsiohareke was founded in 1993 to be a sustainable Onkwehonwe (Indigenous) community where Mohawk and other Haudenosaunee people could come to reconnect with their language and cultural traditions removed from influences of Western industrialized society. Visitors can participate in a range of educational programs aimed at preserving traditional Mohawk/Haudenosaunee culture and language while building an expanded understanding of these among both Haudenosaunee and non-Haudenosaunee people.  Hailing from an ancient culture based upon consensus-building, democratic participation of all community members, and the active striving for peace and justice for all humans, all life forms, and the natural world around us, the lessons offered at Kanatsiohareke are increasingly relevant in the world today.

Leaders of the Free World (LFW) is an international experiential learning and leadership development program for young Black men.  Our mission is to develop dynamic leaders who are globally-minded, self-aware, and service-driven.

The project operates as a year-long global perspective and professional development program, that provides international exposure, while expanding each participant’s leadership capacity.

Currently, African-American men make up less than 1% of students who study abroad or receive international experience. In a more globalized society, LFW recognizes the imperative for young leaders to gain a broader understanding of the world and themselves.

LFW’s goal is to create a network of leaders whose development impacts their own lives, their communities, and the world; grooming the next generation of changemakers.

The New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) was founded in 1987 by attorney Douglas Meiklejohn.  Since that time, its attorneys have represented clients on nearly 300 cases throughout New Mexico, primarily working with residents of low-income communities and communities of color.  We have expertise in solid waste, hard-rock mining, uranium mining, air quality, urban sprawl, water quality and quantity, dairies, oil and gas extraction, and climate change.  The Law Center’s goal in each case is to achieve the environmental protection objectives of its clients.

Maria Dominique Villanueva wants to live in a world where force fields around clothing exists, making laundry obsolete, vegan chocolate cake can be found in every grocery store, everyone has access to fresh vegetables, and all children are in bed by 8pm. With an education in health economics and a corporate work history, Ms. Villanueva has a varied history of working to improve the wellness of her community whether it be through the AHA recognized Latinx Health and Wellness Outreach Program that she developed and managed or more recently through maintaining farm space and teaching 620 PreK – 5th grade students in partnership with Birmingham City Schools. Her newest undertaking, Fountain Heights Farms, combines much of her former wellness and economic development work into a single project to benefit the community where she lives and works. When she’s not tilling, planting, and harvesting on Fountain Heights Farms, she can be found folding laundry (because the force field doesn’t exist), hosting dance parties in the kitchen, and daydreaming of sleeping in past 6:00am.

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The mission of Fountain Heights Farms is to improve the quality of life for the current residents of the historic Fountain Heights community of Birmingham, Alabama, through long term land stewardship by community-led urban agricultural cooperatives focused on meeting the immediate and basic need for healthy fresh foods, and through culturally responsive community education and employment programs that support and inform urban agricultural initiatives in historically underserved areas of Birmingham, Alabama.

Our approach includes:

• Meeting community needs for healthy, fresh foods.
• Meeting community needs for flexible, self-guided employment.
• Meeting community needs for culturally inclusive and responsive education lead by people reflective of our community.

The Muonde Trust is a community-based organisation dedicated to fomenting locally-driven creativity and development in the Mazvihwa and neighbouring areas of south central Zimbabwe (Zvishavane District). Through locally-driven educational, agricultural and community extension programs, and a healthy dose of action research, we back indigenous development efforts that maintain the connections between spirit, community and ecology.

SaveArtSpace transforms advertisement space into public art by and for the local community. Providing artists opportunities to display their work in the public space. Creating an urban gallery experience, we aim to affect and inspire and new generation of artists. Since 2015, SaveArtSpace, has installed 71 public art installations on advertisement space around the country, with the work of 57 local artists, including 42 installations in NYC. SaveArtSpace works with a variety of different groups: schools, senior residencies, youth groups, special needs programs, as well as local & native artists. Together, we aim to foster community and cultural enrichment through the arts.

Somos Un Pueblo Unido, founded in 1995, is a New Mexico immigrant-led organization that promotes worker and racial justice. With a membership of nearly 3,000 people in eight counties, Somos: offers community education about rights and remedies; forges leadership opportunities for immigrants and low-wage workers; provides legal services to wage theft victims; engages Latinos in the political and electoral process; and leads grassroots campaigns for local and national policies that strengthen our communities and advance immigrants’ rights.

A Birmingham, Alabama native who is extremely passionate about the power of food and education. For the past several years, Tiesha has dedicated herself to the work of educating herself as well as other individuals on the importance and daily needs of having access to healthy foods. This work includes educating both students and adults on how to gain such access to such through the power of growing local organic produce, basic agricultural practices and teaching basic cooking skills. On a normal day, you can find Tiesha in an urban garden, growing and nurturing, both, fresh produce and unique individuals.

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The mission of Fountain Heights Farms is to improve the quality of life for the current residents of the historic Fountain Heights community of Birmingham, Alabama, through long term land stewardship by community-led urban agricultural cooperatives focused on meeting the immediate and basic need for healthy fresh foods, and through culturally responsive community education and employment programs that support and inform urban agricultural initiatives in historically underserved areas of Birmingham, Alabama.

Our approach includes:

• Meeting community needs for healthy, fresh foods.
• Meeting community needs for flexible, self-guided employment.
• Meeting community needs for culturally inclusive and responsive education lead by people reflective of our community.