Winter 2020 Newsletter: Letter from the Co-Directors

Dear Friends,

As 2020 thankfully draws to a close and we look forward to new beginnings in 2021, we’re reflecting on Arundhati Roy’s insights: “pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it…ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

This year, the disparate damage inflicted by the pandemic, police violence, wildfires, and hurricanes laid bare deep, structural inequities in the U.S. These same systemic inequities are at the root of the climate crisis. The recent election showed the power and efficacy of sustained multi-solving and organizing work shaped by and led by Black, Brown and Indigenous leaders, women, young people, and others on the frontlines of righting these historic wrongs. These leaders are opening the portal to a stable climate and sustainable world by transforming the systems of power governing who pollutes, who profits, and whose lives are valued. Thanks to support from more than a dozen current and new donors, the Hive Fund is looking forward to more than doubling our grant-making support for these leaders and their organizations in 2021 and beyond.

Brionté McCorkle, Executive Director of Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund at their Honor the Vote art exhibition and engagement event.

In the interim, there are urgent funding needs in Georgia as organizations there work to engage voters and protect voting rights. We were able to move quickly to support several Georgia-based organizations in November but more is needed. We’ve created a list of recommended groups here.

We are excited to share our latest Learning Lab, with lessons from our emergent Healing Justice and Holistic Security grant-making program. And we hope you take a minute to meet an inspiring young organizer from Texas in Voices From the Frontlines.

Finally, stay tuned--we’ll be announcing a new slate of grantee partners later in December, and launching searches for several new staff positions that will be posted on our website in January.

Looking forward to 2021,

Melanie Allen and Erin Rogers
Co-Directors