Black Lives Matter

Friends, 

In these days of national anguish and personal reckoning, we reflect on how great the divide is across the broader society on fairness, opportunity, and physical safety. Though the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have brought racism and police brutality into the spotlight, the systems-level social failings that surround this tragedy are not new.  For centuries, deep social disparities have plagued our country with roots going back to slavery and beyond.

At SHSF, we believe it is critical to reflect on our activities and mission and how we can contribute to dismantling systemic racism. Nearly half of SHSF’s grants focus on abuse of power by law enforcement and in prison and detention settings; most notably, we funded Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology to expand their extraordinary work on “the color of surveillance” and unregulated police face recognition. 

We are committed to ensuring our grant dollars support women and people of color in leadership roles, in addition to our other institutional goals for justice in higher education and immigration. Across our grant portfolio, we found that 53% of all grant dollars are funding projects or organizations led by people of color. We also found that 77% of all grant dollars are funding projects or organizations led by women. You can read more about these grantees and initiatives here.

We’re listening to our grantees and to the calls for change coming from our most vulnerable communities. 

We expect and hope our activities will change as we learn how to do this work better. 

We are committed to amplifying voices of color and striving to contribute in support of these voices as our nation undergoes what we hope will be profound change. 

We welcome your partnership in this work. 

With appreciation,  

Abigail Seldin & Whitney Haring-Smith

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