To address COVID-19’s impact on "girls, fem(mes), and nonbinary/gender expansive youth of color,” Grantmakers for Girls of Color (G4GC) recently launched a new $1 million Love Is Healing COVID-19 Response Fund.

According to a press release, only 23 percent of philanthropic funding is going toward dismantling the structural barriers that girls of color say are important to them, even as women of color are the majority of frontline workers and often the lowest paid. As a result, the fund will address COVID-19-related needs, such as strategizing economic and educational responses, interventions to support systems that affect survivors of gender-based violence and preventative or responsive measures for mental, physical and emotional health strategies.

“In this moment and beyond, philanthropy must address the lack of diversity, quality, and responsiveness of capital directed to support girls of color at the intersection of their complex identities and experiences,” said Monique W. Morris, executive director of Grantmakers for Girls of Color. “Even before this pandemic, girls and gender expansive youth of color have faced interlocking forms of oppression that prevent their full participation in our country’s future. The Love is Healing fund seeks to support coalitions and organizations that have been fighting historical inequities and the marginalization of girls of color well before COVID-19—and who are responding now with creativity, care and urgency.”

G4GC’s fund will offer one-time grants of up to $25,000 to organizations and coalitions led by womxn or girls of color whose mission is to support girls of color and gender-expansive youth of color. To connect funders with organizers and advocates to increase support for culturally- and gender-specific COVID-19 relief efforts, G4CC also launched a webinar series.

To learn more about the grant, visit Grantmakers for Girls of Color.