Three smiling females, a woman with short blonde hair, glasses, and a denim jacket, a woman with braided hair and a yellow jacket, and a young girl in a light green hoodie, in an indoor setting with a wooden cabinet in the background.

BLAC Fund: Building Local Alignment in Community Fund

Logo for Black Fund with text 'Building Local Alignment & Community'.
2026 General Information Session
2026 Childcare Information Session

The Building Local Alignment in Community (BLAC) Fund is a participatory grant process powered by I Be Black Girl. Community members will have the opportunity to co-design and decide how funds will be invested in the community while radically reimagining the role of philanthropy, including how power is wielded.  

2026 General Grant Application
2026 BLAC Fund General FAQs
2026 Childcare Grant Application
2026 Childcare FAQs

Goals of the initiative:

Advanced strategies that require public health, healthcare and social service (multi-sector) systems, as well as funders and intermediaries, to demonstrate accountability to community residents, their priorities and racial equity 

Model participatory grantmaking approaches that shift power and influence to communities – and share lessons across RWJF and beyond in ways that seed new norms for how philanthropy is done

Provide additional support for community-led nonprofits for technical assistance, policy advocacy, leadership development, community organizing, and other priorities and needs they identify 

Foster meaningful, transparent, and equitable partnerships between community-led nonprofits and multi-sector systems in advancing racial and health equity               

Center communities of color, low-income residents and other individuals and groups facing historic and ongoing harm from systemic inequities as co-creators and beneficiaries of local efforts to advance health equity  

The BLAC Fund Council is...

  • Three-year council service  

  • Represent target communities with shared identities and lived experience 

  • No experience in philanthropy is required

“Participatory grantmaking” is defined as:

Co-designing funding strategies and priorities
Reviewing and assessing proposals
Establishing decision-making criteria
Making funding decisions
Participating in and co-designing the evaluation of an initiative

applications for the council are now closed

applications for the council are now closed

2024 Blac Fund Council

  • A woman with braided hair and gold hoop earrings smiling outdoors in a brown long-sleeve top, with colorful flowers and a garden in the background.

    Jasmine Reddick (She/Her)

  • Smiling woman with dreadlocks sitting in a wheelchair outdoors, wearing a black sleeveless top, with colorful garden and pathway in the background.

    Kween Alabi (She/Her/They)

  • A smiling woman with glasses and curly hair sitting on a white armchair indoors, wearing a light purple sleeveless top and gold jewelry.

    Tainesha Owens (She/Her)

  • A woman with short curly hair wearing red glasses, colorful earrings, a gold choker, and a colorful scarf around her neck. She is dressed in a black top with cape-like sleeves and is standing outdoors with a flower garden and a decorative fence in the background, smiling at the camera.

    Dr. Toccara Steele (She/Her)