Lessons from the Four Freedoms Fund: How Philanthropy Can Support Immigrant Rights
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Immigrant rights march in Washington, D.C. Ryan Rodrick Beiler/shutterstock
The United States is home to approximately 46 million immigrants, making up 13.9% of the total population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. After a decrease in growth during the Trump administration and the pandemic, between 2021 and 2022, net migration increased by an estimated 1 million.
Although they make up a huge part of the country’s population, not to mention its cultural and economic fabric, immigrants to the U.S. face persistent challenges — discrimination, xenophobia, high levels of unemployment and lack of access to benefits and other opportunities. The latest surge in anti-immigrant rhetoric drew many to the cause, but the nonprofit community’s fight for immigrant rights has been a long one.
The Four Freedoms Fund (FFF) has been supporting that fight now for two decades. Named after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech in which he outlined the four freedoms everyone should enjoy, this national funder collaborative supports immigrant justice organizations and the movement as a whole across the U.S. As a steady builder of organizing infrastructure, and one that has made progress in some of the most (seemingly) hostile environments, Four Freedoms holds a rare level of insight into successful funding for immigrant rights and a potential path forward at a dangerous moment in the nation’s history.
Launched in 2003 as a response to the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment following the September 11 terrorist attacks, FFF founders were the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation. The fund is housed at NEO Philanthropies, and current donors include the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Heising-Simons Foundation, JPB Foundation, Kresge Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy.
"We started 20 years ago… and since that time, Four Freedoms Fund's reason for being has been to really invest in a robust infrastructure of immigrant justice organizations across states and across movements, who are in many ways the ones leading the fight for justice," said Rini Chakraborty, vice president at NEO Philanthropy and senior director of FFF.
FFF's funding priorities are strengthening state and local advocacy and organizing around the immigrant justice movement, increasing civic participation, and challenging the nation's systems of immigration enforcement and criminalization.
FFF provides long-term and flexible grants at the local, state and national levels. It also provides capacity-building, rapid response grants and communications and messaging training. Since 2003, FFF has raised more than $280 million to advance immigrant justice in 45 states and Washington, D.C. In 2022 alone, FFF awarded more than $17.3 million, and by the end of this year, it anticipates it will have distributed another $17 million in grants and technical assistance. Grantees include the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, One Arizona, Florida Immigration Coalition, Immigrant Defense Project and the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. FFF’s goal for 2024 is to raise $25 million and support more than 100 grantees.
"It's incredible to see… immigrant communities coming together, fighting back… and seizing every opportunity to build power from the bottom up. It's a story that we've seen play out in state after state after state."
Arizona as a template
Recently, NEO Philanthropy hosted an event that highlighted Arizona as an example of the progress the immigration justice movement has accomplished. More than a decade ago, the state was home to some of the most stringent anti-immigrant sentiment, culminating with 2010’s SB1070 — also known as the "show me your papers" law — which required law enforcement officials to ask for proof of citizenship from anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant. (The U.S. Supreme Court struck down three of the four provisions in 2012.)
Thanks largely to the efforts of immigration rights activists and organizers, the state's anti-immigrant landscape began to shift. Several nonprofit organizations were formed as a direct result of SB1070, many of whom have been wildly successful in increasing civic participation. One Arizona, which is made up of 30 organizations that work to advance immigrant rights and opportunities, is responsible for registering more than 600,000 voters.
FFF has been providing support for immigration rights organizations in Arizona for years, including seed funding for One Arizona. It has invested more than $7.5 million in the state. Chakraborty believes Arizona can serve as a blueprint for future investment, and a beacon of hope for leaders in states facing similar anti-immigrant attacks.
"For funders, I think that what the phenomenal groups accomplished in Arizona and in so many other states really serves as a roadmap for how sustained investments in grassroots organizing, advocacy and civic engagement, particularly at the state level, can turn the tide, transform the state and take back democracy," she said.
"I fundamentally believe that what we've seen in this state and local communities are templates for how we fight back, how we defend our communities and families, and ultimately, reinvigorate energy, trust and interest in our democracy."
Not just immigration
One of the biggest changes Chakraborty has seen in the immigrant justice movement since FFF's launch has been the growth of organizations that are led by immigrants. For FFF, it’s been important to highlight and support these leaders who are not only vulnerable to both the immigration and criminal legal systems, but also the driving forces behind change.
"When you look state by state… you will see, just like you saw in Arizona, that it is often immigrant rights leaders or people who are immigrants themselves who are leading the way, not just on immigrant rights, but everything from civic engagement to economic justice, climate justice, and much, much more," Chakraborty added.
She stressed that funders should be aware that funding immigration justice extends beyond just immigration to other civil rights. Funding immigration often intersects with things like gender justice, democracy issues, surveillance and privacy, and criminal justice and police reform, to name a few.
"Immigrants are really on the front lines of the cultural wars in the U.S. And that even though immigration is often seen as a quote-unquote niche issue, I do believe that it is the defining issue of our time," she said.
FFF has also supported organizations that are often underserved even within the immigrant rights movement, including Indigenous migrant communities and LGBT migrants. The number of Black migrants, for example, has increased by 475% in the last 40 years. In response, FFF has deepened its support of Black migrant leaders. Since 2020, FFF and its Black Migrant Power Fund — a community-led fund housed at FFF that supports Black-led grassroots organizations that work to address the needs of Black migrants and build their power — have moved $7.4 million to Black-led organizations, including Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Black Immigrant Collective, and Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project.
Pushing back against white supremacy
One of the biggest issues FFF is anticipating is the continued resurgence of nativism and xenophobia.
"It's something that I think we need to take more seriously as funders," Chakraborty said. "It's something that affects not just immigrant communities but all communities of color.… It is one of the biggest challenges that we face, not just as immigrant communities, but writ large within the U.S."
With this rising threat comes an erosion in people's trust in government and other institutions, and ultimately, in our democracy.
Activists and organizers in Arizona successfully pushed back against an anti-immigrant climate and built power in their communities. "By building up grassroots organizing, these are all elements of a roadmap for pushing back against white nationalists, turning the tide and taking back our democracy," said Chakraborty.
The work seen at the state level and in local communities, she said, are templates for how others can both defend immigrants and their rights, as well as reinvigorate energy, trust and interest in our democracy.
"Ultimately, I think having great belief and faith in the power and transformative capacity of immigrant communities will get us through this painful moment," Chakraborty said, "and more importantly, help build a robust and truly democratic multiracial future for all."
