This week the Board of Directors of Community Shares of Wisconsin took action to distribute $81,000 to its members from the Fund for a Just Recovery. The Fund was created as an effort to help Community Shares of Wisconsin’s member nonprofits continue to take bold action for social justice during the COVID-19 crisis. The funds will be distributed evenly among all groups through an “Equal Share,” as recommended by the membership.
“We’ve been so pleased to see how generous donors can be, even in a time of great economic challenges,” said Executive Director Cheri Dubiel. “The Fund for a Just Recovery is just one avenue of action people can take to support efforts to bring us out of our current health and economic crisis that has exposed deep disparities in our society. When we say we won’t return to business as usual, it’s because we support the mission and the work of nonprofits that put justice and equity at the center of all they do. COVID and the Black Lives Matter movement have made this work for justice clearer and more relevant than ever.”
All member organizations of Community Shares of Wisconsin contribute to the advancement of social justice and environmental protection in our community. The COVID pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement increased the urgency of our action. COVID-19 continues to be a crisis that is having a disproportionate impact on those in our country who experience the greatest disparities in even the best of times. There are solutions and the Black Lives Matter movement is showing more Americans how we can make our schools and our streets safer for Black and Brown men, women, and nonbinary neighbors.
“As a member of Community Shares of Wisconsin, REAP Food Group is a recipient of this special distribution from the Fund for a Just Recovery,” said Helen Sarakinos, Executive Director of REAP Food Group. “We are so grateful to all of the donors to the campaign and share their commitment to use these funds to create systemic change to create a more just society.”
Community Shares established the fund in April to fill the gap projected in local workforce layoffs and furloughs that may impact workplace giving donations, decreases in other donations, canceled fundraising events, and other impacts on nonprofits’ revenue.
Thanks to the generosity of individual donors and foundations as well as corporate sponsors like CUNA Mutual and WEA Trust Insurance Corporation, the Fund for a Just Recovery will help give member groups a boost at the end of 2020. One hundred percent of funds raised will be distributed to CSW’s members.
