One in five Hopi and Navajo households, which span across Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, do not have access to on-the-grid power. In this inspirational story, Dr. Suzanne Singer, the founder and executive director of Native Renewables, a Tides Foundation WE LEAD award recipient, shares how she discovered a solution that's giving Native American communities a means to solve energy inequities with solar power. 

Army veteran and local educator Dr. Treva Gear never grew up learning about environmental racism in her hometown of Adel, Georgia, although the predominantly Black and Hispanic community is heavily zoned for industry. Gear shares why she founded Concerned Citizens of Cook County (4C), a grantee of Tides Foundation's Frontline Justice Fund, to mobilize her community to fight for the air they breathe and the water they drink, and how to legally protect their community from more harmful toxins. 

Tides Foundation, in partnership with a consortium of foundations, has granted nearly $2 million to community-based organizations through the Practitioners’ Voice California Fund. The initiative aims to strengthen the practitioner's voice and power at every level of California’s early childhood system — in cities, counties, and at the state level — to achieve equitable pay and improved working conditions. 

In solidarity with climate justice leaders across the United States, several of Tides Foundation’s Frontline Justice Fund (FJF) Independent Advisory Board members and Tides Foundation’s Executive Director Peter Martin were invited to attend President Biden's Executive Order signing to renew the nation’s commitment to environmental justice for all.  The order calls on federal agencies to take more actionable steps to address the nation's legacy of racial discrimination, which makes Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities more susceptible to pollution and environmental toxins. FJF Board Member Jacqueline Patterson was among the invited guests. 

Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) women are champions for social justice as leaders at foundations and as grassroots organizers in their respective communities. But they often do not receive the support they need due to racial discrimination and gender bias. Sha-Kim Wilson, Tides' senior director of Strategic Partnerships, recently led a discussion with other BIPOC women who work in philanthropy about how the sector can better support them.