The Rosenberg Foundation in San Francisco has announced the latest cohort of nine Leading Edge fellows.

Launched in 2016, the Leading Edge Fund seeds, incubates, and works to accelerate bold ideas from young progressive movement leaders in California. The latest cohort will work to end and replace the incarceration and criminalization of young people of color, build economic hubs led by and for transgender people, create alternatives to police response, and end child poverty. To that end, fellows will receive $250,000 over three years in general support as well as individualized technical assistance in program development, fundraising and strategic communications, executive coaching, and trainings and retreats.

New fellows include Aria Sa’id, who will work to end the economic oppression and marginalization of transgender people by creating thriving economic hubs led by and for transgender people of color; Cat Brooks, who aims to revolutionize public safety in cities across the state by engaging visual arts, theater, and organizing to imagine and implement abolitionist solutions to effectively respond to community crises with care; and Nicole Lee, who will work to end youth incarceration in Alameda County and assist younger activists who are imagining a new youth justice system in the state.

“Now, more than ever, we need visionaries like these nine fellows to imagine and guide us toward a world free of racist systems and policies, to make real their visions of equity and justice,” said Rosenberg Foundation president Tim Silard. “As funders, we have the incredible privilege to invest deeply and flexibly in bold leaders whose ‘radical’ ideas to win racial and economic justice can soon be the norm.”

For a complete list of Leading Edge fellows, see the Rosenberg Foundation website.

Philanthropy News Digest