Voices of Our Community: How My FCF Experience Informs My Work with Blue Heart

Note: We are so proud to feature this piece from longtime Associate Board member Becky Newborn. Becky continues to be a cornerstone of the Full Circle Fund community, and we are thrilled to share how she is deepening her impact in the Bay Area by participating in trust-based philanthropy through Blue Heart.

Hi all!

My name is Becky Newborn and I’ve been a part of our community for 7.5 years (started with a YCore project in 2018). I’ve held various roles - project team member, project team mentor and for the last 5+ years I’ve served on the associate board in various capacities. My journey in understanding the systems of inequity and the grassroots work combating those systems in the Bay Area has been largely through FCF, but has also brought me to other like minded organizations. 

Through friends at FCF, I learned about Blue Heart, a member-funded organization that boldly funds and elevates the stories and solutions of under-the-radar visionary groups on the frontlines of social change work in the Bay Area. With mine and others’ monthly donations, Blue Heart supports organizations who often have difficulty attracting mainstream funders by practicing trust based philanthropy. 

Our organizations are very closely values-aligned. Just check out their four core beliefs:

1. Frontline leadership is an imperative.

   1. They prioritize organizations whose leaders have roots in the marginalized communities that they seek to serve (so do we!)

2. Y(our) money is not only y(our) own.

   1. They believe in redistributing the wealth and resources that have been consistently and unjustly extracted from working class communities and communities of color (so do we!)

3. Cultural change catalyzes political and economic change.

   1. They work to ignite a shift in cultural narratives, perceptions, and social relationships (so do we!)

4. Millennials are uniquely positioned to move resources.

   1. They seek to tap into this progressive and purpose-driven generation, providing new models of philanthropy that upend traditional hierarchies (so do we!)

We are actively exploring collaborations between Full Circle and Blue Heart, where we can bring expertise in community engagement and deep relationships with our partner organizations, and they can bring expertise in collecting and distributing funds, as well as identification of visionary organizations doing the work we all believe in. Stay tuned on what those collaborations may look like!

But in the meantime, I invite you to join Blue Heart (at any monthly donation level you feel comfortable with), funnel your money into some amazing work going on in the Bay Area, learn about these organizations in the process, and join (another) community of likeminded people who deeply care about justice and equity right here at home.