The board and staff of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation are delighted to announce that we are investing $1.4 million in seven new Grantee Partners building political and economic power across the American South. At a moment when organizations advancing voting rights, racial equity, and community power face steep funding cuts, MRBF is choosing to deepen its investment in Southern movements. These grants bring our total 2026 grantmaking to $11.8 million.
The South is central to the future of American democracy, yet philanthropic investment has long fallen short of the region’s needs and potential. Southern Communities continue to demonstrate the leadership, vision, and capacity that warrant investment proportionate to their impact. We are choosing to stand alongside them.
“The future of American democracy is being shaped in the South. Across the region, people and organizations are building power in their communities every day, imagining and creating a more just and thriving future for all of us,” said Flozell Daniels Jr., CEO of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation.
“When we invest in the South, centering racial equity and democracy, we invest in the promise of this country. We welcome more of our peers in philanthropy to join us in building what’s possible.”
Our new Grantee Partners are Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Cypress Fund, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Migrant Equity Southeast, Transform Alabama, and Valiente Fund, a project of Way to Rise. Their work spans Black voter engagement, election protection, immigrant rights, land justice, and equitable economic policy. Each will receive general operating support, giving Grantee Partners the stability and flexibility to sustain their work, strengthen their capacity, and respond to their communities’ needs.
MRBF’s commitment to the South goes beyond grant dollars. Earlier this year, the Board of Directors extended our 11% spending-and-payout strategy through 2031, more than double the 5% minimum generally required of private foundations. This five-year horizon is timed to the 2030 and 2032 census and redistricting cycles, a once-in-a-generation opportunity that will shape community-centered representation and the distribution of power across the South for years to come.
We also hold ourselves accountable for how we steward every dollar. Through program-related investments and mission-aligned investment strategies, MRBF aligns all forms of its capital with its commitment to racial equity. We apply a racial equity lens to our endowment and now work with more than 30 investment managers, over 20 of whom are people of color and/or women. Learn more about our approach to stewardship here.
We are grateful to our new Grantee Partners for their vital work, and we look forward to what we will build together across the South. We invite our philanthropic peers to join us in resourcing Southern-led organizations with flexible, sustained funding equal to the urgency of this moment.
