As part of our ongoing informal series on philanthropic support for immigrants and refugees, we’ve looked at which funders are backing students, as well as those funding legal assistance and policy advocacy. Now, we’re turning our attention to funders who are supporting immigrant and refugee children and families.
Funding in this space is largely divided into two big areas. The first is assistance for children and families already living in the U.S. This includes both direct aid as well as funding to address the root causes of issues immigrant and refugee children and families face. The second area is support for children and families who have been separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, and for unaccompanied minors arriving at the border.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice implemented a zero-tolerance policy for migrants who crossed the border without permission. Migrants who did so, including those seeking asylum, were referred to the DOJ for criminal prosecution. Adults and children were separated, including toddlers and infants as young as six months old. There were numerous reports of the poor conditions at migrant detention facilities, and at least seven children died in custody. The now-infamous images of children in cages sparked national outcry.
Although President Donald Trump ordered a halt to family separations in 2018 and a judge ordered families be reunited, separations, which were perpetrated informally even before the zero-tolerance policy was implemented, continued, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
In this fraught environment, numerous philanthropic funders took action — and continue to take action — to support migrant children and families. “Government policies that separate children from families and cause young people to be detained indefinitely and inhumanely further traumatize young people already fleeing violence in search of safety,” said John Hecklinger, president and CEO of Global Fund for Children, in a statement regarding a 2020 conference that brought together grassroots and philanthropic leaders to advocate for migrant children and youth. He added, “We have a responsibility to stand up for children’s rights and to protect all children from adversity and trauma.”
Family separations continued under the Biden administration. In the 2021 fiscal year, for example, 122,000 migrant children were taken into custody without their parents or guardians, breaking all previous records. Last year, a federal judge “prohibited the separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years,” according to the AP.
The damage done by these policies, however, remains, and many migrant children and families continue to struggle. To that end, here are some of the funders who are supporting immigrant children and families in the U.S.
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a funding giant, not only in general, but across the immigrant rights space — where, among other things, it’s a top funder of policy advocacy to help newcomers to the U.S. When it comes to its specific support for immigrant children and families, Ford’s work has been largely focused on the “forcible separation of children and parents at the southern border.”
According to an evaluation of the foundation’s immigrant rights portfolio strategy through 2020, Ford grantees were able to push the Trump administration to roll back some of its policies relating to the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border. Ford’s grantees and partners also mobilized hundreds of thousands of people at rallies held to express opposition to the separation of migrant children and parents. This work led to the mobilization of several movie and television actors, as well as other influencers to join the efforts to end the administration’s policies. In 2017 and 2018, Ford awarded grants to the Institute for Immigration, Globalization, and Education at UCLA for its Bridging the Compassion Gap program, which sought to address social inclusion and the social justice needs of immigrant children and youth.
Other grantees include Protecting Immigrant Families, Families Belong Together, the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, Women’s Refugee Commission, Inc., Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Center for Youth Law, Michigan Nonprofit Association, International Detention Coalition and Mujeres Unidas y Activas.
Annie E. Casey Foundation
Founded in 1948 and based in Baltimore, the Annie E. Casey Foundation focuses its funding on issues facing children and young people, including child poverty, foster care and juvenile probation. The foundation also supports work related to immigrant and refugee children, including funding research. For example, the foundation’s Children in Immigrant Families research offers data about the economic and social challenges facing immigrant families. It also funded a report on the intersection of immigration with child welfare and juvenile justice systems by the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare.
The Casey Foundation is part of the Early Childhood Funders Collaborative and has funded its Championing Equity toolkit for grantmakers looking to invest in immigrant and other bilingual or multilingual children. The collaborative’s priorities include promoting equity for immigrant children and advocating for more funders to offer their support.
Annie E. Casey has also backed efforts that seek to address harmful immigration policies — such as family separation and detention — which deny immigrant children and their families access to public services. It also supports work to preserve the rights of children and families facing potential raids in their communities. Some of its grantees include Protecting Immigrant Families, Advancing Our Futures and Families Belong Together.
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
The California-based David and Lucile Packard Foundation is one of the largest philanthropies in the U.S., with more than $8 billion in assets. The foundation has three overarching and independent goals: building just societies, protecting and restoring our natural world, and investing in families and communities — including through an initiative to support communities in the Golden State.
As part of its investing in families and communities work, Packard has supported several organizations and projects that work to help immigrant and refugee children and families. Grantees include Protecting Immigrant Families, Children’s Action Alliance, Migration Policy Institute, National Center for Youth Law, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, and California Coverage and Health Initiatives. Packard is also part of the Early Childhood Funders Coalition, and as we noted previously, it backs organizations providing legal services to immigrants.
Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund
Also based in California, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a significant funder in the immigrant philanthropy space. As part of its immigrant rights program, the fund works alongside both national and statewide partners to limit the separation of families and model for the rest of the nation how border protections can be humane and civil toward children and unaccompanied youth, among other things.
Its grants include support for the California Immigrant Resilience Fund, created to resource organizations that provided direct relief to undocumented immigrants and their families during the pandemic, as well as support for Justice Action Center to promote human asylum policies for unaccompanied children and families, the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity to advocate for humane treatment of newly arriving families and children at the border, United We Dream Network to advocate for undocumented young people and their families, and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
Haas also joined other funders to sign a statement from Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR) that responded to family separation and detention policies.
Global Fund for Children
Based in Washington, D.C., and established in 1993, the Global Fund for Children works with community-based organizations around the world to advance children’s and youth rights. It supports education, gender equity, youth empowerment, and preventing violence and the exploitation of children.
In partnership with the Tides Foundation and Comic Relief US, Global Fund for Children spearheads the Girls Experiencing Migration initiative, which supports a group of 14 civil society organizations that work to protect the rights and safety of adolescent migrant girls in the U.S., Mexico and Guatemala. Its U.S.-based partners assist migrant girls who have recently arrived in the country, have been detained or are adjusting to their new lives.
The fund also cohosted “Gender, Childhood, and Youth on the Move,” a transnational conference in 2020 that discussed the migration crisis at the southern border and its impact on young people.
Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation
The Dorothea Haus Ross Foundation was established in 1977 to continue Ross’ commitment to help vulnerable children; it strives to eliminate the root causes of children’s hardships. The foundation’s grantmaking is focused on trafficked and exploited children, children with disabilities, and displaced and refugee children.
Through its displaced and refugee children program, Ross partners with nonprofit organizations that provide these children with housing, stability and education. The program aims to support safety, housing and reunification with family; stability and play; development of focused PTSD and other treatment programs; education, expedited curriculum and vocational training; and family reunification for unaccompanied minors.
Grantees include Global Fund for Children, One World Children’s Fund, Choose Love/Help Refugees, Street Child US, Fund for Global Human Rights, and Human Rights Watch.
—
Additional funders supporting immigrant and refugee children and families include the Oak Foundation, California Community Foundation, the Max and Anna Levinson Foundation, Weingart Foundation, DanPaul Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Fund, The Boston Foundation and the Foundation for Child Development.
