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The Burke Foundation awarded $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 to non-profit organizations in New Jersey working to improve prenatal and child health.

New Jersey has one of the country’s worst records for child health and wellbeing, especially among under-resourced communities, despite being one of the wealthiest states in terms of per capita income.

The Burke Foundation seeks to improve this situation by funding the most promising and transformative programs and policies that foster the health, well-being and resilience of children and families in the state.

New Jersey ranks 47th among the 50 U.S. states for maternal mortality, and its rate of more than 46 deaths per every 100,000 live births is nearly 50 percent greater than the national average. The situation is even more dire for Black women and babies: A Black mother in New Jersey is seven times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than a white mother, and the preterm birth rate for Black infants in New Jersey is 13.3%, which is 51% higher than the rate for white infants in the state. New Jersey also ranks in the bottom third of states for children being up to date on immunizations at age two (35th out of 50), with stark disparities across socio-economic and racial lines.

The Burke Foundation believes that addressing these disparities requires investment in high-quality, scalable programming that prioritizes young children and families. Investments in the earliest years promote better health outcomes in the short term and provide significant social and economic returns in the long term. These new grants reflect the Foundation’s deep commitment to supporting nurturing, responsive relationships between caregivers and young children to foster health, well-being, and resilience for a lifetime.

Dr. David Willis, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, applauded these new investments. “As a pediatrician and policymaker, I am pleased to see the Burke Foundation’s emphasis on early relational health,” he said. “Having supportive, nurturing relationships early in life has been shown to bolster a child’s resilience and lead to better social, emotional and physical health outcomes.”

As artificial intelligence (AI) and technological advances take on an increasingly prominent role in our society, BIPOC and immigrant communities face the threat of biases and outright hostilities being encoded and automated into surveillance, enforcement, and judicial tools. At the same time, creative leaders in the nonprofit sector are leveraging and building new technologies to better deliver culturally responsive services at scale to their communities. In this two-part series on the intersection of AI, technology and immigrant justice, GCIR invites funders to deepen their knowledge in the space as well as gain insights on how philanthropy can deploy investments that build the movement’s capacity to respond to emergent threats and opportunities.

Part 1: The Threat of AI and Technology to Immigrant Justice
As technological innovation accelerates, so too do its potential harms, particularly for immigrant communities. AI and tech tools are increasingly being weaponized in surveillance, enforcement, detention, and court system contexts. Troubling examples of this include DHS’s use of tools to automate decision making on credibility determinations, benefit eligibility, and whether or not individuals should be released from detention. AI and technology tools are also being used to spread mis- and disinformation, not only endangering immigrant communities, but also weakening our ability to function as a society with a shared set of information about the world. In this discussion, funders will learn from immigrant and civil liberties groups at the forefront of the movement to mitigate technologically-driven harms to historically targeted communities.

Speakers:
Tsion Gurmu, Legal Director, Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Rachel Levinson-Waldman, Managing Director, Liberty & National Security, Brennan Center for Justice
Paromita Shah, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Just Futures Law
Cinthya Rodriguez, National Organizer, Mijente

Registration is also open for for the second part of the series, "Tech for Good: Building Innovative Tools to Serve Immigrant Communities," taking place on Thursday, February 13th. Click here to register.

Amalgamated Bank is America’s socially responsible bank that specializes in supporting social change organizations, companies, and people working to make the world more just and sustainable. Nearly 100 years ago, immigrant women union members founded Amalgamated to provide banking service to their own community and to send money back to their mother countries. Since our founding, Amalgamated has been explicitly committed to environmental justice, economic inclusion, and the rights of working people. Today, Amalgamated is a full service financial institution supporting clients in 50 states across their banking, investment, and donor advised fund needs. At Amalgamated, we believe that you do not need to sacrifice services and rates to have a partner aligned with your values.

Banking and Investing With Your Values

Amalgamated Bank and its clients believe that where you bank matters. When you deposit your money at Amalgamated Bank, you know that it is being used in ways that align with your values and not invested in strategies that would further degrade our planet. Amalgamated believe that banks can be a force for good to curb climate change, advocate for gun safety, fight hate, and stand up for racial justice.

Here are some of the ways you can use your organization’s assets to build a more just and sustainable planet.

Bank with Your Values: Everyone’s bank deposits are lent out and invested in strategies that fuel our future economy. Simply, where you bank matters, because banks use your deposits to invest in other people’s ideas. It’s time to make sure that those ideas align with your values. At Amalgamated, we only invest in mission aligned companies and strategies that further a more just and sustainable planet. We lend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to clean energy, affordable housing, , sustainable agriculture, businesses owned by women, immigrants, and people of color, and more.

Invest with Your Values: Amalgamated believes that endowment and reserve account dollars should be used to achieve both a social and financial return. Our investment team specializes in risk adjusted options that screen out extractive industries and channel those resources to mission aligned strategies. 

Give with Your Values: Amalgamated’s donor advised fund and pooled fund strategies help you move money to the causes you care about. Donors are able to move grants with ease using our innovative technology and financial acumen. Institutional funders are able to rely on our expert back office to manage their pooled and collaborative funds.

How Amalgamated Helps PSOs and Foundations

Amalgamated Bank is collaborating with United Philanthropy Forum and its members (including CNJG and its members) to offer preferred banking services. Every banking relationship is different, but Amalgamated and the Forum are committed to reducing costs, increasing returns, and improving financial operations. Specifically, CNJG members can expect:

• Discounted banking, depending on the organization’s specific needs
• Preferred private banker who understands the specific needs of PSOs and foundations and mission aligned investing strategies
• Full fee and rate analysis before you move to understand the financial gains of switching to Amalgamated Bank
• Consultation on credit needs including working capital, corporate credit cards, and more
• Bespoke portfolio development for ESG investment products

Learn More

To learn more about partnering with Amalgamated Bank, please visit their website or contact Caitlin Duffy, First Vice President of Philanthropy Banking, at [email protected] or (202) 721-0775.