Zoom Cares announces $5M in global grants at Zoomtopia 2022

Photo courtesy of Gathering for Justice

Today Zoom Cares, our social impact arm, announces $5M in donations to 20 organizations that advance our vision of a more just society for people and the planet we share. These groups are working globally at the forefront of social inequity, climate disasters, pandemic-disrupted education, and youth mental health. Often overlapping, these complex challenges disproportionately impact youth, low-income, and Black, Indigenous communities of color. 

These funds build on $5.5M of grants shared with partners earlier this year. Unrestricted and multi-year financial resources are critical for organizations harnessing power from within their communities to address systemic and intersectional challenges and effectively bring about a thriving, just world.

We activate partnerships and distribute resources in the way community leaders have asked us to — with them at the decision-making table. That means taking a community-centered, trust-based grantmaking approach, looking to global expert advisors with deep issue understanding and lived experience to help us identify organizations. 

Read on to learn more about our new partners.

Dear Asian Youth strives to uplift Asian youth and student communities through education, activism, and celebration. By using social media platforms and creative mediums like art, the organization seeks to increase representation, debunk stereotypes, and create connections with Asians around the globe.

Dear Asian Youth began as a blog by the same name started by Founder and Executive Director, Stephanie Hu, in the hopes that her poems might resonate with someone – anyone! Now, it is a global organization with over 300 core team members, a network of 200 chapters across 18 countries, a podcast, countless viral digital campaigns, and two conferences, among other impactful initiatives.

The Australian National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition (NIYEC) mobilizes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth to drive a new education ecosystem that is self-determined and governed by Indigenous youth, for the future of their Nations. 

Australia has socially-segregated schools that disproportionately impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. By focusing on the transformative potential of education, NIYEC hopes to champion greater employment, health, and overall life outcomes. 

RESES is a national network of 160 student associations across France building tomorrow through ecological projects including food, biodiversity, climate, and waste. 

RESES is working to increase the number of student associations in their network across France. Additional regional branches will help RESES train more students on ecological and solidarity issues, and increase impact and credibility at the local level. They will also be ramping up their digital awareness campaigns to build greater engagement and affinity with their student communities, and finally plan to conduct research projects in order to increase knowledge and understanding of climate activism. 

CLIMA Fund supports grassroots groups and movements that address the root causes and harmful impacts of the climate crisis in 168 countries globally, with a focus on low-income communities of color.

As the devastating effects of climate change disproportionately impact vulnerable communities around the world, CLIMA Fund recognizes that the most ambitious solutions are coming from those who are most impacted by but least responsible for climate change: Indigenous Peoples, women, youth, and disadvantaged groups. Yet, these communities often lack the resources and power necessary to make change a reality.

In addition to the above four organizations, Zoom Cares is supporting the following groups:

• 4Front Project is a Black-led youth organization in the United Kingdom serving young people who have experienced trauma, violence, and racial injustice, by fighting for their rights, supporting them to heal, and empowering them to build communities where they are nurtured, protected, and respected.
• Arctic Eider Society delivers programs in Canada that build capacity and self-determination across environmental and social justice issues with community, education, and outreach.
• Beyond Social Services is a community development organization supporting marginalized young people to break the poverty cycle in Singapore.
• Bond Project is protecting and providing youth, especially young women and girls, shelter, mental health care and counseling, employment, and social participation to enable them to grow healthy in Japan.
• Gathering for Justice provides a safe environment for policy exchange, and dialogue between generations of activists, community members, and young people from all communities and cultures to eliminate inequities in the United States justice system.
• Intersections Queer is a network of BIPOC queer peers across France working with intersectional communities, trauma-informed resilience/creative/healing work, imagining different futures, and alliance building.
• Ontario Indigenous Youth Partnership Project is creating a community of celebrated Indigenous youth leading work that responds to the dynamic needs and priorities of their communities in Canada.
• Power U is organizing and developing the leadership of Black and Brown youth and Black women in South Florida so that they may help lead the struggle to liberate all oppressed people.
• Qqs Projects Society is supporting Indigenous Heiltsuk’s community, culture, and environment in order to create a strong and vibrant future for their youth, Nation, and territory in Canada.
• Rethink is working to supply equitable education for students and a future wherein generations of young leaders are equipped with the necessary tools to affect systemic change through community engagement in Louisiana.
• Taraki is helping Punjabi communities perceive and embrace mental health as an integral facet of their lives and engage in conversations, support, and care for their mental well-being at an individual and collective level in the United Kingdom.
• Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth (USAY) is enriching the lives of all urban Indigenous youth by nurturing self-empowerment and fostering healthy collaboration and communication to ensure healthy future generations in Canada.
• Youth 4 Climate Action is a student-led movement for climate justice in South Korea, empowering the voices and actions of youth and young people who are most affected by the climate crisis.
• Youth Voices Count is mobilizing, building capacity, and empowering LGBTQIA+ youth in the Asia-Pacific region to advocate for equality and equity through a human rights-based approach to economic, social, cultural, health, and educational justice.

We extend our gratitude to these groups for their tireless efforts around the globe – and we look forward to our multi-year partnerships. Learn more about Zoom Cares here.