Marguerite Casey Foundation

Kaden Rummler (right in the composite photo) and Britain Rodriguez (left) were both blinded in their left eyes after federal agents fired “less-lethal” rounds at close range during a Santa Ana demonstration and vigil for Renee Goode, who had been killed during an ICE action the week prior. 21-year-old Kaden was shot in the face from feet away — an attack captured on video. Doctors later found shards of glass and plastic embedded in his left eye, leaving him permanently blind in that eye. “They said it was a miracle I survived,” Kaden told KTLA. “I can’t sneeze or cough because it’s dangerous.” Britain Rodriguez, 31, was also blinded during the same protest. He said his eye felt like “it exploded in his head” after being shot by federal agents. https://lnkd.in/eZpkEKQh The killings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti inspired people across the US to protest ICE and to document federal agents’ activities in their communities: https://lnkd.in/epjYSnhv

New Mexico is the first state in the nation to enact universal child care, thanks in no small part to the tireless organizing of MCF grant recipient Ole Education Fund. Ole’s work is a powerful example of why we are so proud to fund community organizing! For families like Maria Remondini's (in the video and article linked below)—where two good jobs still meant living paycheck to paycheck—the anxiety of affording child care was a constant, grinding pressure.  But now that burden is eased by this landmark law, which eliminates income limits, waives co-pays for families earning up to 600 percent of the poverty level (roughly $138,000 for a family of four), and injects $700 million over five years into the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund. New Mexico’s legislation, born from years of community organizing, advocacy, and a recognition that even middle-class families are stretched beyond their limits, also boosts wages for child care workers and reduces bureaucratic barriers. It signals a fundamental shift in how New Mexico views early childhood: not as a private expense, but as a public good worthy of sustained investment. And it’s proving to be a roadmap that other states and municipalities are eager to follow. Thank you, Ole, for reminding us that yes, government can work for working people and deliver on the unfulfilled promise of making all of our lives better through ensuring fundamental public goods like quality childcare programs.  https://lnkd.in/ekDy7ZQg

Following a well-attended webinar on ICE-linked investments in retirement plans, Marguerite Casey Foundation grant recipient Just Futures PBC is expanding the conversation. On April 8, their "Capital Is Not Neutral" webinar will help organizations with social justice missions to do due diligence on their own endowments and operating reserves to weed out investments with ties to the carceral economy. Just Futures is an expert at offering guidance on how to align investment portfolios with stated values without breaching fiduciary duty. Register now to join their “Capital Is Never Values Neutral" webinar: https://lnkd.in/e6D22WmJ

While the federal government strips away worker protections, Philadelphia is moving to advance worker rights. Last year, thanks to tireless community organizing led in part by MCF grant recipient Philadelphia Black Worker Project, the POWER Act was passed. The POWER Act establishes some of the strongest workplace protections in the country for the city’s 750,000 workers. The law empowers the Department of Labor to investigate violations proactively, creates a public "Bad Actors Database" of repeat-offender employers, and allows workers to receive direct financial relief when their rights are violated—marking a seismic shift in how the city holds bad actors accountable. Philly Black Worker Project writes, “The POWER Act is a groundbreaking law that sets a precedent for how cities can step in where federal labor protections have fallen short. At a time when workers across the country—particularly low-wage Black workers, immigrant workers, domestic workers, restaurant and service workers, and other low-wage laborers—face rollbacks in rights and limited paths to justice, Philadelphia is leading the way.” Thank you to the Philly Black Worker Project and to all of our grant recipients, showing us how community organizing can transform government to be a force that can protect and uplift working families. https://lnkd.in/eenkPbSK

We fund organizing because it is our best bet for winning a future where working families have the power they need to live a good life. After six years of grassroots organizing—led in large part by Marguerite Casey Foundation grant recipient The People's Lobby—a coalition of drivers, community groups, and unions has secured a commitment from Uber to support state legislation that would allow its drivers to unionize. Their victory, writes Will Tanzman and Lori Simmons in The Nation, opens a pathway to collective bargaining for over 100,000 workers across Illinois, offering a critical case study in how to build worker power in an industry rapidly aligning itself with a repressive agenda. https://lnkd.in/gpdfnu44

This week! Join the #MCFBookClub as we welcome US National Book Award winner Omar El Akkad in conversation with Dr. Barbara Ransby, moderated by our very own president and CEO, Carmen Rojas, PhD. El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This," lays bare how the West's highest ideals become our deepest alibis when truth, justice, and morality are inconvenient. The book forces us to reckon with how state-sanctioned violence isn’t only about enacting bodily harm; it also serves the purpose of “flaunting permission” that anything can be justifiably done to communities that are being dehumanized. Using the framework of his viral October 2023 social media post—“One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this”—our speakers will unpack the urgency of developing a moral compass that refuses the lie that any people’s freedom necessitates the dehumanization of others. Join this special book club event, presented by Marguerite Casey Foundation in partnership with our friends at Haymarket Books: CaseyGrants.org/OneDay

47-year-old Rodney Taylor was brought to the US from Liberia at just two years old on a medical visa. Born with several disabilities, his family moved to Georgia in search of specialized medical care. Rodney has undergone extensive medical procedures and now uses prosthetic legs after both legs were amputated. For most of his life, his application for a green card has remained pending. A longtime beloved member of his community, Rodney offered free haircuts, raised awareness for breast cancer, and cared for his seven children. In January of 2025, he was arrested in front of his family and has been held in detention since. His wife, Mildred-Danis Taylor, has spent hundreds of dollars on phone calls and drives three hours for visits separated by glass. Still in detention, Rodney reports constant pain, delayed medical care, and dangerous and degrading conditions, including having to crawl across a filthy shower floor. He is facing pressure to sign self-deportation paperwork to a country he barely knows, where access to specialized care is uncertain. https://lnkd.in/eFFFUPQs

Our friends at the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) uncovered data that our sector must contend with: 93% of foundation leaders believe they understand grant recipients’ challenges. Yet barely half of nonprofit leaders agree. That gap is especially important to close in this moment of converging crises—authoritarianism, climate collapse, structural racial and economic inequity. The communities our sector exists to serve are under compounding assault, while our field as a whole sits on nearly $1.5 trillion in endowments. In this piece written for CEP, Carmen Rojas, PhD, president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation, shares the roadmap we have followed to meet this moment, highlighting how deploying vastly more resources, aligned capital, and full–throated support for the nonprofits must be part of how we show up, shoulder-to-shoulder, with grant recipients as they work for transformation from the ground up. https://lnkd.in/ex3f_Zna

We’re so excited to share this powerful reflection coauthored by our very own president and CEO, Carmen Rojas, PhD, and Richard W., founder and executive director of Marguerite Casey Foundation grant recipient Equity And Transformation. Their article in Common Dreams outlines how, in the shadow of federal failure, community organizing is building a hopeful path forward across our country. As #BlackHistory Month closes, we celebrate the power of community organizations rooted in the very principles of Black liberation – acting in solidarity, building public goods, and reclaiming power from systems that too often fail us. EAT, and countless other community organizations—including many MCF grant recipients—are demonstrating how, when communities act in solidarity, they can reclaim government and transform it to serve the people. This is Black history in action: not just a story of individual achievement, but a living legacy of community-based resilience and collective action that continues to shape our democracy. We’re honored to close out #BlackHistoryMonth, uplifting the groundbreaking Black-led multiracial organizing EAT is spearheading as part of their Illinois Drug War Reparations Campaign, which looks to win a permanent statewide guaranteed income program. By investing in Black-led organizations building hope from within their own communities, we’re investing in the building blocks of solidarity that strengthen us all.  https://lnkd.in/efCuHqTk