The 2018-19 Pillars grant cycle is under way! At Pillars, they are looking for grantee partners who are committed to advancing American Muslim talent and leadership to serve their communities and contribute broadly to the world around us.

Muslims have a critical role to play in social and racial justice movements in the United States. Pillars strongly encourage grantseekers* who share this belief to visit their website and submit a Letter of Inquiry by July 31, 2018. Selected applicants will be invited to submit a Full Proposal in Fall 2018. Click here for more information.

As you may know, on June 8, the Commerce Department (which oversees the Census Bureau) invited the public to comment on the paperwork associated with the 2020 census. This includes the addition of a citizenship question, which many believe will make it harder to get a fair and accurate census. This in turn will affect our communities, and has implications for funders and grantees alike. Because this has such significance for our community, we wanted to alert you to the issue.

The public has until August 7 to submit comments. Both grantee partners and funders should consider submitting comments to the Commerce Department; sample language is provided by Census Counts.

Accordingly, a national funders’ letter has been developed— a sign-on letter for grantmakers that calls on the Commerce Department to drop the citizenship question. Forefront is leading local efforts around the census, and hopes you will consider signing on and encourage other funders to do so. The deadline for signatures is July 30. Click here for background, and for more information.

To sign-on, please include the following as you want it to appear on the letter that becomes part of the public record: signer’s name, title, organization name, city, state.  Click here to sign on and add your information.

*As a reminder, this is not a lobbying activity and is permissible for private foundations.