posted on 12/18/2020

MacKenzie Scott’s Giving Is Transforming Philanthropy – And The Urgent Action Funds Too!

Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism

It is with gratitude and irrepressible smiles that the sisterhood of Urgent Action Funds announces our collective receipt of MacKenzie Scott’s generous, transformative, and indeed “human and soft” gift of $20 million.

All the words we could possibly use would be an understatement of the impact that this gift will have on the Urgent Action Funds. Wholly unrestricted, it aligns with our own Sister Fund principles of philanthropy, which center and build upon trust and care.

We trust and fund women and LBTQI+ human rights defenders. We listen to, and act with, grantees, advisers, staff, boards, and other feminist funds and imagine a new reality for our communities and our movements. We trust that our model of independent but interdependent Sister Funds supports us to better meet the needs of the women and LBTQI+ defenders in our own communities.

We are immensely grateful that MacKenzie Scott models this transformative power of philanthropy and has found trust in us. Now it is our moment, to meet the urgent and critical needs of our movements with care and to remake and recast a future that is for all of us – a more equitable and just, feminist future, where people and planet flourish.

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Chinyere Ezie

Pronouns

Role

Chinyere Ezie is a Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where she advocates for racial justice, gender justice, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) rights, and challenges governmental abuses of power. Chinyere previously worked at the Southern Poverty Law Center where she brought cases defending the rights of LGBTQI+ Southerners. She also served as a Trial Attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where she litigated employment discrimination cases and secured a $5.1 million jury verdict on behalf of workers subjected to unlawful treatment. Chinyere is a William J. Fulbright Scholar, a White House Fellows Program Regional Panelist, and a cum laude graduate of Yale University. She also received a Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School, where she was an Alexander Hamilton Scholar and served as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Gender and Law. Chinyere serves on the Board of Directors of the Transgender Law Center and the feminist grant-making organization the Urgent Action Fund. She was also a Founding Board Member of the National Trans Bar Association.In 2018, she was named one of the nation’s Best LGBTQI+ Lawyers Under 40.