Funding and Financing for Impact
Learn how the innovative use of financial tools—including participatory grantmaking, investments, and more—creates access to opportunity for immigrants, refugees, and the communities they join.
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WES Mariam Assefa Fund Partners with Echoing Green to Invest $1.5M in Social Innovators of Color Addressing Racial Equity and Immigrant Justice
The World Education Services (WES) Mariam Assefa Fund today announced a new $1.5 million partnership with Echoing Green to launch a fellowship that supports immigrants and refugees of color in the United States and Canada. Through Echoing Green’s fellowship program, the Racial Equity and Immigrant Justice initiative will support up to 19 leaders, including six […]
Meet the First Graduates of the Migrant Systems Change Leadership Program
At the end of last year, 22 inaugural graduates completed the Migrant Systems Change Leadership program, created for inspiring individuals with lived immigrant and refugee experience who are passionate about working with and supporting their communities. This first-of-its-kind program was launched in 2021 by the RADIUS Refugee Livelihood Lab at Simon Fraser University, a grantee […]
How Workers Action Centre is Advocating for Frontline Workers in Ontario
“The COVID-19 pandemic is getting worse, not better, for marginalized workers,” said Deena Ladd, executive director of Workers Action Centre (WAC) in Ontario, at a recent emergency town hall. WAC, a grantee partner of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, is addressing many of the challenges immigrant workers face on the front lines of COVID-19 and […]
Our Reflections on 2021 – and What We’re Looking Forward to in 2022
Happy New Year! As we kick off 2022, the WES Mariam Assefa Fund team is reflecting on the remarkable organizations, leaders, and efforts that inspired us last year amid many challenges, and looking ahead to what we’re excited about in the new year. In 2021, our community of grantee and investee partners grew exponentially – […]
New Impact Investments to Build Wealth for Workers and Entrepreneurs from Immigrant and BIPOC Communities
The World Education Services (WES) Mariam Assefa Fund today announced two new impact investments totaling US$900,000 aimed at supporting economic mobility and expanding shared ownership models among workers and entrepreneurs from historically excluded communities. These impact investments, in Apis & Heritage Capital Partners and ETF@JFFLabs, align with the Fund’s mission of building a more inclusive economy […]
Announcing $1.8 Million Commitment to Advance Inclusive Employer Practices for Immigrant and Refugee Job Seekers and Workers
Support will focus on health care and agricultural sectors, employer collaboration, and worker organizing and power-building The WES Mariam Assefa Fund today announced the award of US$1.8 million in grants to 12 U.S. and Canadian organizations working to improve the economic mobility of immigrants and refugees. Each of these new grantee partners, selected through an […]
Community Members Are Leading This Participatory Grantmaking Project – Here’s How It Works
This piece was originally published on Future of Good, written by Neha Chollangi. The WES Mariam Assefa Fund is partnering with Future of Good on a series of digital stories to highlight its first-ever participatory grantmaking project in Peel region, Ontario facilitated by the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement. Back in 1970 when Najma Iqbal […]
Philanthropy Across WES: How WES’ Fund Ambassadors are Making an Impact
In February 2021, the WES Mariam Assefa Fund kicked off its second annual Fund Ambassadors program, which is a corporate philanthropy and professional development initiative. The program engages staff from across WES to learn about philanthropy and identify mission-aligned organizations to receive donations. Now, at the end of 2021, the Fund Ambassadors have officially awarded […]
Meet Luis Sandoval, Executive Director of Building Skills Partnership
Growing up in both Mexicali, a border town in Mexico, and Salinas, California, Luis Sandoval couldn’t help but take notice of the barriers that prevented him and other immigrants from accessing career and educational opportunities. Inspired by his personal experience of growing up in a family of workers in property and cleaning services, construction, and […]
Fund Partners with Tamarack Institute to Launch a Participatory Grantmaking Project to Support Immigrants’ Economic Mobility in Peel Region
The WES Mariam Assefa Fund is excited to announce its partnership with the Tamarack Institute to launch a participatory grantmaking project in the Peel region of Ontario, Canada. Tamarack will engage community stakeholders to identify the needs of immigrants and refugees in the Peel community, to define funding priorities and processes for this project, and […]
Meet Renay Dossman, President of the Neighborhood Development Center in Minnesota
As President of the Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), Renay Dossman oversees efforts to support sustainable community development and equitable economic opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners—35 percent of whom are immigrants and refugees—in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. “Working at NDC is a mix of everything I’ve loved doing in my career—I get to […]
Coalition of Funders to Support Refugee Resettlement Agencies and Help U.S. Communities Sponsor Newcomers from Afghanistan and Other Countries
Over the last month, tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to flee their homes and been hastily resettled in new countries. Communities across the U.S. are welcoming Afghan refugees and helping them get settled. To best support refugees as they look to establish new lives and pursue new opportunities in the U.S., it […]
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