Milan, January 27, 2020 – Gucci today announced the 2020 recipients of its five-year Gucci North America Changemakers Impact Fund – an annual $1 million USD grant fund to support community organizations creating social impact across diverse communities in 12 cities in North America focused on arts and culture; social justice and equity; and education.
The first round of 16 grantees is focused on improving opportunity and access for diverse people across a number of social impact initiatives, including leadership development in venture capital and technology entrepreneurship, fashion programs for underserved youth, and criminal justice reform.
Each grant is up to $50,000 for a one-year funding cycle starting January 1, 2020 and will be used to help the recipients create new programs or scale existing initiatives in their communities.
More than 145 organizations submitted their applications for the Gucci North America Changemakers Impact Fund. Gucci worked diligently with the North America Changemakers Council and outside experts to review each application to select the 16 grantees. The next round of applications for the Gucci Changemakers Impact Fund will open in the Fall of 2020.
The list of the 16 selected grantees is as follows (please reference the Note to Editors document for more information on the grantee NGOs):
- HBCU VC, Atlanta, GA
- After School Matters, Chicago, IL
- Braven, Chicago, IL
- Design Core, Detroit, MI
- Writers in the Schools, Houston, TX
- Black AIDS Institute, Los Angeles, CA
- Educate Tomorrow, Miami, FL
- The Alliance for GLBTQ Youth, Miami, FL
- ACLU of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
- Custom Collaborative, New York, NY
- Slay TV, New York, NY
- National Youth Foundation, Philadelphia, PA
- Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
- Talking Points, San Francisco, CA
- UforChange, Toronto, ON, Canada
- Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Washington, C.
In addition to these 16 grant recipients, during 2019 the impact fund has also supported six additional non- profit organizations and institutions completing the first-year allocation of $1 million USD. The second focus of the Gucci Changemakers North America fund empowers young people through two scholarships programs — Gucci Changemakers Scholars and Gucci Changemakers X CFDA Scholars by Design. The scholarships will be awarded in Spring of 2020.
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GUCCI CHANGEMAKERS
Gucci Changemakers North America is a social impact initiative focused on increasing inclusion and diversity within the fashion industry and across communities and cities.
Gucci Changemakers North America Focus Cities include Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Toronto, and Washington DC.
GUCCI CHANGEMAKERS COUNCIL
Antoine Phillips, Bethann Hardison, Brandice Daniel, Brittany Packnett, Cleo Wade, Dapper Dan, Dawinder S. Sidhu, DeRay McKesson, Eric Avila, Ivy McGregor, June Ambrose, Kimberly Blackwell, Michaela Angela Davis, Naomi Campbell, Renée E. Tirado, Robert Carter, Sara Kozlowski, Will.i.am, Yaseen Eldik, Yasmeen Hassan, Yvette Noel-Schure
CONTACTS
Gucci Press/Camilla Orlandi camilla.orlandi@gucci.com and Margo Schneier margo.schneier@gucci.com
