Promoting Anti-Racist Leadership and Inclusion within Social Skateboarding

We are very excited to announce the 2023 Pushing Against Racism Fund, which aims to financially support and strengthen diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community worldwide.

A total of $15,000 in grants in 2023 will be awarded to nonprofits across six continents, with input from an international expert jury. The Pushing Against Racism Fund is being organized by the Goodpush Alliance and a dozen skateboarding-focused organizations around the world, who previously launched the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding in May 2021.

We are deeply grateful to The Skatepark Project for their unwavering support as the sole funder of the Pushing Against Racism Fund for the second year in a row. 

The Fund is now open for new applications! Keep reading to find out more and how to apply.

Why Does this Fund Exist?

Access to funds is one of the top issues facing social skateboarding projects worldwide, particularly for smaller projects in low and middle income countries (LMICs) or poorer communities. On top of this, nonprofit organizations around the world continue to prop up institutional and structural racism. The leadership of many social skateboarding projects is mostly white — mirroring a trend in the wider nonprofit sector that has historically relied on unfair practices such as unpaid interns, volunteers, and centralizing positions of power in Western countries.

To respond to these challenges, in 2022 the Pushing Against Racism working group created a fund to financially support greater diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community. 

About the Fund

The Pushing Against Racism Fund will distribute a total of $15,000 USD in grants to support social skateboarding projects on six continents. We will select one project per continent to receive $2000 each, as well as six smaller projects around the world to receive $500 each. 

The funds will be granted to support projects led by people of color or from disenfranchised communities, and/or to support increased diversity and inclusion within social skateboarding. Funded activities could be skate programs, events, or paid internships to youth from communities affected by racism. The hope is that the Fund will help to direct more money, profile, and resources to support more diverse leadership within social skateboarding in coming years.

Some examples of grantee projects funded in 2022 include:

• Employment of the first coaches from the local community by Skateboarding Papua New Guinea and Skate Timor. 
• Women and queer-led skate meet-ups hosted by Dencity.ng in four cities in Nigeria with skate lessons provided for beginners.
• Multi-day skateboarding and creative workshops by U Can Skate for indigenous children and youth in a remote part of Mexico.

A total of 12 projects will be supported across two funding categories:

• Six “Continent grants” of $2000 – for larger, more established organizations (one project selected per continent)
• Six “Community grants” of $500 – for smaller or new projects (no geographic limitation)

Essential Criteria:

• Geography – Based in one of 6 eligible continents: ​​Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America 
• Commitment – Applicants must have signed on to the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding.
• Registration – Applicants must be a registered nonprofit or have a partner nonprofit that funds can be sent to.
• Concept – Must show strong project concept involving skateboarding and the ability to carry it out between June 2023 - April 2024.

Guiding Criteria (what we are looking for in applications):

• Our priority is to support projects led by people of color or other ethnically disenfranchised groups.
• We will prioritize projects serving people of color and under-served communities (such as economically disadvantaged, immigrants, refugees), as well as those addressing intersectionality (gender, sexuality, race).
• Both one-off events (ie. public skatepark ‘takeovers’ or contests/festivals) and programs running as long as six-months are eligible. We will prioritize sustainable projects that have a potential of continuity.
• We are open to applicants who are new to skateboarding or who have less experience creating/running projects, however the project idea needs to be well thought-out and display commitment and motivation.
• The aim of the project should include one of the following elements:
  • Improve physical and mental well-being of disenfranchised communities
  • Promote greater racial equity in skateboarding
  • Provide access to skateboarding in underserved communities
  • Projects that feature additional social elements (like connecting participants to greater 
  • art/educational/leadership opportunities through skateboarding) are encouraged but this is not essential.

 Guiding principles/sensitivity check:

• If you are doing work advocating for the rights of particular groups/communities we encourage you to check in with someone with lived experience and expertise. We can all reproduce racism and racist practices even if we are from a marginalized/minority group ourselves.
• We recommend conducting a sensitivity check if you intend to work with multiracial and multiethnic participants outside of your own community in order to understand cultural protocols and cultural appropriation.
• Be transparent about your intentions and goals for your project and work collaboratively with individuals and communities to ensure that their voices and perspectives are heard and valued.

Selection Process and Jury Members:

The applications will be shortlisted by the Pushing Against Racism working group, and then shared with an expert jury with representatives from each continent for their input before the final selection. We are honored to have the following jury members on board: 

• Oceania: Nicky Hayes – owner of Aboriginal skate co. Spinifex, skate coach, youth worker
• South America: Francisco Pepo Basulto – Co-founder and Director of Skatesencia Academia, Chile
• North America: Patrick Kigongo – Creator of THE BLACK LIST and Board Member for the Harold Hunter Foundation
• Europe: Louisa Menke – former pro skater and artist
• Africa: Charl Jensel – Programs Officer at Skateistan South Africa
• Asia: Atita Verghese – Founder of Girl Skate India
   

How to Apply

Simply fill out this application form.

The deadline to apply is 23rd May, 2023.