Announcing the Pushing Against Racism Fund

Promoting Anti-Racist Leadership and Inclusion within Social Skateboarding

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

A total of $12,000 in grants in 2022 will be awarded to non-profits across six continents, with input from an expert jury. The Pushing Against Racism Fund is being organized by the Goodpush Alliance and a dozen skateboarding-based organizations around the world, who previously launched the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding last May.

The Fund is now open for applications. Keep reading to find out how to apply

Why Are We Starting This Fund?

Nonprofit organizations around the world continue to perpetuate, and even accelerate, institutional and structural racism. The leadership of many social skateboarding projects is predominantly white, mirroring trends in a wider non-profit sector that has historically relied on inequitable practices such as unpaid interns, volunteers, and centralizing positions of power in Western countries. On top of this, access to funds is one of the top issues facing social skateboarding projects worldwide — particularly for smaller projects in less-developed countries or poorer communities.

The Pushing Against Racism working group proposed to create a fund to financially support greater diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community. As working group member, Yash Presswalla (Impact Skate Club), states:

“Part of the Commitment is to encourage signees to look into the anti-racism work that’s already being done in their communities, and find ways to support. Listening to others — particularly advocates who are members of marginalized communities — is THE most important thing we can be doing.”

This is where the Pushing Against Racism Fund springs from — the desire and the need to applaud and support the important work that is already being done so that it can continue to gain momentum and influence more widely. The Fund will also support new ideas to work towards equity in social skateboarding.

About the Fund

The Pushing Against Racism Fund will distribute a total of $12,000 in funding to support social skateboarding projects on six continents. We will select three projects per continent, in three funding categories.

The Fund 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. Examples of funded activities could be skate programs, events, or paid internships to youth who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). The hope is that this Fund will be a first step in directing more funding and resources towards more diverse leadership within social skateboarding in coming years.

A total of 18 projects will be supported. Each continent will have three funding amounts:

$1200 – for larger, more established organizations
$500 – for medium projects
$300 – for smaller or new projects

Criteria:

Geography – Based in one of 6 eligible continents: Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America
Applicants must have signed onto the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding
Applicants must be a registered non-profit or have a partner non-profit where funds can be sent to
Must show strong project concept and ability to carry it out in 2022
The funding selection will be based on a track record of past work and/or on future plans.

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 input before final selection. We are honored to have the following Jury members on board:

Dr Neftalie Williams - Academic and sociologist, Chair of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for USA Skateboarding (North America)
Rose Archie - Co-Founder of Nation Skate Youth (North America)
Dr Dani Abulhawa - British-Palestinian skater and academic, Ambassador for SkatePal (Europe)
Tin Kouv Chansangva - General Manager, Skateistan Cambodia (Asia)
Chenai Gwandure - Sponsored skater and Ambassador of Skate Zimbabwe - (Africa)
Pipa Souza - Brazilian sponsored skater - (South America)
Chad Ford - Director of BOWLZILLA (Oceania)

How to Apply

Simply fill out this application form.

We will be holding a Q&A session on March 3rd where you can join and ask questions before you submit your application. Register for the Q&A session here.

The deadline to apply is Monday, March 21st, 2022.

To learn more about the activities of Pushing Against Racism, see our recent blog post.