Our Building Opportunity and Inclusivity through the Performing Arts Lightning Grant Round was a wonder! We had the amazing opportunity to get to know how six organizations are leveraging the performing arts to cultivate equity, community change-making, and boundless creativity. Of the six organizations, BAYCAT (educates, empowers and employs San Francisco underserved youth in digital media), Fresh Meat Productions (invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of transgender and gender-nonconforming communities), and Women’s Audio Mission (uses music, media, and training environment for the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts), moved to the finalist round. We were honored to hear from Villy Wang and Angela King (BAYCAT), Sean Dorsey (Fresh Meat Productions), Terri Winston and Katie Fahey (Women’s Audio Mission).
After a robust review and discussion process, SV2 Partners selected Fresh Meat Productions as our new Lightning Grantee. This is also the first organization to join our portfolio that supports transgender and gender-nonconforming communities – a promising milestone for SV2 in advancing opportunity and inclusion, and aligned with our criteria of benefitting low-income, vulnerable, or underserved communities.
A big thank you to Adam Fong, Program Officer in the Performing Arts Program with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (our gracious Funder Ally and Financial Sponsor), Ellen Lussier, JoAnne Tillemans, and Lisa Jones (our rockstar Partner Co-Leaders), and all who participated in making this a joyful and insightful experience!
In response to the question, “how if at all, has participating in this LGR impacted you?” One Partner shared, “Introduced me to a new area of giving and highlighted an organization that I can share with friends who are looking for such an org.”
Stay tuned for the Fall 2019 Performing Arts Lightning Grant Round!