Rapid Response Fund

Amidst the collective chaos of 2020, HEAL piloted a Rapid Response Fund to support our members addressing urgent needs in their communities, such as securing PPE for farm workers, distributing fresh food, and providing community members with rent and utilities support. In that first year, we raised and distributed $40,000 across 10 member organizations.

As climate, economic, and political crises intensified and continued to burden our communities, we did it again, devoting our 2021 end-of-year fundraising campaign to replenish the Fund. In six weeks, our community raised $52,000 in mutual aid.

We continued each year, raising:

•  $30,000 in 2022
•  $50,000 in 2023
• $50,500 in 2024
• $46,500 in 2025

All of this has gone directly to support member organizations working on the frontlines, enabling access to more of the resources needed to continue to meet the moment.

HEAL’s Rapid Response Fund aligns with one of our core functions: to organize resources for a BIPOC-led movement for change. At HEAL, we are growing pooled funding and infrastructure for collective, participatory resource-mobilization and have made a commitment to redistribute 15-20 percent of our annual budget to frontline member organizations. Through the Rapid Response Fund, we prioritize base-building efforts and less resourced organizations, and recipients can use the funding for any urgent need related to civil response to COVID-19, climate chaos, and/or political conditions.

From the beginning, the Rapid Response Fund has had a tremendous impact. From 2021-2025, we distributed $168,500 to 22 of our member organizations. Dig into what the Fund has meant to our members and their communities in our Impact Reports.