Immigrant Justice

Justice Fund

Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation recognizes that the systems and conditions that have created the inequities and injustices faced by immigrant and refugee communities, and by all BIPOC and low-income people, can only be addressed through significant financial investment and long-term advocacy efforts. In 2023, we are launching a new funding stream, The Justice Fund, to provide multi-year, general operating support to the organizations in our community that are engaged in this vital work.

Emergent Needs Fund

In 2018, Sheng-Yen Lu Foundation established the Emergent Needs Fund to help community-based organizations address their most immediate needs in serving immigrant and refugee communities. SYL Foundation remains fully committed to its primary mission of ensuring access to health care and education but also recognizes there are multiple factors that can affect immigrants’ and refugees’ safety and well-being. In each of the past five years, we listened and learned from our community partners as we established the Fund’s annual priorities.

After five years of Emergent Needs grant-making, SYLF recognized that the priorities addressed by the Fund are often the result of systemic injustices that can only be tackled through sustained commitment and long-term community advocacy efforts. As a result, SYLF is launching the Justice Fund to better address the root causes of societal inequities with multi-year general operating support.

SYLF believes in shifting power to community and supporting solutions that are created by the people we serve. In 2022, we conducted a pilot project that asked current grantees to nominate and select new grant recipients. The five inaugural grantees of this community-led grant making initiative represent the best of community-based support for immigrants and refugees. We are expanding this approach to grant making in future years with the goal of continuing to address the most urgent needs while also providing resources to innovative organizations that may not have access to traditional philanthropy.