Funding power,
liberation and justice.
When communities most impacted by racial injustice are fully resourced, justice expands for everyone.
01
A Movement Activating Repair &
Abundance In Illinois
We are AMARA.
AMARA is a racial justice organization that moves resources toward repair, abundance and justice across Illinois, centering community power as part of a broader commitment to collective liberation. We move the tools and resources of philanthropy toward leadership already there.
See what we fund →02 OUR MOVEMENT
Across Illinois, communities are organizing. Healing. Creating. Building the future and building it now.
The leadership is already here. So is the wisdom, the strategy, the culture, the power. What has been missing was never capacity. It was resources moving to meet it.
The Work
We see abundance where the world was trained to see scarcity. We move funding, relationships and trust toward the people already doing it. We call this repair and abundance. Repair, because resources belong where harm was done. Abundance, because we start from fullness, not deficit.
We began in 1996, and what we learned in that time is that racial justice and collective liberation are bound together. When communities are free, resourced and able to shape their futures, the possibilities for justice open to everyone.
It makes us a different kind of institution. We are a racial justice organization holding the tools of philanthropy and reclaiming the word’s oldest meaning: love of humanity. We are a racial justice organization holding the tools and resources of philanthropy, reclaiming the word’s oldest meaning: love of humanity. For us, love is resourcing and accountability, practiced over thirty years and counting.
HOW WE MOVE
Four ways we move resources toward Black-led power.
AMARA moves in four ways. Together, they are how we resource the leadership already at work across Illinois.
We back narrative change that lifts up leadership, culture and imagination, and rewrites the stories that decide what is possible.
News & Updates →
We resource organizing, advocacy and civic engagement, so communities can shape the decisions, policies and systems that shape their lives.
Grants and Impact →
We move fast when the moment demands it, with flexible funding for organizations and initiatives facing what cannot wait and advancing community power, safety and possibility.
What We Fund →
We invest in the health, resilience and staying power of organizations and initiatives advancing leadership, repair and justice, so their work can deepen, connect and endure.
About AMARA →03 ACROSS ILLINOIS
The six lines woven through our identity are a map, not a decoration. Chicago and five statewide zones — the throughline of everything you've read so far, tracking our work in every corner of the state. Hover a line to travel it.
Tap a region to learn more
The Work In the Numbers
Long before the name AMARA, there was the work.
More than $184 million, moved to the leadership doing the work. In 2025 alone, 61 grants and $7.55 million supported organizations rooted in communities most impacted by racial injustice, alongside aligned racial justice work across Illinois.
Our impact was never measured by grants alone. It lives in the trust we have built with grantee partners and in communities free to thrive on their own terms.
For 30 years, we have invested alongside communities across Illinois. As AMARA, we carry that history forward with a sharper purpose.
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$184 million +
Moved to the leadership doing the work
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61 grants
In 2025 alone
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$7.55 million
To Black-led and Black-centered organizations across Illinois in 2025
Real people, doing real things
Deep Roots, New Name
I have spent most of my career learning to listen before I lead. It is the quietest tool in this work and…
Read more →When the Foundation shows up, they bring the whole community with them.
Community Partner Southern Illinois
IL Racial Justice & Equity Landscape Study
AMARA, while operating under its previous name, partnered with the Great Cities Institute on the Illinois Racial Justice & Equity Landscape Study,…
Read more →
Black Abundance 2025: Three days in Peoria showed what community-led power makes possible.
One of the most powerful reflections from Black Abundance 2025 came from an elder in the movement, a longtime Illinois organizer. After three days…
Read more →06 Start Here
I’m looking for funding.
See what AMARA funds, and who is eligible.
Explore funding →I want to understand the work.
Learn how repair, abundance and community power guide everything we do.
Learn our approach →I want to see the impact.
Explore the partners, numbers and stories behind 30 years of investment.
See our impact →I’d like to partner.
Connect as a peer funder, ally or collaborator moving resources toward Black-led work.
Explore partnership →