North Stars
Our North Stars guide us:
Our Vision is a just and vibrant society where we can all flourish; we uphold human dignity, value our diversity, and embrace our common humanity.
Our Mission is to invest in leaders and organizations in the US and UK working to build a vibrant, welcoming society and just immigration system, as part of a pluralist and inclusive democracy.
Our work to advance our mission is rooted in core values. These values guide how we support our grantee partners to identify the most innovative, evidence-based, and promising strategies. They also guide how we collaborate with peer philanthropists to increase our effectiveness.
This Is What We Stand For:
At our core, we stand for honoring the dignity of all human beings. All people should have the freedom and opportunity to fulfill their potential and determine how to live their lives.
We stand for engaging with different people, views, and backgrounds related to immigration. We deliberately make connections among activists, organizers, think-tanks, artists, cultural strategists, service-providers, and beyond— to broaden our perspectives and sharpen our thinking and strategies.
Migration can bring great opportunities not just to immigrants but also to the places they settle. All of our lives are enriched by the exchange of ideas and cultures, and by the leadership and economic contributions of immigrants.
We recognize that migration touches everyone, and we seek to ensure that migration is a positive force that contributes to shared prosperity for all.
We stand for elevating various voices, including immigrants and those who are less visible, in efforts to create a fair and just immigration system and welcoming society.
We believe in healthy, respectful, and productive dialogue. We listen to the voices of people who may have concerns about immigration, or anxieties about changes in our communities, so that we can jointly build solutions that work for the whole of society.
We stand for pluralism. We seek to build a culture in which the majority of people in our communities and nations are actively engaged in the complex and delicate work of belonging together in a just society.
We stand for seeing the whole person. We recognize the interwoven nature of people’s identities, and that people’s differences can make them more vulnerable. We acknowledge these complexities and seek to understand them to inform thoughtful solutions.
The struggles for justice are interconnected, and interconnected challenges require interconnected solutions. Immigrant justice, our foundation’s focus, is centered in the context of civil rights and human rights, and is inextricably connected to other forms of justice, and upholding an open and just democracy.
We stand for testing our assumptions and seeking innovation. We believe in rigor, supporting evidence-based approaches, and inviting creativity and flexibility.
And with all of this, we stand tall for partnership and collaboration. Learning, leading, and investing together allows us to leverage intellectual, cultural, and financial resources towards a vibrant society where we can all flourish.
Banner Image: Artwork by Nina Yagual + Amplifier (Center for Inclusion and Belonging, American Immigration Council)