Staying Grounded, Staying Ready: Resources for Our Community

There is so much we are navigating as a community right now. Across the country -  and across the globe - communities of color, immigrants, queer and trans folks, and artists are facing rising hostility, censorship, and disinvestment. Every day, we are asked to do more with less, to protect each other while also navigating burnout, grief, and fear.

At the Arts Administrators of Color Network, we continue to lean into what we’ve always done best: centering our community, connecting across differences, and building structures for liberation - together.

As part of that commitment, we’ve compiled and will continue updating a living resource list to help our community stay ready, stay informed, and stay connected. This list includes funding, legal resources, organizing tools, research, and strategies rooted in equity and resilience.

This list is powered by community and will be updated regularly.

Strategies to Strengthen Our Collective Power

Lean Into Community, Shared Models, and Plan for Resilience
Nurture trusted relationships, practice mutual aid, prioritize rest, and engage in support networks rooted in care and long-term connection.

Organizational Sustainability & Financial Strategies
Explore fiscal sponsorships, diversify income streams, plan for shifting funding landscapes, frame support as an investment in stability, and share resources with peer orgs.

Cross-Genre, Cross-Discipline, Cross-Sector Collaboration
Break silos. Partner across artistic disciplines, sectors, and geographies. Align on shared values to co-create programming and new revenue streams.

Advocacy and Policy Engagement
Build with local leaders, use values-based messaging, amplify stories, and advocate with strategy and care.

Resources for Navigating the Now

Racial Equity Legal Defense & Policy Tracking

• The Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI) 

• READI Resource Bank 

• NAACP Legal Defense Fund – DEI Defense

• DEI Legislation Tracker

• Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits 

• Executive Disorder: Mapping the War on Equal Opportunity

• Democracy 2025 Response Center 

• Standing Firm in the Face of Fear: Now Is the Time to Double Down on Race-Explicit Philanthropy

• Can Nonprofits That Help Organize Protests Lose Their Tax Exemptions?

• Myth v. Reality: Executive Branch Lacks Authority to Target Nonprofit Organizations

• FAQ: Nonprofits in the New Landscape

• Nonprofits Under Fire: How the IRS Can – and Cannot – Revoke Federal Tax-Exempt Status

• Defending our Future | A Guide for Communities to Resist Project 2025

• How You Can Protect Democracy 

• Rules of the Game: Memos, EOs, and Impacts on Nonprofits

• Leadership & Race: A Call to Each Other, Exploration of the Current Racial Justice Landscape and Recommendations for Action

• Bolder Advocacy – Alliance for Justice

• Democracy Forward Resources

Crisis Readiness & Organizational Resilience

• Emergency Preparedness Resources 

• How to Lead Through a Crisis 

• Rockwood: Building Organizations That Bend But Never Break

• BUILDING RESILIENCE: Launching BAARN and Supporting Artists Through Crisis Recovery

• Rapid Assistance Security Initiative (RASI) 

• Resiliency Strategies for Nonprofits in Times of Political and Financial Instability

• Social Change Ecosystem Map - Deepa Iyer

• Meeting the Moment  - Webinar Recap (Building Movement Project)

• Fortifying the Frontlines: How to Protect Social Movements Under Attack

• Artists Thrive Emergency Readiness Checklist

• Protecting Dissent – Digital Security for Organizers

• ArtsReady Disaster Planning for Arts & Culture Orgs

• Federal Disaster Assistance

• Online: https://lnkd.in/gSNCciu

• Call: 800-621-3362 (Press 3 for any interpreters needed)

• FEMA App: http://fema.gov/app

Mutual Aid & Community Care

• Mutual Aid Hub

• Mutual Aid LA Network: Black Arts & Culture Funding and Justice Resource Hub

• Free Mental Health Services for LA Wildfire Crisis

• Black Families GoFundMe Directory

• Displaced Latine Families GoFundMe Directory

• Tools for Developing Mutual Aid Infrastructure (Muslims for Just Futures)

Funding, Rapid Response

• CERF+ Emergency Relief Fund for Artists

• Action for Transformation Fund

• Transgender Law Center and Emergent Fund Announce $1 Million in Rapid Response Dollars for Trans-Led Organizing

• Artists Mount 1st Amendment Challenge to New NEA Grant Requirements

• These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration

• America’s Humanities Councils Get a Lifeline

• Maine Philanthropy Center Readiness and Response Fund

• Foundation for Contemporary Arts – Emergency Grants

• Black Migrant Power Fund 

• Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholars Grant Program

• Funding Frameworks & Strategies 

• Philanthropy’s Moment: Moving Money Like It’s Our Only Job

• Funding Beyond Federal: How to Diversify Funding to Ensure Stability in Uncertain Times

• Funding Movements: Philanthropy’s Role in Shifting Power in the Tax and Care Ecosystems

Immigration & Border Justice

• National Immigration Law Center (NILC)

• United We Dream – Deportation Defense Resources

• CHIRLA – Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights 

• Immigration Know Your Rights Resources

• Arts for LA Resources: Report ICE Sightings + Immigrant Bond Fund

• DC-Metro area ICE Emergency Hotline

• Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid

• In Solidarity with the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture

• What Should Nonprofits Do If ICE Shows Up? This Legal Guide Can Help

Solidarity Against Genocide & State Violence

• Solidarity Is - Tools & Resources Provided by The Building Movement Project

• One Year of Genocide, Decades of Solidarity

• Black and Palestinian Solidarity with social justice artist Dr. Maytha Alhassen

• Beyond Humanitarian Aid: Supporting Palestinian Organizations Working to Dismantle the Occupation and Shift the Narrative

• Jewish Voice for Peace – Gaza Emergency & Global Solidarity Resources

• Africa Is a Country – Analysis & Cultural Solidarity (Sudan, Congo)

• "My life will never be the same": Ta-Nehisi Coates on witnessing apartheid in Palestine

• Building Solidarity Through Connection and Care

• How to talk about Palestine in the workplace: A step-by-step guide to starting

• 100 Days of Building Power and Solidarity (Muslims for Just Futures & Building Movement Project) 

• Solidarity Stances: A Resource for Organizations and Movements Navigating Authoritarian Conditions

Rest, Reflection & Cultural Resistance

• The Nap Ministry

• Rooted & Rested Coaching

• The Arts and Culture Sector Wasn’t Ready — But Leaders of the Global Majority Stay Ready

• White Supremacy Is Apocalyptic for Everyone

• Amidst cruelty and chaos, a world that’s on her way

• How to be Resilience Ready in 2025

• 100 Days In: A Collective Self-Care Action

• Movement Lessons from the First 100 Days

• Artist who painted Black Lives Matter mural reflects as changes come to plaza

• Our Journey: Owning the World's First B Corp – Untours Foundation 

• B Lab’s Role in Driving Business as a Force for Good – Patagonia

• The Art of Storytelling: Translating Chaos

• Leadership Best Practices in a Quaking World — A Call to Pause, Breathe, and Reimagine

• Creatives Rebuild New York – Systems Change & Sustainability Tools

News, Reports & Analysis 

• The Arts and Changing Political Landscapes

• Sounding the Alarm: Nonprofits on the Frontlines of a Polarized Political Climate Report

• Which companies are rolling back DEI and which are standing firm

• Major players in the anti-DEI movement: Here’s who’s pressuring Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, IBM, and other Fortune 500 companies to drop their policies

• Higher Education Officials, Restaurant Workers, City of Baltimore Challenge Trump Administration’s Violation of Free Speech Protections, Separation of Powers In Suit to Block Anti-DEIA Executive Orders

• NEA Impacted Orgs/Grants 2025

• Briefing on the Tax Bill: Post Ways & Means Mark-up

• Data and Democracy in America

• Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity

• Color of Change – DEI Rollback Tracker & Corporate Accountability Reports

Community Uplift 

• Dance In the DMV Resource Guide

• Powerful Discussions on Democracy, Politics, and the Future of Museums

• ArtEquity Tools & Resources at the intersection of art and activism.

• Finding Unity in Community: How Building Consensus Can Shift the Dynamics of Support

We are building a future: for us, by us. 

Please contact us at communications@aacdmv.org if you’d like to contribute a resource.  

For more timely resources supporting professional development and community-building such as upcoming programs and events happening across our national network, be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter. 

This ongoing resource has been contributed to by the following community collaborators:
Erika Hawthorne
Joshua Henry Jenkins
Josiah Bruny
Bertrand J Evans-Taylor