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

Race-Explicit Work & Legal Defense & Continuing Diversity Equity & Inclusion 

• Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI) Resource Bank 

• DEI Legislation Tracker 

• Executive Disorder: Mapping the War on Equal Opportunity

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

• The Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI)

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

Executive Orders & Policy Watch

• Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits 

• Democracy 2025 Response Center 

• Executive Disorder: Mapping the War on Equal Opportunity

• FAQ: Nonprofits in the New Landscape

• The Arts and Changing Political Landscapes

Advocacy in Current Climate 

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

Crisis Preparedness & 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

Funding & Rapid Response

• 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

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

Immigrant & Border Justice

• CHIRLA – Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights 

• Defending Our Future

• Immigration Know Your Rights Resources

• Arts for LA Resources

• Data and Democracy in America

Learning and Solidarity Building in the Face of Genocide and International Harms

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

• The Art of Storytelling: Translating Chaos

Mutual Aid Networks 

• Los Angeles, CA

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

Supporting Rest

• The Nap Ministry

• Rooted & Rested Coaching

Community Uplift

• Largest Black Directory

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

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

• Rapid Assistance Security Initiative (RASI) 

• Social Change Ecosystem Map

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

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

• Meeting the Moment Webinar Recap

• Movement Lessons from the First 100 Days

• White Supremacy Is Apocalyptic for Everyone

• How to be Resilience Ready in 2025

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

• 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

• Program Support for Arts – City of Moreno Valley

• Unlocking Social Equity Through Cannabis – CohnReznick

• ABFE Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI) Resource Bank

• Executive Orders Affecting Charitable Nonprofits

Articles / News 

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

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

• 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

Other 

• Executive Disorder: Mapping the War on Equal Opportunity

• Immigration Know Your Rights Resources

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

• Rapid Assistance Security Initiative (RASI) 

• Social Change Ecosystem Map

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

• The Racial Equity Advancement and Defense Initiative (READI)

• Building Movement Project Resources:

  • FAQ: Nonprofits in the New Landscape

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

  • Meeting the Moment Webinar Recap

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