A few weeks ago, our employee foundation, Affirm Cares, launched the Affirm Communities of Color Advocacy Fund, an internal fundraiser for organizations on the front lines of the fight to end systemic racism.

The fund was generously seeded by our CEO, Max Levchin, and his wife Nellie, who also committed to matching employee donations raised during our weeklong fundraising event. At its close, the Affirm Communities of Color Advocacy Fund raised more than $300,000. 

Guided by input and feedback from Affirm’s BLACK@ employee resource group, the Affirm Cares committee vetted a number of organizations based on their racial equity mission, projects, financial viability and their tax exempt 501(c)(3) status.  

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be donating to the following organizations committed to making our communities and our country safer, more equitable, and more inclusive for Black Americans.

• Equal Justice Initiative: Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons—problems disproportionately affecting Black people. EJI works with communities that have been marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.

• NAACP: Founded in 1909 in response to ongoing violence against Black people across the U.S., the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the country’s preeminent civil rights organization—as well as the largest. The vision of the NAACP is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights without discrimination based on race. The NAACP National will, at the request of the Affirm Cares Employee Foundation, earmark the donation to support the organization’s San Francisco Chapter.

• The Black Star Project: Founded in 1996 by Phillip Jackson, The Black Star Project is committed to improving quality of life in Black and Latino communities in Chicago and nationwide by closing the racial academic achievement gap. Their mission is to provide educational services that help preschool through college students succeed academically and become knowledgeable and productive citizens with the support of their parents, families, schools and communities.

• Prevention Institute: Prevention Institute (PI) is a national nonprofit with offices in Oakland, Los Angeles, Houston and Washington, D.C. Their mission is to build prevention and health equity into key policies and actions at the federal, state, local and organizational levels to ensure that the places where all people live, work, play and learn foster health, safety and wellbeing. Since 1997, PI has helped bring cutting-edge research, practice, strategy and analysis to the pressing health and safety concerns of the day, focusing on how structural drivers of inequity, like racism and income inequality, impact communities.

Read more about what we’re doing to address racial injustice.

Updated 6/26/2020