FGC has two funds for people of color – the Mahala Ashley Dickerson Fund and Bayard Rustin Fund– to support them to attend FGC sponsored events through travel reimbursement and program fee assistance
Given the limited amount of money we have available for grants, and in our attempt to provide equal support for Friends, we may not be able to grant continuous support for Friends who had received aid more than two times from our funds. We look forward to a future in which we will have fewer limitations on funding. We encourage those who were unable to receive aid to seek other avenues of support through their Monthly and Yearly Meetings, as well as other sources of financial assistance through FGC.
To ensure mutual accountability and to help our discernment process, all Friends requesting grants are required to fill out a budget in the application form that fully details the amount of grant requested and how the funds received will be spent.
Support our Funds
Your contribution will make it possible for us to continue to defray the cost barriers for People of Color to attend FGC’s Summer Gatherings and other FGC sponsored events and meetings.
By visiting FGC’s donation page. Under “Please use my gift to support…” select the Bayard Rustin Fund or Mahala Ashley Dickerson Fund in the dropdown menu. You can also donate to these funding during your Gathering registration.
Thank you!
The Mahala Ashley Dickerson Fund: Registration support for People of Color
The Mahala Ashley Dickerson Fund provides broad support for anti-racism work, including defraying the cost of People of Color’s (in our constituent Monthly and Yearly Meeting areas) registration fees for FGC-sponsored meetings and activities, as well as supporting program development and staffing.
The Mahala Ashley Dickerson Fund was established by the Committee for Nurturing Ministries and approved by Central Committee in 2019.
To ensure mutual accountability and to help our discernment process, all individuals requesting grants must fill out a budget in the application form detailing the amount of grant requested and how the funds received will be spent.
Mahala Ashley Dickerson was an African-American attorney who was admitted to the bars of Alabama, Indiana, and Alaska in the 1950s, often the first African-American woman to be admitted. She was a founding member of Alaska Friends Conference donating 11 acres from her homestead to them. A pioneer in her field, she became the first Black female lawyer in the state in 1948 and the first Black lawyer in Alaska in 1958. She had many courtroom victories across a fifty-year career and made a strong impact on women’s rights and civil rights.
The Bayard Rustin Fund: A Travel Support Fund for People of Color
This fund is intended to be used to support People of Color’s (in our constituent Monthly and Yearly Meeting areas) travel to FGC sponsored meetings and activities, including the summer Gathering.
The Bayard Rustin Fund was established by the Committee on Nurturing Ministries in February 2015 at our meeting in Atlanta, GA. This fund was seeded with a donation by Friends for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Queer Concerns.
The Bayard Rustin Fund has since been able to provide travel support for dozens of People of Color to the Gathering and Pre-Gathering retreat, regional retreats for Friends of Color, Committee Meetings, and the White Privilege Conference.
Bayard Rustin was a brilliant strategist, pacifist, forward-thinking civil rights and LGBTQ+ rights activist, and a Quaker during the middle of the 20th century. Born 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Rustin was raised a Quaker and his family was engaged in civil rights activism. In 1947 as a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Rustin planned the “Journey of Reconciliation”, which would be used as a model for the Freedom Rides of the 1960’s. He served as a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. in the practice of nonviolent civil resistance, and was an intellectual and organizational force behind the burgeoning civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. His life as an openly gay man, however, put him at odds with the cultural norms of the larger society and left him either working behind the scenes or outside of the movement for stretches of time.
Fund Policies
In order to preserve financial resources for Friends of Color, the Ministry on Racism enforces the following guidance for applicants and recipients of the Bayard Rustin and Mahala Ashley Dickerson Funds:
- Applicants are strongly encouraged to apply no less than one month prior to the event for which they are seeking assistance, or by an alternate deadline specified in the event registration – whichever comes first.
- If a recipient is no longer able to attend the event for which they requested assistance, they are required to notify Ministry on Racism Program staff of their absence and why they need to cancel prior to the start of the event.
- Bayard Rustin Fund recipients who are no longer able to attend an event are expected to refund the grant money to the fund. If they receive a travel credit for their cancellation, the recipient is expected to use that credit for the next FGC-sponsored event they attend.
- Recipients who fail to notify Ministry on Racism Program staff of a cancellation prior to the event will be ineligible for support from either fund for a full year from the date of the missed event.