Jennie believes that transformational change is rooted in trusting, resourcing, and supporting the leadership and power of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities, including survivors, queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color. As a Latinx, Bronx-born, first-generation daughter of immigrants, Jennie has spent decades advocating for survivors of gender-based and sexualized violence in all forms. As a survivor herself, Jennie envisions a future when all communities can lead self-determined lives free of violence, patriarchy, systemic oppression, and economic insecurity.

“As funders, we must move resources to organizations led by and for the communities most impacted by racial and gender-based structural oppression. These are the communities that have been historically under-resourced, neglected, and exploited. Our shared liberation can only be achieved if we reckon with that reality and begin the work of healing those harms,” says Jennie. As a senior program officer, Jennie leverages an intersectional analysis and commitment to building community power to deploy resources to folks fighting for gender and racial justice. In addition, she actively organizes within the funding community – working to bring values-aligned funders to the table with wisdom, practical resources, and political education.

Jennie holds a BA in Psychology from Brandeis University and an MPA from New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Her prior positions include director of programs at The New York Women’s Foundation, where she developed girl-led participatory grantmaking programs and oversaw several grantmaking initiatives, including the Fund for the #MeToo Movement and IGNITE!-- charged with increasing investment opportunities to organizations that center young women of color. She is an alumna of Justice Funders’ Harmony Initiative, currently serves on the steering committee for Funders for Justice (FFJ), and was the co-chair for FFJ’s “me too” in philanthropy strategy group.

Jennie can be found trying her hand at gardening, being a tía to her nieces and nephews, and pretending she’s a contestant on Food Network’s Chopped. 

Senior Program Officer

Over the last few months, we have experienced tragedy upon tragedy. A nesting doll of death at the hands of white supremacy and patriarchy. It’s been hard to keep track and appropriately process and respond to each heartbreaking event. And now we must add yet another tragedy – the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade resulting in the loss of a fundamental constitutional protection over our bodies. Following the leak of the Supreme Court opinion, hundreds of articles have been penned expressing justified outrage about what a post Roe country looks like. We want to add to the chorus and urge funders who have traditionally watched from the sidelines, to take heed of this moment and join the fight. 

Abortion bans have always been a symptom, rather than the end goal of white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, and racism. It has been part of a larger fight to ultimately control the bodies of women, girls, trans, and gender non-conforming communities (TGNC) – with an intentional focus on keeping power away from communities of color. It is why Libra’s Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC)-led reproductive justice grantees have told us that Roe was always the floor and never the ceiling– that abortion bans are inextricably linked to anti-trans legislation, voter suppression, lack of medicaid expansion, and economic insecurity. It is why Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, youth and TGNC leaders organize to fight not only for the right to have an abortion, but for the right to have access to abortions and the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare, accurate sex education in schools, voting rights in local, state, and federal elections. They have been a part of the racial justice and defund the police movement, fiercely connecting that the dismantling of Roe also means increased criminalization, surveillance and policing that will disproportionately impact poor communities of color.  

As we sit with the devastating news of Friday’s SCOTUS decision, we must reflect on how the philanthropic sector can move differently and meet the needs of this moment. Too often, the funding world has brushed off the reproductive justice movement as simply a women’s issue. Traditionally women’s rights funders have over prioritized abortion litigation strategies while under-investing in organizing efforts that grow the base and build long-term power. The consequences have been a grossly underfunded RJ movement, leaving leaders of color with intersectional strategies receiving little to no funding.

It’s time to think and fund differently and collectively for the world we want rather than defaulting to statements of solidarity followed by little action. It’s time to create accountability structures for ourselves and our colleagues that actually track where our funding dollars go. If funders begin to think more comprehensively about the variety of issue areas they support and recognize the interconnected nature of the systems of oppression we’re facing, we would move in alignment with affected communities and truly support their vision of liberation. 

Health funders treated abortion access restrictions as a public health crisis? 

Reproductive Rights funders saw that adopting a reproductive justice framework can repair the structural and systemic failures that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) have endured under the majority white-led reproductive rights movement? 

Democracy funders realized that BIPOC-led RJ leaders have been fighting voter suppression laws and integrating civic engagement strategies throughout all of their base-building work? 

Criminal Justice & Safety funders saw that overturning Roe will lead to increased police violence and the criminalization of birthing people- disproportionately impacting poor communities of color? 

Economic security funders connected access to abortion as a critical factor for economic well-being? 

Education funders understood that supporting comprehensive sex education is not only supporting abortion rights, but also improving youth mental health? 

Youth development funders supported a robust young people’s movement that centers their leadership and vision on reproductive liberation and self-determination? 

Gender Equity and Justice funders saw that the fight for reproductive liberation is also the fight for LGBTQ rights and trans liberation? 

Immigrant Rights funders explored how abortion restrictions and the threat of criminalization further isolates undocumented folks? 

National funders remembered that the fight for abortion access has always started at the state and local level and that power-building organizations closest to the ground are the ones to fund to lead this work?

If you’re wondering where to begin, read Women’s Funding Network’s letter that outlines five immediate actions as a start. While this is in no way an exhaustive list of the many organizations working at the forefront of this movement, these are some of Libra’s cross-cutting partners in this work: 

SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective 

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity 

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda 

Join us in breaking down the self-imposed silos of philanthropy. If your foundation operates in service of disenfranchised and historically marginalized communities in this country; if you care about the wellbeing of BIPOC communities – then this is an issue you must respond to, because it is ultimately the most economically vulnerable and politically disempowered communities in this country who are most intensely effected by abortion restrictions. 

Make no mistake –overturning Roe is part of the backlash against the racial reckoning and the multiracial, feminist democracy so many of us in philanthropy are supporting through our grantmaking, partnerships, and trust in our movement leaders.

When I think of all of the organizers in the movement that got up this morning to continue the fight, I am struck by their courage, resilience and enduring commitment to our collective liberation. As funders, we too must rise to meet this latest challenge and commit to funding this movement like our freedom depends on it, because that is exactly what’s at stake.   

Over the last few months, we have experienced tragedy upon tragedy. A nesting doll of death at the hands of white supremacy and patriarchy.

Reflecting on the SCOTUS Decision and What’s at Stake

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate and support the global struggle for women’s rights, which are now under attack everywhere we look. We feel these  threats deeply, because we have both worked alongside our sisters in this movement. And we believe that it is now time to broaden this fight to gender justice. This wider path will lead to victory for all of us – all races, all genders, all communities. 

How did we get here? We have been on a long and deep learning journey in what was initially labeled our “women’s rights” work at the Libra Foundation. Over the past few years, we have listened to grantee partners tell us about their work and their funding struggles. 

We heard from reproductive justice leaders about how the erosion of reproductive rights is a symptom of other forms of oppression – racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, ableism, and others. We listened as they told us that even when we had Roe, it was never enough for Black, Brown, undocumented, and poor communities that never had access in the first place. We spoke with trans leaders who connected the tactics used to ban abortion rights over the last five decades to the anti-trans bills that are rapidly sweeping this country now. Black and Indigenous women and queer folks of color told us that the movement to end gendered violence was inextricably linked to the movement for racial, economic, reproductive, queer, and trans justice. 

As we listened, the connections became impossible to unsee, and we realized that we needed to chart a new path towards funding that allows movements to bring their full selves to the issues we care about.

That journey has now taken us to an exciting new place. We invite other funders to join us in refocusing their women’s rights work on the broader fight for gender justice. As we have learned, taking this path will bring you many beautiful new opportunities and gifts, removing artificial barriers and inviting in fresh synergies. No, it does not mean losing focus on women’s rights. Instead it widens the frame for our work, enabling us to effectively address overlapping crises that include the fall of Roe, the struggle for racial justice, and escalating attacks on trans people.

If our mid-sized family foundation can make this bold evolution, your organization can too. We are lucky to have a board that is curious about the field and open to change that will advance the foundation’s mission. We had a strong starting point, as the Libra Foundation was grounded in years of funding for women’s rights organizations. Our evolution was a product of authentic listening to communities we serve – not a sudden or top-down decision. Our new approach is intersectional – because we know that gender justice needs a racial, queer, and trans justice lens to reach the most marginalized and oppressed.  

So, what exactly do we mean when we talk about Gender Justice? What does this kind of philanthropy look like? We invite you to check out our whole funding portfolio. But we want to highlight a few examples of the grantee partners who inspire us:

Spark Reproductive Justice builds leaders to engage and educate communities in shifting power, shifting culture, and uplifting Black Women and Queer and Trans Young People of Color.

Third Wave Fund  resources youth-led, intersectional, gender justice movements to advance the community power, well-being, and self-determination of young Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color.

Trans Justice Funding Project is a community-led funding initiative that supports grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.

Black Trans Fund seeks to address the lack of funding for Black trans communities in the U.S. through direct grantmaking, capacity building support, and funder organizing to transform philanthropy.

Justice for Migrant Women aims to ensure that all migrant women are guaranteed human and civil rights, including the freedom of mobility, the ability to live and work with dignity, and the right to be free of threats of violence against them and their families.

With grantee partners like these shining lights as our teachers, we continue to learn, question our own thinking, and evolve our strategy.  We absorb ideas from others in the field doing visionary work, like Aldita Gallardo of the Fund for Trans Generations, who outlined how funders can build authentic relationships with trans and nonbinary communities in a recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review. We are constantly learning and expanding our field of vision. We read, we discuss, and we adjust as events in our communities challenge us to grow and as new issues arise. 

And we welcome company. If you currently fund in the women’s space, or in reproductive rights, we invite you to join us on this wider, more inclusive path to justice. We realize that the default position of philanthropy is to be siloed. The fear is that if you shift, you lose. Our message is: if you shift, all of us gain. Because our communities, and our struggles, are and will always be interconnected.

Jennie Agmi is Senior Program Officer for Gender Justice at the Libra Foundation. Susan Pritzker is Co-President of the foundation’s Board of Directors. Artwork by Amir Khadar.

March 8th is International Women’s Day, a time to celebrate and support the global struggle for women’s rights, which are now under attack everywhere we look.

Jennie Agmi

Written By Jennie

Other Team Members