Announcing the 2021 Grantees and their Cases

The Barbara McDowell Foundation is pleased to announce the selection of its four 2021 Grantees and their grant-funded cases. Selected from over 100 applicants, the four grantees each received $50,000 grants to support their social justice litigation. The 2021 grants cover the period of October 1, 2020, through September 30, 2021. 

The grantees, the issue areas targeted by their grant-funded cases, and their cases include:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice

• Issue Areas: Discrimination and Voting Rights
• The Case: Challenging the Trump administration’s plan to collect and provide incomplete citizenship data to the states for purposes of redistricting as an unconstitutional and racially discriminatory scheme intended to deprive Latinos, Asians, and non-citizens of equal representation.

Disability Rights New York

• Issue Areas: Disability Rights and Voting Rights
• The Case: Filing a lawsuit against the New York State Board of Elections for excluding New Yorkers with disabilities from their Absentee Ballot program. 

Gender Justice

• Issue Areas: Discrimination and Healthcare
• The Case: Representing a rural Minnesota woman who was forced to contact three pharmacies and travel over 100 miles in blizzard conditions to fill her emergency contraception prescription. 

National Center for Youth Law

• Issue Areas: Children’s Rights and Refugee and Immigration Rights
• The Case: Filed a federal class action lawsuit to enforce constitutional protections for unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody.

The work of the four 2021 Foundation grantees will further the Foundation’s mission of improving the economic well-being, social conditions, and civil liberties of disadvantaged persons and groups in the United States.

A summary of each grantee’s funded case is posted to the “Our Grants” page of the Foundation’s website. 

2020 GRANTEES

The Foundation has also received our 2020 grantee final reports. These final reports provide a comprehensive look at the impact of the Foundation’s 2020 funding and the work of our grantees.