July 15, 2026

What Four Years of Investing in Birth Justice Has Taught Us: Five Key Takeaways

by Ms. Foundation

Since launching our Birth Justice Initiative, in 2022, Ms. Foundation has invested more than $6.9 million in community-based organizations working to transform maternal and infant health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and other communities historically pushed to the margins. Our recent report on our Birth Justice Initiative, Birth Justice Now, reflects on four years of funding, partnership, and learning alongside the organizations, birth justice leaders, practitioners and advocates advancing birth justice across the country. The organizations leading this work have demonstrated what is possible when communities have the resources and autonomy to create their own solutions. 

Birth Justice Now shares what we’ve learned from these investments and offers a call to philanthropy: If we want to ensure a strong and sustainable future for the birth justice movement, we must listen to and invest in the communities and leaders already doing the work.

Here are five key lessons that emerged from the report:

1. Birth justice organizations are doing critical work with too few resources. Despite longstanding and well-documented disparities in maternal health outcomes, many birth justice organizations continue to operate with limited funding. More than half of our birth justice grantees have annual budgets below $500,000, and these organizations are often serving as trusted providers, advocates, educators, and organizers within their communities while navigating chronic underinvestment. The scale of their impact far exceeds the resources currently available to support it.

2. Community-led solutions already exist. One of the clearest lessons from our work is that communities do not need outsiders to invent solutions on their behalf. Across the country, birth justice organizations are opening birth centers, training doulas and midwives, restoring ancestral practices, advocating for policy change, and creating culturally affirming models of care. Their work recognizes that birth justice is deeply interconnected with housing, economic security, environmental justice, reproductive freedom, and community well-being. Lasting change requires addressing those realities together, not in isolation.

3. Funders must show up as partners. Traditional funding relationships often position foundations as decision makers and community organizations as recipients. Our experience points to a different approach. Supporting birth justice requires funders to act as partners and co-conspirators — building authentic relationships, practicing mutual accountability, and trusting community leaders to define priorities and solutions. The most effective philanthropy listens first and follows the lead of those closest to the work.

4. Flexible, long-term funding fuels change. Birth justice organizations need room to build, adapt, and grow. Yet too often, funding is short-term, highly restricted, and tied to narrow project outcomes. The report highlights the importance of multi-year, general operating support that allows organizations to invest in staff, infrastructure, leadership development, and community priorities. Trust-based funding enables organizations to focus on long-term impact rather than short-term survival.

5. Birth justice is about building new systems of care: At its core, birth justice is about more than improving outcomes within existing healthcare systems. It is about creating systems that center community self-determination, cultural affirmation, ancestral knowledge, and trust. The leaders in this movement are not simply seeking to reform broken systems, they are building new models of care that reflect the values, experiences, and wisdom of the communities they serve.

We hope this report serves as both a reflection and a roadmap, and we invite you to read the full report and join us in advancing a future where every person can experience safe, dignified, and affirming care before, during, and after birth.