A Chicago-based philanthropic foundation has reaffirmed its dedication to racial justice amid widespread rollbacks of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across corporations and institutions. On Tuesday, the Grand Victoria Foundation announced a rebranding effort, adopting the new name A Movement Advancing Repair and Abundance, or AMARA. The change reflects a sharpened focus on supporting Black-led organizations and initiatives that promote racial equity.

AMARA President Sharon Bush emphasized that the foundation’s mission has remained consistent. “We’ve been funding this work probably since 2021,” she said, referring to efforts launched in the wake of the nationwide racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder.

In 2021, AMARA undertook a study identifying 81 Illinois municipalities with Black populations of at least 30 percent to better understand where its resources could be most effectively deployed. “The board provided us the opening when it said to us in 2020, ‘We want to really be in this for the long-term. We don’t want to do temporary measures,’” Bush stated.

Since then, the foundation’s board has engaged deeply with concepts of equity and justice, exploring how to empower Black communities through building local power and agency. “We’ve had conversations that have been about what it means to focus on Black communities, what it means to build the power and agency within those communities, to focus on the things they think are good and right for their communities,” Bush explained.

Listening sessions with community organizations helped shape AMARA’s core values of “repair” and “abundance.” Repair addresses the acknowledgment that structural inequality stems from systemic policies and institutional decisions rather than individual shortcomings. Abundance seeks to move beyond narratives centered on scarcity and crisis, aiming instead to highlight opportunity, wealth, safety, creativity, political power, and self-determination within Black communities.

AMARA operates with a $200 million endowment and maintains an annual payout rate between 6 and 7 percent, distributing roughly $10 million annually. The foundation has collaborated with national funders, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which supported the 2021 municipal study, and the MacArthur Foundation, assisting with narrative change initiatives focused on reframing stories about Black communities. These narrative efforts remain under development.

Approximately 35 percent of AMARA’s 2025 grant awards are directed to organizations in the Chicago area. Local grantees include KOCO Chicago, Southside Together, Black Roots Alliance, and Organized Communities Against Deportation. Bush highlighted the intersectionality of the foundation’s work, noting that while immigration issues may appear separate from Black community concerns, many Black immigrants face overlapping challenges. “These other organizations might have different kinds of leadership, but they hold centering Black power within the ways in which they work,” she said.

AMARA’s rebranding will be formally marked on Thursday at an event hosted by Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy during Black Philanthropy Month at the Obama Presidential Center.