Providing both scholarships and allotments to a diverse range of struggling undergraduate students and start-up organizations, revered Italian luxury, fashion and leather goods brand, Gucci, announced two additional programs under its Changemakers North America scheme in March last year. These programs which aim to boost community engagement and create lasting social change in the fashion industry, provide individuals with the much needed industry-mentorship and other leadership opportunities, necessary for success.

Gucci’s First-Ever Changemakers Impact Fund Awards 16 NGOs with $50K

Since its initiation in 2019, the brand has plans to periodically unveil an updated list of fund recipients, hand selected by a council of esteemed industry professionals, including the likes of fashion designer, Dapper Dan and supermodel, Naomi Campbell.

Awarding grants of up to $50,000 USD each for a one-year funding cycle, a total of 16 nonprofit organizations were selected for the 2020 Gucci Changemakers Impact Fund. The extensive list featured organizations such as Slay TV, which brands itself as the “premier destination for queer and trans entertainment”, offering post-cable and post-normative stations dedicated to curating and developing original content in the form of web-series, movies, music and documentaries, which aim to be representative of the LGBTQ community.

Design Core Detroit

Other notable mentions include Creativity Explored, an organization providing opportunity to artists with developmental disabilities to create and share their work – and Design Core Detroit, a community-based business based within the College for Creative Studies, which specializes in utilizing design as a central discipline to strengthen and boost the midwestern city’s overall economy.

With Impact Fund applications reopening in Spring, the full list of grantees are as follows:

HBCU VC, Atlanta, GA
After School Matters, Chicago, IL
Braven, Chicago, IL
Design Core, Detroit, MI
Writers in the Schools, Houston, TX
Black AIDS Institute, Los Angeles, CA
Educate Tomorrow, Miami, FL
The Alliance for GLBTQ Youth, Miami, FL
ACLU of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA
Custom Collaborative, New York, NY
Slay TV, New York, NY
National Youth Foundation, Philadelphia, PA
Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Talking Points, San Francisco, CA
UforChange, Toronto, ON, Canada
Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Washington, D.C.