How We’re Supporting Black-led Organizations

At Lush, we believe in mutual aid.

While the sharing of resources is not new, this concept has been popularized during Covid-19 as an exchange of resources and materials for mutual benefit. Community-driven mutual aid groups sprung up across North America, offering people a way to support fellow community members through the pandemic. We reached out to hundreds of partners and essential service organizations to help address the need for soap and other hygiene products in communities across North America.

Our approach has been no different in response to calls for financial support to the Black Lives Matter movement. When we committed $250,000 USD to Black-led organizations, we worked swiftly with partners and leaders in the space to identify the places where support would best help. That includes supporting groups looking to continue the work to build community alternatives to end harm and violence, empowering Black people to exercise their right to vote, protecting and defending the health and human rights of Black trans people and ensuring that Black youth activists and organizers have a voice.

We’re proud to partner with the following organizations:

Movement for Black Lives

Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in December of 2014. It was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions or wins, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy.

Black Men Build

Black Men Build’s primary goal is to increase Black men’s participation in the 2020 Presidential election by engaging Black men in target states and to wither their support for the right-wing agenda. Engagement will focus on undermining current right wing messaging, educating Black men on local and national political opportunities, and voter registration and mobilization.

Dream Defenders

Dream Defenders is organizing Black and Brown youth to build power in communities to advance a new vision in the state of Florida, called the Freedom Papers. The Freedom Papers advance a vision of safety and security—away from prisons, deportation and war—and towards healthcare, housing, jobs and movement for all.

Black Voters Matter Fund

The goal of Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF) is to increase power in Black communities—through voter registration, policy advocacy and organizational education and training. BVMF’s ‘We Got Power’ campaign supports local organizations in 11 states to increase voter registration and advocate for policies to expand voting rights and access. This includes expanded early voting, resisting voter ID, re-entry restoration of rights and strengthening the Voting Rights Act.

Black Youth Project 100

Founded in 2013, BYP100 is a member-based organization of Black youth activists creating justice and freedom for all Black people. The current campaign ‘She Safe, We Safe’ is a transformative movement campaign to put an end to the different forms of gender violence that Black women, girls, femmes and gender non-conforming people face every day.

Southerners on New Ground

Southerners on New Ground is a home for LGBTQ liberation across all lines of race, class, abilities, age, culture, gender and sexuality in the South. SONG builds, sustains and connects a southern regional base of LBGTQ people in order to transform the region through strategic projects and campaigns developed in response to the current conditions in communities. SONG builds this movement through leadership development, intersectional analysis and organizing.

Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Marsha P. Johnson Institute protects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people by organizing, advocating, creating an intentional community to heal, developing transformative leadership and promoting collective power. It is named after the activist and self-identified drag queen, performer and survivor who was a prominent figure during the all-important New York Stonewall Riots in 1969.

Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI)

BAJI educates and engages African American and Black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for racial, social and economic justice. Local BAJI Organizing Committees in New York, Georgia, California and Arizona build coalitions and initiate campaigns among communities to push for racial justice. BAJI’s flagship project is the Black Immigration Network (BIN): a national alliance that brings together Black-led organizations and programs to advance just immigration policies and promote the cultural shifts that our communities need. The BIN kinship provides a safe, communal space for diverse Black communities to connect, engage and advocate for equality and justice for all.

Black Boys Code

Black Boys Code inspires young men of color to find their confidence and realize they have the ability to take on any challenge. They help Black boys engage with culture and become tomorrow’s drivers, creators and innovators of technology. They don’t just teach kids how to code; They help them develop critical problem solving and leadership skills in a collaborative and supportive environment. They give them the tools to shape their own future and show them how to be leaders.

Afro van Connect

Afro van Connect works to impower the voices of African-descent Youth through conversation, collaboration, creation and performance. They have established the gathering of young, vibrant and creative minds dedicated to innovating authentic solutions and to increase the visibility of the underrepresented diaspora communities. Their creative capitol platform provides shared opportunities and resources designed to support liberating education and community sustainability. Additionally, they are building a platform to celebrate shared story through their collective accomplishments.

ACLU of Louisiana

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Louisiana works to advance and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Louisiana. One focus area of work is to educate voters about down ballot issues in the upcoming election. Among many other initiatives, they are currently fighting to reimagine the role of police in response to the recent protests and outcries across the United States and the world following the wrongful deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others. They are also working to push for reparatory justice and demanding funds to support Black and Brown communities in Louisiana.

ACLU of Georgia

The ACLU of Georgia works to ensure police accountability and defend First Amendment rights, voter rights, women’s reproductive rights, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States and the State of Georgia. One focus area of work is to ensure free and fair conditions exist for voters in the upcoming election. Among many other initiatives, they are currently working to demand justice for the wrongful death of Ahmaud Abrey, and defending the rights around protest and demonstration.

These organizations are at the center of the Black Lives Matter movement and are creating new pathways for change. To learn more or to support their work, consider taking one or more of the following actions:

• Follow and support their work on social media;
• Sign and send every action alert and petition;
• Attend webinars and virtual gatherings to learn more;
• Donate to their work;
• Register to vote in your state.

Looking for another way to help? 100 percent of the purchase price of our Charity Pot Body Lotion is given directly to grassroots groups working in the areas of human rights, animal protection and environmental justice. In support of the Black Lives Matter movement, we have also committed an additional $250,000 from the sales of Charity Pot to Black-led organizations. L earn more about our Charity Pot program here.