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CLEVELAND, Ohio — With the demand for social justice becoming more prominent, many businesses and organizations are getting involved and taking a stand.

The Cleveland Foundation recently announced it’s putting $2.5 million toward creating the Black Futures Fund. The money will help support black-led social organizations in Cleveland.

“We’re not going into this with the idea that we’re going to fund this or that because we believe it’s an opportunity for us to build genuine relationships with organizations perhaps that we’ve never funded before,” said Courtenay Barton.

Barton is the program director for arts and culture and racial equity initiatives for the Cleveland Foundation.

Barton said black-led organizations get very little grant money compared to others and that’s one reason why the foundation wants to build relationships with black organizations in Cleveland.

“We do know that organizations and the leaders who are on the ground doing the work need money to support the work that they are doing,” Barton said.

Barton said given the widespread social justice movements underway in the United States, it’s important to support black-led social organizations.

The foundation is using restricted funds to support the initiative.

Barton said their goal is to create change in black communities.

“We do believe that the people closest to the problems are the people closest to the solutions, and so, if we can support those who understand the problem inside and out, who have the vision, and the know-how and the community trust and do the work, we believe we can make some headway into getting to a place of making greater racial equity,” she said.

So far, no organizations have been selected for the fund. Barton said the application for the Black Futures Fund will open sometime this fall.