Lani Shaw worked for over 20 years at the General Service Foundation, serving as Executive Director for more than a decade. Her values and heart for social justice helped shape many aspects of GSF. As an ongoing tribute to Lani’s vibrancy, GSF makes an annual award to support “movement moments,” campaigns and exceptional leadership that resonate with Lani’s intersecting social justice passions.
2017 – United We Dream
United We Dream is the recipient of the 2017 Lani Shaw Movement Fund award. In honor of their visionary work to imagine and live into a world of dignity, belonging and interconnection, United We Dream received a one time award of $25,000. This award celebrates the courage and vision of young immigrant rights leaders.
2016 – Until We Are All Free
Until We Are All Free is a collaboration between Mobilize the Immigrant Vote, CultureStrike and Black Alliance for Just Immigration to imagine a world without borders or bars. It weaves together culture change work, immigrant rights and criminal justice work with a vision of community and belonging. Until We Are All Free puts forward a powerful, inclusive vision that holds all communities and yet is also clear about what different communities need to be whole and thrive. This work offers a positive vision of what justice looks like.
Each partner organization received an award of $10,000 to honor and support their work.
2015 – Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)
Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity has been at the forefront of supporting Black leaders to be transformative organizational and movement leaders. BOLD’s training focuses on creating the conditions for leaders to step into their full power and lead with their full selves. This award honors BOLD for their powerful investments in the people that build organizations and movements.
BOLD received a $25,000 award in honor of their work.
2015 – Lani Shaw Memorial Awards
On the first anniversary of Lani Shaw’s passing, GSF honored her commitment to social justice by giving three one-time awards in her name.
GSF remembered Lani by granting $10,000 each to Anahi Araiza and Alex Alvarado as unrestricted leadership awards. Araiza and Alvarado had been students in the Roaring Fork Valley where Lani lived. A community safety officer who was placed in their high school also worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and was using information gathered from students to deport their families. They led the Asociacion de Jovenes Unidos en Accion (AJUA) with their peers—mostly DREAMer youth, the children of undocumented immigrants—in a successful campaign to break the link between ICE and the school system. Lani spent many hours helping AJUA gain access to power and plan their campaign, and she took a vocal public stand on the issue. She admired Araiza and Alvarado as role models for true leadership, real community organizing and standing up for one’s rights. Lani was grateful to a GSF grantee, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, for connecting her to this important local work. Hear Lani tell the story on NPR.
We also awarded $5,000 in general operating support to Aspen Community School, a public charter school where Lani helped with her children’s classes and volunteered many hours to address school-wide issues including fundraising. Lani knew the deficits Colorado schools face and was passionate about increasing public funding for education. She also recognized the challenge of raising unrestricted funds, and pushed GSF to give all of our grants as general operating support. She taught GSF to think in terms of flexible gifts, and GSF followed her example with this award.