Defending Our Neighbors Fund
An urgent lifeline to local organizations providing legal and bond support to immigrant families and individuals who need it most.
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Your Donation Doubled: Join Ariana Grande in showing up for our neighbors and your donation will be matched!
The Defending Our Neighbors Fund is powered by everyday people, like you, stepping up and building a vital lifeline to support our immigrant neighbors, loved ones, and communities against injustice.
We all deserve to be treated fairly and with dignity. Yet every day, immigrant families are forced to navigate a complex and punishing immigration system alone, without access to legal counsel. Even young children, the most vulnerable members of our communities, are facing trained prosecutors without anyone by their side.
This is why the Defending Our Neighbors Fund exists.
Today, there are more than 6 million U.S. households who have a family member at risk of detention or deportation. Right now, the federal government is funneling $170 billion of our taxpayer dollars to dramatically increase enforcement in our cities, all while slashing funding for legal service organizations who provide critical support for immigrants and make sure they have access to a lawyer. The Defending Our Neighbors Fund is a rapid-response effort to meet this urgent need for legal representation head-on, working to ensure families have access to life-saving legal support, and when possible, bond assistance.
Access to legal representation makes a profound difference in whether families can stay together.
As people's due process rights continue to be violated — affecting tens of thousands of people who are immigrants, children, and even U.S. citizens and green card holders — the need for legal counsel is skyrocketing. Studies show that in 2024, there were more than 2.5 million cases in immigration court where people did not have legal representation. Having access to a lawyer is often the difference between a family staying together or being separated indefinitely.
To meet the ballooning demand in this moment, the Defending Our Neighbors Fund is quickly deploying high-impact grants to trusted organizations providing legal and, when possible, bond assistance to communities in need, this includes organizations that are:
- Serving communities with large immigrant populations
- Serving communities in legal deserts, and
- Serving communities near some of the country’s most active immigration detention and processing centers
In this moment of division, we must all come together to defend our neighbors.
Supported by United We Dream and the ACLU, the Defending Our Neighbors Fund is hosted by Abundant Futures Fund (a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors), and aims to raise and deploy $30 million to grassroots organizations to meet this crisis with action and care.
We, the people, will power this movement with small dollar contributions. Your donation supports trusted organizations providing legal representation and, when possible, bond assistance, to communities in need.
Thank you for helping us defend our communities at such a critical moment. Your support makes all the difference.
Fundraisers
Fundraiser by Susan Lyon
For my bday, help me fight ICE and protect immigrant rights!
Hi, it's me Susan...and it's (almost) my 40th birthday! In lieu of cards and gifts, please consider donating to help me fight back against the largest deportation effort in modern American history. It's insane and inhumane and we cannot stand by and watch. Now is the time to act. Plus, they have a match going - ARIANA GRANDE HERSELF will personally match your donation to double its impact!! *~**~WICKED!!*~**~ I chose to do a fundraiser for Defending Our Neighbors because it's working to protect families and is a joint project of ACLU and United We Dream so we know they have the legal might and expertise needed to really get sh*t done. Their website states: "As federal agents continue to rapidly detain tens of thousands of our neighbors every month, ICE detention centers continue to expand and our neighbors, including children, are forced to face immigration court alone. The Defending Our Neighbors Fund directs critical funding to trusted organizations providing legal representation and bond support to immigrant communities all across the country. Your support helps gives our neighbors a fighting chance." Thank you all so so much for your generosity at this difficult time - let's fight back! As our moderately-handsome yet rapidly-aging Governor Gavin Newsom wrote on X, “This is exactly what I warned would happen last year. Trump is using mass deportations to TERRORIZE diverse communities out of legally voting — ordering his secret police to 'go after everybody.' Donald, your campaign of fear will FAIL. The American people will NOT be intimidated!”
- Raised
- $538
- Next milestone
- $750
6 supporters
DonateFundraiser by Jane Cross
RAISE YOUR VOICE WITH LADY LIBERTY SINGS!
Lady Liberty Sings weaves a national musical tapestry of support for the rights and dignity of immigrants and refugees. By uniting composers of all ages, backgrounds, and musical genres, we transform creative expression into a powerful tool for social justice. Our goal is simple: We invite musicians nationwide to write and record music set to the welcoming words of Emma Lazarus—or other lyrics focused on immigrant worth, rights and protections—to protest inhumane treatment and raise critical funds. Where Your Donation Goes: 100% of your gift goes directly to the Defending Our Neighbors Fund. They work on the frontlines to prevent deportations without due process and provide immigrants—including unaccompanied children—with essential legal representation in court. *Created in partnership with United We Dream Network (UWD) and the ACLU, the Defending Our Neighbors Fund is hosted at Abundant Futures Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
- Raised
- $5,366
- Goal
- $100,000
39 supporters
DonateDonors
Jane Cross To the fundraiser: RAISE YOUR VOICE WITH LADY LIBERTY SINGS!I just got a $90 deposit from Trump in my bank account, which is nicely timed to influence the mid-term elections! With our own tax payer dollars no less! I can't accept this 'bribe' and want it to go towards legal support for immigrants w...
George McLaren The president sent me $90 to try to buy my vote for Republican candidates. Instead, I thought the best use of that money was to donate to Defending Our Neighbors to help fund legal services for persecuted immigrants.
Laura Pinson 3It's time that we reclaim the dream of "send me your tired, your hungry, your poor," and creating a place where people can build a better life instead of treating people like criminals for being in the United States with the wrong skin colo...
- Susan LyonTo the fundraiser: For my bday, help me fight ICE and protect immigrant rights!
Thank you for the important work you are doing.
Elizabeth McMahon 2Please keep up the good work. You are needed now more than ever. It will take years to undo even a little of the evil being done to communities of color in the current administration. I thank God that your organization already has teams in ...
Midge Epstein 1Thank you for starting this. It’s hard to know which immigration organizations to support. Donating to the ACLU defending our neighbors fund gives me confidence that my money will go where it is most needed.
