Social Justice Base Building Grant

Grants@SocialJusticeFund.org

Social Justice Fund Northwest is offering funding for grassroots organizations in the northwest that are working on community organizing and base building to change policies, transform culture, and build new models and institutions.

Examples of funded social justice work include:

• Language rejuvenation programs
• Culture as healing programs
• Environmental justice
• Civic engagement including voter education
• Food sovereignty
• Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP)
• Health equity
• Wellness
• Youth-led initiatives
• Art as activism installations

Social Justice Fund Northwest is looking for organizations that fit their community organizing framework, and that address:

• Collective power
  • Working with a diverse membership to build collective power
  • Building a critical mass of collective power that can win changes in policy, culture, or institution-building, and defend those wins
• Widening the base
  • Building authentic relationships with those in the base who are most affected by the issues the organization works on
  • Bringing new people into the base who are not already engaged in organizing work
  • Using varied methods of recruitment by uplifting differences through tailored communication and outreach
  • Engaging in face-to-face conversation and relationship building
• Leadership development
  • Provide clear entry points for members to move to leadership positions
  • Clear and accessible programs for political education and meaningful engagement
  • Continual education
• Strategy and long-term planning
  • Developing, using, and continually adapting a base-building plan which includes goals, timelines, infrastructure, leadership, and opportunities for engagement
  • Organizing strategies with clear goals
  • Structures that hold the leadership accountable to its base

Eligible applicants include:

• Nonprofit organizations with 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 status
• American Indian tribal governments or agencies
• Organizations that are fiscally sponsored by 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 organizations or tribal governments

Applicants must carry out their work in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and/or Wyoming.

Priority will be given to applicants that:

• Have leadership (at least 51%) from Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities
• Conduct most of their work in reservation, rural, and/or small town communities

Award amount: $50,000 per year
Project period: 2 years

A link to the online application is available on the program website.