Search Through Grants for Immigration Nonprofits in the U.S.

Crankstart Foundation Grant

Crankstart is a San Francisco-based family foundation devoted to bolstering the foundations of a just society - wider access to better education, jobs with prospects for advancement, housing security, social welfare and the protection of civil rights. Crankstart also supports the arts, basic science and efforts to mitigate climate change. About 60% of grants go to groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.

While the Bay Area is our home, on occasion we have made commitments elsewhere – particularly in Chicago and the United Kingdom. The bulk of our grants fall between $100k - $1m. Once we have developed confidence in an organization, we lean toward making multi-year commitments for general support.

Crankstart envisions a vibrant, thriving Bay Area, where our region’s prosperity is strengthened and shared more equitably by all who live here.

Programs

• Economic Mobility - Everyone should have choices and opportunities that lead to economic stability and security. Crankstart focuses on root causes of economic disenfranchisement, particularly in low-income communities hurt by generational poverty.
  • We support work that:
    • Provides the tools and training needed for careers and economic security.
    • Strengthens safety net programs that provide food and health services.
    • Increases access to public benefits programs serving low-income people.
    • Mitigates the insidious effects of fines and fees that erode wealth.
• Education: Our public education system should provide every child and adult, regardless of circumstances, an opportunity to shape their lives.
  • We support work that:
    • Expands post-secondary access to academic and vocational studies, to help students develop the tools and resilience needed to pursue upward mobility.
    • Develops more opportunities for early childhood education and out-of-school learning, particularly in historically marginalized communities.
    • Strengthens the teacher pipeline, to recruit and retain excellent educators in public schools.
• Democracy: We envision a robust democracy in which elections are held securely and with integrity, every person has the information they need to fully participate in civic life, and the underlying structure of our electoral system is fair.
  • We support work that:
    • Protects voting rights through mobilization and engagement.
    • Supports immigrants, ensuring they have the opportunities they need to thrive.
    • Works to change harmful and unfair criminal justice policies.
    • Develops robust interventions to mitigate recidivism and provide economic opportunity.
• Housing Security: Housing security means all people have a place to call home. They have choices that promote economic well-being, health and safety.
  • Crankstart supports work in San Francisco and Oakland that:
    • Reduces homelessness through preventive measures and targeted services.
    • Provides affordable housing choices that allow people to live near work and become involved in their communities. We emphasize housing opportunities for those who are most affected by displacement and high housing costs.
    • Uses policy, law, public resources and good governance to promote economically integrated communities.
• Environment: Communities disproportionately affected by climate change should be partners and the primary beneficiaries of mitigation efforts.
  • We support work that:
    • Accelerates the transition to clean energy.
    • Restores and protects ecosystems in ways that benefit local communities.
• Medical Science & Innovation: Basic science is a foundation for knowledge and discovery based on facts, hypotheses and replicable results. This painstaking endeavor enhances our understanding of the world around us, which may translate into breakthroughs that benefit humans and life on earth.
  • We support work that:
    • Gives researchers funding and time to test novel hypotheses.

Global Impact Cash Grants

Cisco welcomes applications for Global Impact Cash Grants from community partners around the world who share our vision and offer an innovative approach to a critical social challenge.

We identify, incubate, and develop innovative solutions with the most impact. Global Impact Cash Grants go to nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that address a significant social problem. We’re looking for programs that fit within our investment areas, serve the underserved, and leverage technology to improve the reach and efficiency of services. We accept applications year-round from eligible organizations. An initial information form is used to determine whether your organization will be invited to complete a full application.

Social Investment Areas

At Cisco, we make social investments in three areas where we believe our technology and our people can make the biggest impact—education, economic empowerment, and crisis response, the last of which incorporates shelter, water, food, and disaster relief. Together, these investment areas help people overcome barriers of poverty and inequality, and make a lasting difference by fostering strong global communities.

Education Investments

Our strategy is to inclusively invest in technology-based solutions that increase equitable access to education while improving student performance, engagement, and career exploration. We support K-12 solutions that emphasize science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as well as literacy. We also consider programs that teach environmental sustainability, eliminate barriers to accessing climate change education, and invite student engagement globally to positively affect the environment.

What we look for:

• Innovative early grade solutions using the internet and technology to bridge the barriers preventing access to education for underserved students globally.
• Solutions that positively affect student attendance, attitudes, and behavior while inspiring action by students to improve learning outcomes, whether they participate in person, online, or in blended learning environments. 
• Solutions with high potential to replicate and scale globally, thereby increasing the availability of evidence-based solutions that support student-centricity, teacher capacity in the classroom, and increased parental participation to help students learn and develop.

Economic Empowerment

Our strategy is to invest in early stage, tech-enabled solutions that provide equitable access to the knowledge, skills, and resources that people need to support themselves and their families toward resilience, independence, and economic security.

Our goal is to support solutions that benefit individuals and families, and that contribute to local community growth and economic development in a sustainable economy.

We target our support in three interconnected areas:

• Skills development to help job seekers secure dignified employment and long-term career pathways in technology or other sectors, including environmental sustainability/green jobs.
• Inclusive entrepreneurship with small businesses as engines of local growth as well as high growth potential start-ups as large-scale job creators nationally and internationally, in technology or other sectors, including environment sustainability/green businesses.
• Banking the unbanked through relevant and affordable financial products and capacity building services.

Cisco Crisis Response

We seek to help overcome the cycle of poverty and dependence and achieve a more sustainable future through strategic investments. We back organizations that successfully address critical needs of underserved communities, because those who have their basic needs met are better equipped to learn and thrive.

What we look for:

• Innovative solutions that increase the capacity of grantees to deliver their products and services more effectively and efficiently
• Design and implementation of web-based tools that increase the availability of, or improve access to, products and services that are necessary for people to survive and thrive
• Programs that increase access to clean water, food, shelter, or disaster relief and promote a more sustainable future for all
  • By policy, relief campaigns respond to significant natural disaster and humanitarian crises as opposed to those caused by human conflict. Also by policy, our investments in this area do not include healthcare solutions.

Climate Impact

Our strategy is to invest US$100 million in Cisco Foundation funds over the next decade to help reverse the impact of climate change, working toward a sustainable and regenerative future for all.

The commitment includes both grant and impact investment funding for early-stage climate innovation. Both categories of support will be focused on bold climate solutions, and the grants side will also concentrate on community education and activation. Grants will go to exceptionally aligned nonprofit organizations, while impact investments will go to highly promising for-profit solutions through the private sector and climate impact funds.

Funding comes from the Cisco Foundation and will focus on:

• Identifying bold and innovative solutions that:
  • Draw down the carbon already in the atmosphere
  • Regenerate depleted ecosystems and broadly support the transition to a regenerative future
• Developing curricular initiatives to spur community engagement that can lead to measurable behavioral change and collective action

We will prioritize organizations that can achieve, measure, and report outcomes such as:

• Reduction, capture, and/or sequestering of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions
• Increased energy efficiency and improved mapping and management of natural resources, such as ecosystem restoration, forest treatments, reforestation, and afforestation that also will help repair our water cycles
• Transition to inclusive, just, coliberatory, and regenerative operating models, ways of being, and ways of organizing economies
• Creation of, and increase in, access to green jobs and job training
• Changes in community and individual behavior that lead to carbon footprint reduction, community climate resilience, and localized roadmaps to a sustainable shared climate future for all

Mission

The mission of the Hearst Foundations is to identify and fund outstanding nonprofits to ensure that people of all backgrounds in the United States can build healthy, productive and satisfying lives. Through its grantmaking, the Hearst Foundations support well-established nonprofit organizations that address significant issues within their major areas of focus—culture, education, health and social service—and that primarily serve large demographic and/or geographic constituencies. In each area of funding, the Foundations seek to identify those organizations achieving truly differentiated results relative to other organizations making similar efforts for similar populations. The Foundations also look for evidence of sustainability beyond their support.

Whether providing a scholarship to a deserving student, supporting a rural health clinic or bringing artists into schools so children can see firsthand the beauty of the arts, the Foundations’ focus is consistent: to help those in need, those underserved and those underrepresented in society. Since the Foundations were formed in the 1940s, the scale and capabilities of the grant making have changed, but the mission has not.

Culture Grant

The Hearst Foundations fund cultural institutions that offer meaningful programs in the arts and sciences, prioritizing those that enable engagement by young people and create a lasting and measurable impact. The Foundations also fund select programs nurturing and developing artistic talent. Supported organizations include arts schools, ballets, museums, operas, performing arts centers, symphonies and theaters.

Funding Priorities in Culture

In the recent past, 25% of total funding has been allocated to Culture. Organizations with budgets over $10 million have received 60% of the funding in Culture.

The Hearst Foundations are only able to fund approximately 25% of all grant requests, of which about 80% is directed to prior grantees and about 20% is targeted toward new grantees.

Types of Support

Program, capital and, on a limited basis, general and endowment support

The Labcorp Charitable Foundation

We believe every person deserves equitable care and education.

In 2020 Labcorp established a private charitable 501(c)(3) foundation to advance our desire to bring quality healthcare access to all by supporting education and our local communities. 

Common grant opportunities include:

• Supporting food pantries and meal programs
• Providing healthcare and patient services for underserved populations
• Encouraging STEM programming
• Advocating for healthy lifestyles through ongoing medical research and screening

Mission Statement

The Pop Culture Collaborative is a philanthropic resource and funder learning community working to transform the narrative landscape in America around people of color, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and Indigenous peoples, especially those who are women, queer, transgender and/or disabled. The Collaborative achieves this through partnerships between the social justice sector and the entertainment, advertising, and media industries that help mass audiences understand the past, make sense of the present, and imagine the future of American society.

Since its public launch in Summer 2017, the Collaborative has worked with field and philanthropic partners to articulate a shared goal: to unleash the superpowers of pop culture to build widespread public yearning for a pluralist culture—that is, a nation in which most people are actively engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just society.

With this in mind, the Collaborative seeks to accelerate the pop culture for social change field’s ability to design and implement sophisticated, long-term culture change strategies at the pop culture level and to be a catalyst for the activation of transformative narrative systems—​coordinated systems of mental models, narrative archetypes, and immersive story experiences—​designed to normalize pluralist behaviors and values in America. 

In the long term, the Collaborative is working to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist society in which everyone is perceived to belong—inherently—and treated as such. 

Grantmaking

Pop Culture Collaborative grants are awarded to United States–based nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, and individuals (with fiscal sponsorship) working to drive transformative experiences for mass audiences (i.e., more than 1 million people) through pop culture stories, media, and social networks. These include initiatives focused on the development and distribution of content, design of audience engagement strategies, and the creation of immersive narrative environments through cultural, narrative, and behavioral change approaches.

As described in our vision statement, the Collaborative is working over the long-term to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist culture in which everyone is perceived to belong, inherently, and is treated as such.

The Collaborative defines “pluralist culture” as a culture in which the majority of people in a community or nation are actively engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just society. Our grantmaking approach reflects our belief that pop culture stories and experiences have a critical role to play in helping people discover, experiment with, and embody pluralist behaviors and norms.

The Pop Culture Collaborative Vision and Purpose

Throughout America’s history, the most transformative cultural shifts—from slavery abolition to Reconstruction, “I Have A Dream” to “Yes We Can,” #BlackLivesMatter, the DREAM-ers, and Love Is Love—have been achieved by movements and leaders who have awakened people’s deep yearning to belong in a pluralist America. In each case, the tug-of-war between belonging and exclusion sparked a portal moment—a cracking open of the public imagination about what this nation is capable of becoming.

We believe our nation is on the precipice of another historic breakthrough: a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the American people to decisively choose to move in the direction of pluralism and justice. How will we respond to this call for transformation? Will we submit to authoritarian narratives that entice us to retreat back into the systems of exclusion and violence that stain our past, or will we step boldly through the portal and onto the path towards our pluralist future?

Americans have the opportunity to ask: What society do we yearn to create and who can we empower to lead the way? If, as civil rights scholar Vincent Harding once said, America is “a country that has yet to be born,” the pop culture for social change field can help prepare and guide millions of people through this process of becoming something new by clearing away the detritus of our nation’s past, replacing fetid, crumbling ideas and norms with ones rooted in justice, care, and connection.

Together, artists, organizers, strategists, and researchers can create the stories that help the American public understand and interpret the choices we face through the lens of our shared commitment to becoming a pluralist nation.

Over the long-term, the Collaborative is working to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist society in which everyone is perceived to belong, inherently, and is treated as such. The Pop Culture Collaborative defines a pluralist society as a culture in which the majority of people in a community and nation are engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just and equitable society.

Major Grants

Major Grants can support new and/or established initiatives, organizations, or companies that are working to advance long-term narrative change goals and/or to build the pop culture for social change field.  Major Grants are approved twice a year, in the late Spring/Early Summer and in the late Fall.

The Pop Culture Collaborative funds in five priority grantmaking areas. All approved grants will fit into at least one of the five priority areas, but often fit across multiple areas.

Program Area 1: Artists Advancing Culture Change -

The Pop Culture Collaborative provides grants to artists and organizations or companies that support artist cohorts, from various disciplines, locations, and industries to bring their artistic vision to mass audiences, while also contributing to field-wide efforts to build public yearning for a pluralist America.

We seek to create a large, networked community of artists who believe that their creative work and leadership have the power to inspire millions of Americans to actively co-create a pluralist society.

Areas of interest include:

• Supporting artists and cultural organizations to conceptualize, develop, and produce creative works that can help build public yearning for pluralist culture in America.
• Supporting artists to gather for shared learning, networking, community-knitting, and power-building, especially spaces that bring artists into direct and meaningful connection with frontline activists and culture change strategists.
• Helping artists and organizations develop the methodology, networks, infrastructure, pipelines, and leadership skills needed to redistribute access and power in their respective industries to historically excluded communities. 

Program Area 2: Building the Pop Culture for Social Change Field -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports artists, activists, strategists, researchers, and other practitioners in the entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic fields to build a robust pop culture change field capable of achieving widespread narrative and cultural change at scale. Together, they can form narrative networks that have the knowledge, connections, skills, and infrastructure that can align and create transformative narrative environments in our society.

Areas of interest include: 

• Creating resources and/or infrastructure that support the design, testing, and/or activation of long-term pop culture strategies.
• Developing, testing, and strengthening partnerships among artists, the entertainment industry, and social justice movements via convenings, cohorts, campaigns, and/or programs.
• Designing, testing, and/or advancing narrative infrastructure (convenings, emergent technologies, community knitting spaces, and programs) that create access and long-term career sustainability for the next generation of pop culture–focused strategists, campaigners, and artists.

Program Area 3: Culture Change Research -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports grantees to unearth new data, develop analysis, and share insights with and among entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic sectors in order to inform content development, advance cultural strategies, and activate collaborations in the pop culture for social change field.

Areas of interest include:

• Audience Research. Research that helps the field understand who the people in key audiences are, what motivates their beliefs, (e.g., media, culture, family, economics), and how their beliefs compel and shape their behaviors.
• Industry Research. Research that delves into the ecosystem of a specific field of cultural production (e.g., television industry, music industry, or sports broadcasting industry) to inform and/or activate short- and long-term culture change strategies.
• Impact and Evaluation Research. Research that examines and analyzes past and current pop culture change experiments, campaigns, and/or partnerships; utilizes formal evaluation and longitudinal impact methodologies to understand impact; and/or leverages trend tracking and analysis to make sense of current narrative environments and cultural norms, or anticipate future patterns in pop culture content creation, consumption, and engagement.

Program Area 4: Movement-Led Pop Culture Narrative Strategies -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports social justice organizations and initiatives to design, coordinate, and activate long-term narrative change strategies at the pop culture (mass audience) level.

Areas of interest include:

• Design and implementation of multilayered culture change strategies, including content/story strategy design and audience experience design.
• Reimagining and testing new roles and relationships between the social justice and entertainment fields to advance the development of narratives, story creation, and audience activation opportunities.

Program Area 5: Innovations in Mass Audience Activation -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports initiatives, bold experiments, and exploration of emerging activation models to ensure that just, authentic narratives about historically marginalized communities are deeply integrated into our nation’s narrative landscape and strategically leveraged to build widespread public yearning for a just and pluralist America.

Areas of interest include:

• Design and implementation of audience activation campaigns (with intended audiences of at least 1 million people) focused on pop culture content.
• Experimentation with mass audience engagement strategies.
• Organizing and/or partnerships with pop culture fandoms.

Criteria

The Collaborative seeks grantee partners working at the intersection of pop culture and social change who:

• Are artists, activists, organizations, strategists, researchers, and/or others who identify culture change as a clear outcome of their work and pop culture strategies as a critical aspect of their culture change efforts.
• Demonstrate emerging or pathbreaking leadership around long-term narrative and culture change strategies in the arts, entertainment, digital, mass media, and/or social justice sectors.
• Prioritize authentic and equitable leadership and/or partnership from the communities most directly affected by the work.
• Have the ability to clearly define how their work fits into a long-term narrative change strategy and theory of culture change.

Funding

Grants allocations are informed by the request of the potential grantees, but made with the final recommendations of Collaborative staff, ranging from: 

• $20,000 to $100,000 for one year
• $100,000 to $200,000 over two years 

Mission Statement

The Pop Culture Collaborative is a philanthropic resource and funder learning community working to transform the narrative landscape in America around people of color, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and Indigenous peoples, especially those who are women, queer, transgender and/or disabled. The Collaborative achieves this through partnerships between the social justice sector and the entertainment, advertising, and media industries that help mass audiences understand the past, make sense of the present, and imagine the future of American society.

Since its public launch in Summer 2017, the Collaborative has worked with field and philanthropic partners to articulate a shared goal: to unleash the superpowers of pop culture to build widespread public yearning for a pluralist culture—that is, a nation in which most people are actively engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just society.

With this in mind, the Collaborative seeks to accelerate the pop culture for social change field’s ability to design and implement sophisticated, long-term culture change strategies at the pop culture level and to be a catalyst for the activation of transformative narrative systems—​coordinated systems of mental models, narrative archetypes, and immersive story experiences—​designed to normalize pluralist behaviors and values in America. 

In the long term, the Collaborative is working to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist society in which everyone is perceived to belong—inherently—and treated as such. 

Grantmaking

Pop Culture Collaborative grants are awarded to United States–based nonprofit organizations, for-profit companies, and individuals (with fiscal sponsorship) working to drive transformative experiences for mass audiences (i.e., more than 1 million people) through pop culture stories, media, and social networks. These include initiatives focused on the development and distribution of content, design of audience engagement strategies, and the creation of immersive narrative environments through cultural, narrative, and behavioral change approaches.

As described in our vision statement, the Collaborative is working over the long-term to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist culture in which everyone is perceived to belong, inherently, and is treated as such.

The Collaborative defines “pluralist culture” as a culture in which the majority of people in a community or nation are actively engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just society. Our grantmaking approach reflects our belief that pop culture stories and experiences have a critical role to play in helping people discover, experiment with, and embody pluralist behaviors and norms.

The Pop Culture Collaborative Vision and Purpose

Throughout America’s history, the most transformative cultural shifts—from slavery abolition to Reconstruction, “I Have A Dream” to “Yes We Can,” #BlackLivesMatter, the DREAM-ers, and Love Is Love—have been achieved by movements and leaders who have awakened people’s deep yearning to belong in a pluralist America. In each case, the tug-of-war between belonging and exclusion sparked a portal moment—a cracking open of the public imagination about what this nation is capable of becoming.

We believe our nation is on the precipice of another historic breakthrough: a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the American people to decisively choose to move in the direction of pluralism and justice. How will we respond to this call for transformation? Will we submit to authoritarian narratives that entice us to retreat back into the systems of exclusion and violence that stain our past, or will we step boldly through the portal and onto the path towards our pluralist future?

Americans have the opportunity to ask: What society do we yearn to create and who can we empower to lead the way? If, as civil rights scholar Vincent Harding once said, America is “a country that has yet to be born,” the pop culture for social change field can help prepare and guide millions of people through this process of becoming something new by clearing away the detritus of our nation’s past, replacing fetid, crumbling ideas and norms with ones rooted in justice, care, and connection.

Together, artists, organizers, strategists, and researchers can create the stories that help the American public understand and interpret the choices we face through the lens of our shared commitment to becoming a pluralist nation.

Over the long-term, the Collaborative is working to support the growth of a pop culture for social change field capable of building the yearning in most Americans (more than 150 million people) to actively co-create a just and pluralist society in which everyone is perceived to belong, inherently, and is treated as such. The Pop Culture Collaborative defines a pluralist society as a culture in which the majority of people in a community and nation are engaged in the hard and delicate work of belonging together in a just and equitable society.

Opportunity Grants

Opportunity Grants are for emergent initiatives, projects, and research; time-sensitive gatherings, retreats, or convenings; and/or critical experiments at the intersection of pop culture and social justice. Opportunity grants are not necessarily hooked to external timing, but based on the timing and needs of the artists, initiative, and/or organization.

Opportunity grants tend to be focused on project that are:

• New and/or in early stages of development.
  • Seed funding for early-stage projects include conducting research; implementing an experimental cultural strategy; developing field or narrative infrastructure or networks; and/or designing or testing a mass audience activation campaign. (For example, much of our artist-led pipeline projects such as new writers rooms models were seeded with Opportunity grants.)
• Convenings and gatherings.
  • One-time or a series of small group gatherings (in-person or virtual) that foster connections or strengthen relationships among stakeholders in specific sectors of the pop culture for social change field (e.g., cultural strategists, entertainment artists, social justice organizations, culture change researchers); or cross-sector convenings that bring stakeholders across sectors together to learn, forge bonds, and/or develop strategy.
  • Genius banks: in-person gatherings of experts in issues, sectors, communities, and/or genres that can help advance a big narrative idea, develop a specific cultural campaign, etc. For example, pop culture audience engagement campaigns often use genius banks for early partner gathering and brainstorming.

All approved Opportunity proposals will fall under at least one (and sometimes more) of the Pop Culture Collaborative five priority grantmaking program areas, including:

Program Area 1: Artists Advancing Culture Change -

The Pop Culture Collaborative provides grants to artists and organizations or companies that support artist cohorts, from various disciplines, locations, and industries to bring their artistic vision to mass audiences, while also contributing to field-wide efforts to build public yearning for a pluralist America.

We seek to create a large, networked community of artists who believe that their creative work and leadership have the power to inspire millions of Americans to actively co-create a pluralist society.

Areas of interest include:

• • Supporting artists and cultural organizations to conceptualize, develop, and produce creative works that can help build public yearning for pluralist culture in America.
  • Supporting artists to gather for shared learning, networking, community-knitting, and power-building, especially spaces that bring artists into direct and meaningful connection with frontline activists and culture change strategists.
  • Helping artists and organizations develop the methodology, networks, infrastructure, pipelines, and leadership skills needed to redistribute access and power in their respective industries to historically excluded communities.

Program Area 2: Building the Pop Culture for Social Change Field -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports artists, activists, strategists, researchers, and other practitioners in the entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic fields to build a robust pop culture change field capable of achieving widespread narrative and cultural change at scale. Together, they can form narrative networks that have the knowledge, connections, skills, and infrastructure that can align and create transformative narrative environments in our society.

Areas of interest include:

• • Creating resources and/or infrastructure that support the design, testing, and/or activation of long-term pop culture strategies.
  • Developing, testing, and strengthening partnerships among artists, the entertainment industry, and social justice movements via convenings, cohorts, campaigns, and/or programs.
  • Designing, testing, and/or advancing narrative infrastructure (convenings, emergent technologies, community knitting spaces, and programs) that create access and long-term career sustainability for the next generation of pop culture–focused strategists, campaigners, and artists.

Program Area 3: Culture Change Research -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports grantees to unearth new data, develop analysis, and share insights with and among entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic sectors in order to inform content development, advance cultural strategies, and activate collaborations in the pop culture for social change field.

Areas of interest include:

• Audience Research. Research that helps the field understand who the people in key audiences are, what motivates their beliefs, (e.g., media, culture, family, economics), and how their beliefs compel and shape their behaviors.
• Industry Research. Research that delves into the ecosystem of a specific field of cultural production (e.g., television industry, music industry, or sports broadcasting industry) to inform and/or activate short- and long-term culture change strategies.
• Impact and Evaluation Research. Research that examines and analyzes past and current pop culture change experiments, campaigns, and/or partnerships; utilizes formal evaluation and longitudinal impact methodologies to understand impact; and/or leverages trend tracking and analysis to make sense of current narrative environments and cultural norms, or anticipate future patterns in pop culture content creation, consumption, and engagement.

Program Area 4: Movement-Led Pop Culture Narrative Strategies -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports social justice organizations and initiatives to design, coordinate, and activate long-term narrative change strategies at the pop culture (mass audience) level.

Areas of interest include:

• Design and implementation of multilayered culture change strategies, including content/story strategy design and audience experience design.
• Reimagining and testing new roles and relationships between the social justice and entertainment fields to advance the development of narratives, story creation, and audience activation opportunities.

Program Area 5: Innovations in Mass Audience Activation -

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports initiatives, bold experiments, and exploration of emerging activation models to ensure that just, authentic narratives about historically marginalized communities are deeply integrated into our nation’s narrative landscape and strategically leveraged to build widespread public yearning for a just and pluralist America.

Areas of interest include:

• Design and implementation of audience activation campaigns (with intended audiences of at least 1 million people) focused on pop culture content.
• Experimentation with mass audience audience engagement strategies.
• Organizing and/or partnerships with pop culture fandoms.

Criteria

The Collaborative seeks grantee partners working at the intersection of pop culture and social change who:

• Are artists, activists, organizations, strategists, researchers, and/or others who identify culture change as a clear outcome of their work and pop culture strategies as a critical aspect of their culture change efforts.
• Demonstrate emerging or pathbreaking leadership around long-term narrative and culture change strategies in the arts, entertainment, digital, mass media, and/or social justice sectors.
• Prioritize authentic and equitable leadership and/or partnership from the communities most directly affected by the work.
• Have the ability to clearly define how their work fits into a long-term narrative change strategy and theory of culture change.

Funding

Opportunity grants can be awarded for up to $50,000. Proposals (considered only upon request) are approved year-round on a rolling basis and should be completed within four to 12 months. Opportunity grants can cover the total cost of a gathering or be applied to the budget of gatherings that cost more than $50,000.

Rapid Response grants-

support projects that respond to and/or quickly anticipate an acute and timely political or cultural moment. Rapid response grants can be requested and are approved year-round. Rapid Response grants are made for $50,000 and below. Proposals (upon request) are approved year-round on a rolling basis and projects should be completed within four to 12 months.

Focus Areas

To be considered, proposals must engage, affect, center, and/or support at least one or all of our multi-community focus areas:

• people of color,
• immigrants, refugees,
• Iindigenous peoples, and/or
• Muslims, particularly those who are women, queer, transgender, and/or disabled.

Initiatives with an intersectional and intentional focus on gender justice, LGBTQIA rights, disability, democratic fairness, pluralist values, and economic justice are highly prioritized.

Rapid Response Grants are intended for cultural organizing efforts, pop culture campaigns or other activations, gatherings/convenings, cultural research, narrative strategy design, and/or implementation that directly anticipates and/or responds to an acute and time-sensitive political and/or cultural moment.

Examples include:

• creative storytelling projects coupled with large-scale public spectacles (for instance, flash mobs, art installations on the National Mall, or red carpet takeovers),
• cultural organizing, public campaigns, gatherings/convenings, time-sensitive research, and
• narrative strategy design and/or implementation.

The Collaborative prioritizes rapid response grants that:

Are time-sensitive

Proposed initiatives must be formed in response to recent and unanticipated or fast-approaching acute political, news or cultural moments. We expect applicants to describe how the timing of their initiative is urgent and pertinent to the coming months, given the acute challenge they are responding to.

Examples of time hooks include the introduction of the Muslim travel ban, the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the premiere of a particularly relevant television show, or a major awards telecast. Rapid response grants are not intended for initiatives that are in need of a quick funding infusion based on an internal project timeline.

Focus on narrative

Rapid response grants must intend to disrupt dangerous and/or advance authentic narratives about the Collaborative’s focus areas—people of color, immigrants, refugees, Indigenous peoples, and/or Muslims, often with an intersectional focus on gender justice, LGBTQIA rights, disability, democratic fairness, pluralist values, and economic justice.

Intend to reach mass audiences

Coupled with a rapid response hook, a grantee project should intend to move narratives that reach and engage mass media audiences (1 million+ people) or empower or guide those with the power to do so. While not all projects reach the million-people goal, all strategies must have an audience strategy that shows how the final outcomes could result in stories and/or audience experience that would reach audiences of this size.

Priority Areas

All approved Rapid Response proposals will fall under at least one (and sometimes more) of the Pop Culture Collaborative five priority grantmaking program areas, including:

Program Area 1: Artists Advancing Culture Change

The Pop Culture Collaborative provides grants to artists and organizations or companies that support artist cohorts, from various disciplines, locations, and industries to bring their artistic vision to mass audiences, while also contributing to field-wide efforts to build public yearning for a pluralist America.

We seek to create a large, networked community of artists who believe that their creative work and leadership have the power to inspire millions of Americans to actively co-create a pluralist society.

• Supporting artists and cultural organizations to conceptualize, develop, and produce creative works that can help build public yearning for pluralist culture in America.
• Supporting artists to gather for shared learning, networking, community-knitting, and power-building, especially spaces that bring artists into direct and meaningful connection with frontline activists and culture change strategists.
• Helping artists and organizations develop the methodology, networks, infrastructure, pipelines, and leadership skills needed to redistribute access and power in their respective industries to historically excluded communities.

Program Area 2: Building The Pop Culture For Social Change Field

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports artists, activists, strategists, researchers, and other practitioners in the entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic fields to build a robust pop culture change field capable of achieving widespread narrative and cultural change at scale. Together, they can form narrative networks that have the knowledge, connections, skills, and infrastructure that can align and create transformative narrative environments in our society.

• Creating resources and/or infrastructure that support the design, testing, and/or activation of long-term pop culture strategies.
• Developing, testing, and strengthening partnerships among artists, the entertainment industry, and social justice movements via convenings, cohorts, campaigns, and/or programs.
• Designing, testing, and/or advancing narrative infrastructure (convenings, emergent technologies, community knitting spaces, and programs) that create access and long-term career sustainability for the next generation of pop culture–focused strategists, campaigners, and artists.

Program Area 3: Culture Change Research

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports grantees to unearth new data, develop analysis, and share insights with and among entertainment, social justice, and philanthropic sectors in order to inform content development, advance cultural strategies, and activate collaborations in the pop culture for social change field.

• Audience Research. Research that helps the field understand who the people in key audiences are, what motivates their beliefs, (e.g., media, culture, family, economics), and how their beliefs compel and shape their behaviors.
• Industry Research. Research that delves into the ecosystem of a specific field of cultural production (e.g., television industry, music industry, or sports broadcasting industry) to inform and/or activate short- and long-term culture change strategies.
• Impact and Evaluation Research. Research that examines and analyzes past and current pop culture change experiments, campaigns, and/or partnerships; utilizes formal evaluation and longitudinal impact methodologies to understand impact; and/or leverages trend tracking and analysis to make sense of current narrative environments and cultural norms, or anticipate future patterns in pop culture content creation, consumption, and engagement.

Program Area 4: Movement-led Pop Culture Narrative Strategies

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports social justice organizations and initiatives to design, coordinate, and activate long-term narrative change strategies at the pop culture (mass audience) level.

• Design and implementation of multilayered culture change strategies, including content/story strategy design and audience experience design.
• Reimagining and testing new roles and relationships between the social justice and entertainment fields to advance the development of narratives, story creation, and audience activation opportunities.

Program Area 5: Innovations In Mass Audience Activation

The Pop Culture Collaborative supports initiatives, bold experiments, and exploration of emerging activation models to ensure that just, authentic narratives about historically marginalized communities are deeply integrated into our nation’s narrative landscape and strategically leveraged to build widespread public yearning for a just and pluralist America.

• Design and implementation of audience activation campaigns (with intended audiences of at least 1 million people) focused on pop culture content.
• Experimentation with mass audience audience engagement strategies.
• Organizing and/or partnerships with pop culture fandoms.

Types Of Projects That We Fund

We support our grantee partners in implementing various independent revenue-generation projects. From optimizing online donation forms to selling climate justice walking tours on AirB&B Experiences to embedding peer-to-peer fundraising in relational organizing, our partners are experimenting with endless ways to grow their revenue.

Our Program Areas

REALIZING DEMOCRACY

We support work that creates informed and engaged communities, sparking civic participation and empowering them to hold companies and lawmakers accountable for the fair and equitable treatment of all people and communities.

ACHIEVING JUSTICE

We support work that addresses the barriers to equality that people face because of who they are, what they believe, a condition they have, something they have done or are trying to do, or a role they have (i.e gender justice, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, religious freedom, HIV/AIDS, immigration rights, economic justice, parental rights, education, incarceration, etc)

RESTORING THE ENVIRONMENT

We support work that protects and restores our earth and addresses the right that all people have to a clean and healthy environment.

Mission

Driven by a philanthropic calling to support marginalized communities throughout the world, the Semnani Family Foundation partners with on-the-ground organizations and leverages its resources in a cost-effective and efficient manner that delivers the maximum benefit.

History

Guided by his grandmother Maliheh’s example and teachings, Khosrow Semnani and his wife Ghazaleh established the Semnani Family Foundation in 1993. The foundation’s first grant was issued through CARE International to an orphanage in Romania that cared for newborns affected by HIV. Over the last few decades, the foundation has continued to build upon its mission to empower the disaffected, partnering with a variety of organizations in different countries who can make the greatest impact.

In addition to its global influence, the Semnani Family Foundation established roots within the state of Utah with the founding of Maliheh Free Clinic in 2005 to provide free healthcare to thousands of uninsured people in the Salt Lake City area.

Where We Work

The Semnani Family Foundation focuses primarily on promoting health, education, and disaster relief for marginalized communities all around the world. Driven by a clear mission to adapt and serve at the global level, we have leveraged our resources to make a meaningful impact in the following countries so far:

• Afghanistan
• Bosnia
• Colombia
• England
• Ethiopia
• Ghana
• Guatemala
• India
• Iran
• Kenya
• Madagascar
• Mali
• Mexico
• Pakistan
• Philippines
• Romania
• Somalia
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Tonga
• Uganda
• United States
• Yemen

At the heart of the Foundation lies a fervent commitment to human welfare, always prioritizing health and the needs of society’s most vulnerable.

The Sidney Stern Memorial Trust is devoted solely to the funding of charitable, scientific, medical and educational organizations.

The Board endeavors to support soundly-managed charitable organizations that give service with a broad scope, have a substantial effect on their target populations, and contribute materially to the general welfare. The Board does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation or religion.

The Impact Fund awards recoverable grants to legal services nonprofits, private attorneys, and small law firms who seek to confront economic, environmental, racial, and social injustice. Since our founding in 1992, the Impact Fund has made more than 800 recoverable grants totaling more than $10 million for impact litigation. We award grants four times per year, most within the range of US$10,000 to US$50,000.

Social Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants and legal support to assist in human and civil rights cases. We have helped to change dozens of laws and win cases to improve the rights of thousands. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Texas and North Carolina, incarcerated people with mental health disabilities are forced to remain in jail despite being found not guilty and unable to proceed with a criminal trial.
• In Orange County, California there are currently 13 gang injunctions under effect, which disproportionately affect young men of color.
• In Chicago, Illinois, the city’s homeless shelter program is inaccessible to people with disabilities.
• In Springfield, Oregon, the city and its police department used excessive force against Black Lives Matter protesters.
• In West Virginia, the state fails to protect children in foster care from abuse and neglect. 
• In Montana, voter suppression laws disadvantage young adults and give priority to gun owners.
• In Gary, Indiana, a gun manufacturer negligently marketed and distributed its guns, leading to an epidemic of gun violence in the city. 
• In Vancouver, British Columbia, the police perpetuate systemic discrimination against Indigenous people through bureaucratic measures.

Environmental Justice

The Impact Fund provides grants to support local litigation for environmental justice. These grants are for cases aiming to help people or communities who are affected by environmental harm or who lack access to basic environmental needs, such as clean water, clean air, adequate waste treatment, and green spaces. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Centreville, Illinois, the city’s failure to maintain its sewer system has caused raw sewage to flood peoples’ homes, endangering the property and health of a predominantly Black community.
• In Fresno County, California, the California Department of Transportation approved a highway expansion project that would increase air pollution and traffic in one of the state’s most environmentally burdened communities.
• In downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the proposed expansion of a highway would divide the region's Black, Asian, and Latine neighborhoods and cause pollution and ill health.
• In North Dakota, the five-month closure of a highway in response to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests disproportionately affected the livelihoods and health of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members.
• In Ontario, Canada, mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon river system causes catastrophic environmental and health impacts for the Grassy Narrows First Nation.
• In Sacramento, California, the county government and Sacramento Area Sewer District violated the Clean Water Act by discharging raw sewage into nearby rivers.
• In the Eastern Coachella Valley in California, 1,900 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park suffer from arsenic-laced drinking water, wastewater contamination, and overcharging for utilities.

Economic Justice

The Impact Fund provides financial and other forms of support to cases fighting for economic justice. From workers' rights to consumer protection for vulnerable populations, impact litigation is a powerful tool to hold corporationss and the government accountable. The cases we are funding allege that:

• In Brooklyn, New York, a prominent mortgage lender engaged in predatory practices, leaving homeowners of color at risk of losing their homes. 
• In Washington, live-in caregivers are unconstitutionally excluded from the state’s wage-and-hour protections.
• In Ravalli County, Montana, the county has created a “modern-day debtors’ prison” by incarcerating people unable to afford pre-trial fees. 
• In San Diego, California, vehicle ordinances target unhoused vehicle owners even when no adequate housing alternative exists.
• In New York, a federal immigration detention facility is violating minimum wage and forced labor laws by forcing detainees to work for just a dollar a day. 
• In Minneapolis, Minnesota, the city and county destroy the property of unhoused individuals and conduct forced evictions from public spaces. 
• In Miami, Florida, insurance companies discriminate against a nonprofit community development corporation renting to tenants with Section 8 rental subsidies.

Calling to Serve

Since its inception in 2016, the Robinson Foundation has sought to demonstrate God’s love through sharing the gifts we have received. We understand the often unspoken hardships and struggles that people in and outside of our community face everyday. As such, our contributions are focused on relieving these hardships for the betterment of our world.

As a family-operated foundation, we pray that our small efforts will not only create immediate change in the lives of our neighbors, but will help set those lives on a course for success in the future. We are thankful for each and every day we have on this earth to use what God has granted us to make a difference.

Areas of Interest

• Animal Welfare
• Children & Families
• Disaster Relief
• Education
• Medical Assistance
• Nature & Wildlife Conservation
• Poverty Relief
• Religious & Spiritual Endeavors
• Veterans' Issues

Grant Considerations

We take many different aspects of applications into account when making grant issuing decisions, however these are some of the high-level questions we ask ourselves during the process:

• How does the organization serve their key audience goals?
• Is the organization fiscally responsible?
• Will a grant have a tangible, meaningful impact?
• Will we see direct results from this grant?
• Does the organization have other financial contributors?

Phil and Roberta Kirschner were generous philanthropists in the Muskogee area throughout their lives. They were particularly interested in supporting young people with disabilities, Muskogee nonprofits and Jewish causes.

When Phil passed in 1985, five trusts were established to continue the Kirschners’ charitable work. Their daughter, Miriam Freedman, administered the trusts after the loss of Roberta in 1985. She transferred the Kirschner Trusts to the Oklahoma City Community Foundation in 2013. These trusts continue to award grants to organizations important to the family.

Empowering Local Partners for Sustainable Impact

We're on a mission to scale our impact by sharing our deep knowledge and operational expertise with local nonprofit leaders and partners. By increasing the effectiveness of local nonprofit organizations with deep roots in at-risk communities, we’re building on what’s already working and delivering effective solutions at a greater scale to help more families return home.

How Our Share Program Works

In the wake of disasters, SBP’s SHARE Program fills critical capacity gaps in communities by providing local nonprofits with tailored funding, training, and capacity-strengthening initiatives to meet recovery needs. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, we empower local and national nonprofit partners to lead local recovery efforts with the specific tools, resources, and knowledge they need most. Through technical assistance, funding, specialized support for flood recovery, and training, our SHARE program equips partners to navigate challenges and support their communities to rebuild and recover.

National Long-Term Recovery Grant

The SHARE Program, SBP’s in-house foundation, awards grants to qualifying nonprofit partners to address the unmet housing needs of under-resourced neighbors and communities. In addition to funding, the SHARE Program offers grantees technical training and consulting services on a variety of topics, including how to implement the Toyota Production System, how to develop effective and efficient processes for volunteer management, case management, construction and contractor selection, and more. Additionally, the SHARE Program awards AmeriCorps member “slots” to qualifying organizations to help build capacity, launch new programs or support existing efforts.

Grant details:

SBP is offering eligible nonprofit organizations the opportunity to apply for grant funds to support impacted individuals impacted by a presidentially declared disaster in the last 4 years. These funds will support repairs for homeowners who reside in a FEMA Individual Assistance declared county and were impacted by the disaster event. Grantees will also assist impacted individuals in receiving the maximum eligible awards from FEMA, the Small Business Administration, and their insurance companies.

Grant funds may only be used to assist individuals at or below 120% of their respective Area Median Income. Please refer to the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s annual income limits for your specific county to ensure individuals meet this metric. In addition, these funds can go to either of the following:

• Homes being built or repaired with the intention of selling to renters whose unit was impacted and were deemed uninhabitable.
• Homeowners whose primary and only residence was impacted by the disaster event

On average the award will allow for $14,000 per home, with most organizations receiving funding to complete 4 to 6 repairs. Qualifying homes include owner-occupied properties, and first-time homes purchased after the rental unit was damaged and deemed uninhabitable.

Rebuild Guidelines:

This grant allows for an average of $14,000 of SBP funds per home, with a maximum allowance of $20,000 per home. The expectation is that SBP grant funds will be leveraged with other funding sources.

Costs associated with elevation certificates for homes in the floodplain are to be included in the allowance.

• All work done by contractors must comply with the state’s licensing requirements.
• All repairs will include resilient building modifications as appropriate and cost-effective
• All homes that receive repairs inside of the floodplain must carry flood insurance.
• Applicants can include up to 10% towards admin/project management costs.

Empowering Local Partners for Sustainable Impact

We're on a mission to scale our impact by sharing our deep knowledge and operational expertise with local nonprofit leaders and partners. By increasing the effectiveness of local nonprofit organizations with deep roots in at-risk communities, we’re building on what’s already working and delivering effective solutions at a greater scale to help more families return home.

How Our Share Program Works

In the wake of disasters, SBP’s SHARE Program fills critical capacity gaps in communities by providing local nonprofits with tailored funding, training, and capacity-strengthening initiatives to meet recovery needs. Through strategic partnerships with industry leaders, we empower local and national nonprofit partners to lead local recovery efforts with the specific tools, resources, and knowledge they need most. Through technical assistance, funding, specialized support for flood recovery, and training, our SHARE program equips partners to navigate challenges and support their communities to rebuild and recover.

Preparedness and Resilience Micro Grant

SBP exists to shrink the time between disaster and recovery. We believe a prompt, efficient, and predictable recovery fortifies survivors against reaching their breaking point. SBP is committed to sharing resources and best practices developed over the past 16 years with other nonprofits and community-based organizations. To learn more about SBP, please visit SBPUSA.ORG.

SHARE Program Overview:

The SHARE Program, SBP’s in-house foundation, awards grants to qualifying nonprofit partners to address the unmet housing needs of under-resourced neighbors and communities. In addition to funding, the SHARE Program offers grantees technical training and consulting services on a variety of topics, including how to implement the Toyota Production System, how to develop effective and efficient processes for volunteer management, case management, construction and contractor selection, and more.

Grant details:

SBP is offering eligible nonprofit organizations the opportunity to apply for grant funds to support individuals in areas at high risk for extreme weather or climate change impacts. This may include households that may experience flooding, wildfires, hurricanes, tornados, storm surge, or high tide flooding due to sea level rise. Resilience and preparedness measures to support these at-risk households can be supported by this grant in various capacities including:

Minor fortification of the home such as wind resistant windows and doors, flood vents (gates), removal of vegetation or trees that pose risk, elevation certificates, or acquiring a year of flood/wildfire insurance

• This would need to be matched with additional outside funds

Wider community preparedness and disaster response efforts such as preparedness and emergency kits or training events.

• Translation services in order to provide content to all program participants
• Home Mailer campaign to get the word out about preparedness /response resources
• Purchase and distribution of window unit or standalone air conditioners
• Generators
• Space heaters
• Rain Collection systems for non-potable water
• The aforementioned ideas are not inclusive of all purposes of this grant, however, are meant to provide a general understanding of the types of activities this funding may be used for.

Grant funds may only be used to assist individuals at or below 120% of their respective Area Median Income. Please refer to the Department of Housing & Urban Development’s annual income limits for your specific county to ensure individuals meet this metric. In addition these funds can go to either of the following:

• Homes being built or repaired with the intention of selling to renters
• Homeowners whose primary and only residence

While this grant is open to all organizations who meet the above criteria, priority will be given to groups providing social services to immigrant, migrant, refugee, indigenous, and communities of color to apply.

On average awards will be at or around $5,000 to impact a minimum of 2 households for repairs, or 15- 25 households for community programming. 

About the Fred Morgan Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact

The Fred Morgan Kirby Prize for Scaling Social Impact is an annual global prize of USD $150,000 in unrestricted funds that amplifies and accelerates the work of an enterprise working to scale its impact on social or environmental problems around the world.

The Kirby Prize recognizes enterprises pursuing strategic pathways to impact at scale, who are close to the challenges at hand, who center the voice and experience of the populations they serve, who have demonstrated traction, and who embody courageous and collaborative leadership. This prize is open to any legal form, geographic location, and any social or environmental impact area. 

Welcoming Immigrants at America’s Public Libraries

Library Innovation Lab provides an intensive professional development experience for public library professionals who want to better meet the lifelong learning needs of immigrant communities through innovative cultural programs. Each year, ten librarians participate in the cohort learning program. Meetings are conducted virtually.

Over the course of one year, with support from experienced mentors and peers, the cohort learns more about the immigrants in their communities. They design new events to engage these communities through public humanities programs while gaining skills in project management, collaborative program design, and sustainable community partnerships.

Each cohort member’s library receives a grant of up to $6,000 to support program costs.

Hillman Emergent Innovation Program

The Hillman Emergent Innovation (HEI) program provides grants to accelerate the development of bold, nursing-driven interventions that improve the health and healthcare of marginalized populations. ​​These populations include Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), the economically disadvantaged, LGBTQ+ people, people experiencing homelessness, rural populations, immigrant and refugee populations and other groups that encounter obstacles to accessing quality healthcare services.The HEI program seeks proposals for innovative, early stage nursing-driven interventions that:

• Challenge conventional strategies for delivering and improving care to marginalized populations in the United States
• Demonstrate potential as a best-in-class intervention
• Narrow gaps in health equity
• Show potential for scalability

Supporting Historic Sacred Places

A program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Fund for Sacred Places provides financial and technical support for community-serving historic houses of worship across America.

What We Offer

The National Fund for Sacred Places provides matching grants of $50,000 to $250,000 to congregations undertaking significant capital projects at historic houses of worship, along with wraparound services including training, technical assistance, and planning support.

What We’re Looking For

The National Fund for Sacred Places assesses applicant eligibility according to the core criteria shown below, while also striving to build a diverse participant pool that reflects a broad range of geographic, cultural, and religious identities.

Historic, Cultural, or Architectural Significance

We are looking for buildings that have historic, cultural, or architectural significance—and sites that have important and relevant stories to tell. Many of our participants are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the state register, or the local register. Your building does not have to be on one of these lists, but eligibility for one or more of these lists is a good benchmark for National Fund eligibility.

As part of the National Trust’s commitment to telling the full American story, we particularly encourage congregations to apply that illuminate a unique or overlooked aspect of American history and that expand our understanding of our shared national heritage. We encourage submissions related to historic sacred places of importance to historically and contemporaneously underrepresented communities including, but not limited to, women, immigrants, Asian Americans, Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and LGBTQIA communities.

Successful applicants are able to demonstrate their place in history by answering questions such as:

• Does the building tell a story relevant to our history—either cultural or religious?
• Does the history highlight previously underrecognized communities, stories, or locations?
• How has the building served the community over time? Does the building have a great physical presence in its community due to its location or programming?
• Is the building the work of a notable architect? If so, is it a high-quality example of their body of work?
• Is the building an exceptional example of its architectural style or building technology?
• Does the building embody the congregation’s resilience over time?

Community-Serving Congregations

We are looking for congregations that are engaged in their communities and that are serving others. Engaged congregations operate and host programming that serves vulnerable, at-risk, and diverse populations; share space with non-affiliated groups and organizations (often at subsidized rates); work with other congregations, faith-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and/or municipalities; and have a widespread reputation for being a welcoming center of community life.

Project Scope and Need

We fund historic preservation projects addressing urgent repair needs and/or life safety. We also fund projects that increase congregations’ ability to open their buildings to new populations or to serve greater numbers of people. All projects must adhere to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, which is a universally accepted framework for doing work to older and historic properties.

We prioritize congregations/projects where there is a demonstrated need (meaning that the congregation cannot raise the funds alone) or where it is clear that our grant will have a catalytic effect (meaning that our grant is likely to lead to additional monies being contributed to the project).

Readiness

Once-in-a-generation capital projects require a great deal of planning. We are looking for applicants that understand their buildings’ needs and that are ready to undertake a capital campaign. National Fund congregations typically have a history of successful capital campaigns, which demonstrate an ability to raise significant funds and complete a project.

Successful congregations come to us with a realistic fundraising goal, which has been generated with the help of qualified preservation professionals and is not too far beyond the congregation’s fundraising capacity.

Healthy Congregations

The National Fund prioritizes healthy, stable congregations so that our investment is truly impactful and lasting. We look for the following, although this is not an exhaustive list of characteristics that indicate healthy congregations: tenured, well-respected clergy; capable lay leadership; stable or growing membership; financial strength and stability; support of the judicatory or governing body, if applicable; and a history of weathering any congregational conflict or trauma with resilience.

Who We Are

Mosaic is a national funder and field catalyst that boosts the collective power of climate, conservation, and environmental health and justice movements in the United States to achieve durable, population-scale wins. A participatory grantmaker governed by a Leadership Council of grassroots, nonprofit, and philanthropy movement leaders, Mosaic supports the connectivity and shared tools — also known as movement infrastructure — advocates and activists need to build and exercise power across demographics, geographies, and issue silos.

Building Bridges

As we enter into a new federal administration, networks, organizations, and leaders are aligning around effective offensive and defensive strategies to protect gains and continue making progress at the state and local level while expanding and strengthening their long-term power base. Our movement landscape analysis and community feedback highlight the need for movement infrastructure to build bridges that create more powerful coalitions, strengthen narrative capacity to build influence,  break down silos, and more directly enroll the movement in defending democracy. Mosaic’s grant cycle will expand on our previous grantmaking to support this work.

Specifically, we will support projects that build bridges within and across environmental movements, and between environmental and other aligned constituencies and movements, and also address one or more of the following sub-focus areas:

• Building narrative power:
  • Strengthening communications, storytelling and public understanding around climate and environmental justice.
  • Developing and deploying shared narrative resources and strategic communications to widen the environmental movement tent and catalyze action.
  • Examples include:
    • Narrative training programs that amplify underrepresented voices and counter misinformation.
    • Strategic communications campaigns highlighting benefits of green investments, such as job creation in economically marginalized communities.
    • Projects that cultivate and distribute shared narratives that instill agency and activate individuals, or that deploy these collective narrative strategies at scale to translate ideas into action and impact.
• Leveraging the environmental movement to defend democracy:
  • Protecting democratic processes, institutions, and leaders essential to movement success.
  • Building diverse constituencies and shared resources to protect democratic institutions, processes, and leaders essential to the success of our movements.
  • A diverse, pluralistic environmental movement can be an anchor for a powerful civil society as we face unprecedented threats to democratic institutions and practices that simultaneously threaten the health and safety of our communities and our planet.
  • Examples include:
    • Collaborative efforts between climate organizations and democracy-focused groups to safeguard democratic structures, such as federal agencies or public participation processes.
    • Bipartisan initiatives to counter industry capture and ensure equitable representation in energy planning.
    • Coalitions working to protect public participation processes and protect or create spaces for civic participation.
• Breaking down silos:
  • Within climate, conservation, and environmental health and justice movements or across issues.
  • Fostering coordination within environmental, climate, environmental health and justice movements or between environmental and other movements (e.g., labor, immigration).
  • Examples include:
    • Bridging divides between large, national environmental organizations and community-based groups to develop an aligned state or local-level strategy.
    • Building cross-sector partnerships to implement and defend IRA investments.

Objectives

Building on our previous grantmaking, the movement infrastructure these grants support will bolster groups’ ability to achieve their near- and long-term objectives, both offensive and defensive:

• Offense:
  • Seizing state and local opportunities to drive policy change, implement federal policies like the IRA and IIJA, and protect gains while building long-term power across diverse coalitions.
• Defense:
  • Safeguarding progress from the past several years, including defending federal climate investments like the IRA and IIJA, and addressing emerging threats through broad coalitions.

Funding Tracks

Mosaic is inviting applications between $50,000-$300,000 in the following tracks:

• Seed (Single-year | $50K–150K): 
  • Piloting new and innovative movement infrastructure projects with startup funding. Focus on testing new ideas, piloting innovative efforts, and laying the groundwork for future impact.
• Cultivate (Single or Multi-year | $200K–300K total): 
  • Supporting and cultivating the capacity of existing collaborative movement infrastructure efforts to sustain their work or achieve a new level of scale and impact. Helps organizations strengthen capacity, scale, and deepen impact.
• Harvest (Single-year | up to $150K–250K):
  • Actualizing existing movement infrastructure near a specific tipping point (big win, victory, outcome, etc.) with targeted last-mile resources. Ensures organizations have what they need to leverage a major opportunity or fully realize an outcome.

These tiers provide general guidelines, but we recognize that movement infrastructure projects are dynamic. If your project does not fit neatly into one category, we encourage you to apply under the tier that best matches your needs and impact goals. We are open to discussing flexible approaches.

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

American Cancer Society

The mission of the American Cancer Society is to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families through advocacy, research, and patient support, to ensure everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer.

Background

Societal conditions where people are born, grow up, live, work, worship, and age, have a profound effect on their health, access to cancer care, and ability to act on health care recommendations.

Addressing the root causes of cancer health disparities in the context of these social and structural drivers of health is essential to accelerate progress in equitable cancer prevention and care research.

Health outcomes are impacted by intersecting factors of wealth, discrimination, education, employment, geography, language, neighborhood, health systems, insurance coverage, and access to care. For equitable access to high-quality cancer care and the most effective ways to achieve optimal outcomes, there is a critical need for research that understands the context surrounding these health disparities, proposes and tests tangible solutions, and values community input.

Scientific Scope

Successful applications will propose well-designed research projects poised to make an impact on their local community within the framework of a coordinated center approach that’s focused on demonstrated health inequities. Projects may span the cancer continuum and include health promotion, cancer prevention, screening, treatment, access to care, care delivery, and/or survivorship.

Community engagement is vital for successful implementation and should be central to the development of the CHERC. The description of the CHERC should clearly present the center’s overall scientific agenda, magnitude of the health inequity(ies) being addressed, thematic connections across presented research, and how the CHERC achieves more as a unit, than as independently conducted projects.

There are many examples of health inequities affecting the population in the United States. ACS has identified the following priority areas (additional topics may be considered with appropriate justification by the applicant):

• Rural Communities/Access to Health
• Early Onset Cancers    
• Racial/Ethnic Disparities - American Indian/Alaskan Native, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
• Immigrant Populations 
• Sexual/Gender Minorities
• Age-specific Needs (pediatrics, adolescents/young adults, older adults)
• Environmental Justice (radon, climate change)
• Physical and Mental Disabilities

This RFA is a call for solution-based research addressing cancer health disparities that will enable fair and just opportunities to prevent, detect, and survive cancer for everyone. Due to the complexities associated with the social and structural drivers of health that are responsible for cancer inequalities, we encourage multilevel models and research that address these interrelated factors. Applicants should demonstrate their ability to reach populations of interest and describe how the proposed methodologies will produce meaningful results.

In support of its overall mission, the CHERC should establish a Supportive Core that is managed and coordinated by the Principal Investigator (PI). The Supportive Core should include operational and scientific activities designed to develop, promote, and enhance the scientific agenda of the CHERC, creating an optimal environment to address health equity research. Acceptable activities may include developing commonly used methods and tools, sharing resources, collaborations, facilitating relevant mentoring and training, pilot projects, community engagement, and disseminating research findings. Proposed evaluation metrics to monitor the progress and successes of the Core should be included in the application. 

Project Budget and Subaward Mechanism(s)

These awards support a total budget of $4.07M ($3.7M direct costs plus 10% indirect costs) for a 4-year project period that includes research subawards and CHERC Supportive Core activities. The PI may propose any combination of subawards and Core costs as long as they do not exceed specified budget limits. There is no designated budget cap for the CHERC Supportive Core, but all activities must be included in the budget justification.

Research subawards include the following ACS research grant mechanisms:

• Clinician Scientist Development Grants (CSDGs) provide support for protected time to allow faculty who are involved with patient care to develop as independent clinician scientists through mentoring and research training. Applicants cannot have an independent research program or R-level funding at the time of application. CSDG applicants can propose 3- or 4-year projects, at $135,000 direct costs per year. If this subaward is at a secondary institution, 8% indirect costs per year may be claimed by the secondary institution.
• Research Scholar Grants (RSGs) provide support to independent, self-directed researchers for 4 years at $215,000 per year direct costs. To be eligible, subaward PIs must have a full-time faculty position and a doctoral degree. If this subaward is at a secondary institution, 10% indirect costs may be claimed by the secondary institution. For this RFA, faculty may have any rank. The research must be multi-level and involve 2 or more social determinants of health.

What We Fund

We fund grassroots trans-led groups organizing and fighting for trans justice in the U.S. and U.S. Territories.

For TJFP, this work can look a lot of different ways and it’s important that the trans communities name what is needed for their local community–whatever that may look like. And we understand that it can look different in every single place across the country.

We fund groups for and by the trans communities.

Over the years, we’ve moved money to trans leaders dreaming up solutions for their people. TJFP grantees are organizing online community organizing trainings and support groups, providing guidance on trans health and wellness, or legal support for undocumented communities. TJFP grantees are putting together mutual aid projects, clothing and food pantries, organizing film and art festivals while changing culture, they’re providing spaces for healing and housing, organizing carpools to and from doctor appointments and bail funds, or one time direct actions, and so much more! For more examples of groups and projects we’ve funded, you can check out our digital map and list of grantees here.

We fund groups and projects that are well established or newly forming.

Some groups that we fund have more of a formal structure with a 501c3 or fiscal sponsorship. And over half of the groups we fund each year are not incorporated and do not have nonprofit status or a fiscal sponsor.

We center the leadership of trans people organizing around their experiences with racism, economic injustice, transmisogyny, ableism, immigration, incarceration, and other intersecting oppressions.

Trusting and supporting trans leadership is at the heart of everything we do both internally and externally at TJFP.

New Rising Ventures

Mission

New Rising Ventures is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of New Media Ventures. New Rising Ventures supports early-stage, nonpartisan entrepreneurs and activists transforming our democracy through innovation and bridges a critical gap not fulfilled by traditional grantmakers or venture capital. Our signature four activities include investments and grantmaking, portfolio support, field building, and convenings.

What We Do

New Rising Ventures finds, funds, and supports social impact entrepreneurs who are growing new organizations that serve the public interest. Social entrepreneurs working on mission-oriented projects face unique barriers to funding and scaling their organizations: access to capital, introductions and networking opportunities, experienced advice, and peer-to-peer relationships that serve as a critical layer of support. Likewise, many funders lack the reach and deep industry expertise to find and evaluate great mission-oriented startup opportunities. New Rising Ventures brings founders and funders together and provides charitable and educational support to increase the scalability of companies providing opportunities to better lives for Americans. 

Democracy is more than casting a vote—it is the daily engagement with the structures that impact the majority. To build a truly equitable democracy, we must create social power in places where political interventions fall short. This means addressing the day-to-day realities that people face, like climate, education, women’s healthcare, the economy, incarceration, and cultural change—issues that remain critical regardless of electoral outcomes. 

By investing to build social power through innovation, we can create more avenues for people to have agency in their lives. As such, New Rising Ventures proudly supports brilliant, experienced individuals thinking of and building new ways to make life easier for the most marginalized across all demographics. 

The Rising Fund

With the launch of The Rising Fund, New Rising Ventures is making a bold, multi-year commitment to back the builders, dreamers, and innovators who are stepping into the gaps—those reimagining democracy not just as a political system, but as a foundation for shared power and collective infrastructure.

At NRV, we believe we’re living through a rare and urgent moment—one where transformation isn’t just possible, it’s essential. The systems we’ve inherited aren’t enough—and they were never built for all of us. We’re here to back those bold enough to rethink what’s possible and build toward something better.

In the years ahead, our investments and programming will be anchored in three core principles:

• Catalyzing Inflection Points: Identifying and investing in key moments where change is possible, accelerating movements that turn disruption into transformation.
• Radical Reconstruction: Dismantling inequitable systems and building new models rooted in justice and collective power.
• Amplifying Ownership: Shifting control over resources, technology, and narratives in bold ways.

Responsible AI Funding Cycle

AI is rapidly shaping our democracy, economy, and daily lives, but who is it serving? As we begin to phase in these core principles, we’re seeking innovators building AI-driven solutions that protect communities, advance equity, and shift power away from extractive systems.

We’re especially interested in solutions that:

• Strengthen trustworthy media ecosystems:
  • AI-powered tools or platforms that counter disinformation, democratize information access, amplify trusted sources, challenge corporate influence over media and culture in new and unexpected ways, etc.
• Reimagine civic engagement:
  • AI applications that foster democratic participation, make institutions more accessible, bolster community organizing or create new pathways for community-led decision-making, etc.
• Enhance civic life and public interest technology:
  • AI innovations that strengthen community infrastructure, or improve access to essential resources in areas like worker and immigrant rights, climate resilience, reproductive and LGBTQ+ protections, and beyond.

Additionally, we are looking for:

• Early-stage organizations with bold ideas and community-rooted leadership
• Solutions with strong potential to scale
• Organizations where a $50K grant/investment would be truly catalytic
• Teams based in the U.S. or working toward national impact

Award Information

$50K in unrestricted grants. Additionally, NRV supports the portfolio through:

• A network of founders where leaders ask questions, identify problems, and surface solutions in community.
• Webinars and one-on-one coaching to help new leaders navigate organizational and operational challenges, like setting goals and managing cash on hand.
• Catalyzing additional funding by connecting them to donors at our events and at other times of the year when possible.
• Virtual and in-person events

2025 Vilcek Foundation Grants

The mission of the Vilcek Foundation is to raise awareness of immigrant contributions to the United States and to foster appreciation for the arts and sciences.  Grantmaking is a vital part of how the Vilcek Foundation achieves its mission. The foundation makes grants to nonprofit organizations whose mission and work complements the Vilcek Foundation’s own.  

The foundation invites nonprofit organizations that work with immigrant artists and communities, and that promote diversity in the arts, sciences, education, and humanities to apply for a grant. The Vilcek Foundation is committed to working with organizations that exemplify best practices in their field.  We seek to identify partners in all 50 states and in all U.S. territories whose work honors and celebrates immigrant contributions to the arts, sciences, and society.Past grant recipients include film festivals, museums, arts organizations including theatres, writers guilds,  galleries, nonprofits focused on science and STEM education, organizations focused on immigrant rights and provision of social services to immigrant communities, and organizations working at the intersection of arts, culture, biomedical science, and community.

About the Foundation

A firm handshake, a clear steady gaze, a welcoming smile, a persuasive energy and a dynamic achiever… this was Frank Doyle. He attended Fordham and Rutgers Universities and he, along with his wife Gertrude R. Doyle combined education with a dedication to the belief that when opportunity knocks, it’s wise to open the door. From New Jersey to Nevada, Florida to California, Frank found challenges and embraced them with a zest and vigor that never said, “it can’t be done.” The seventh son of immigrant parents his was a life well lived. After the passing of Frank M. Doyle in 1996, Gertrude R. Doyle founded The Frank M. Doyle Foundation, Inc. Initially, the foundation provided scholarships to students in the Huntington Beach, California area. As described by Gertrude R. Doyle,

Over the years, the foundation expanded the scholarship application pool to include students from Orange County, California Community Colleges, Washoe County, Nevada students, and certain vocational school students to its application pool. The foundation also branched out beyond the academic world and began providing grants to nonprofit organizations in an effort to fulfill Mr. and Mrs. Doyle’s dream of a better world for all. In late 2008, after the passing of Gertrude R. Doyle, the foundation adopted the name, The Frank M. and Gertrude R. Doyle Foundation, Inc., and in 2018 became “The Doyle Foundation, Inc.”

The Doyle Foundation, Inc. awards grants for the betterment of life.

Program Overview

The grant requires that research institutions shift their policies and practices to value collaborative research. Institutions will also need to build the capacity of researchers to produce relevant work and the capacity of agency and nonprofit partners to use research.

We welcome applications from partnerships in youth-serving areas such as education, justice, prevention of child abuse and neglect, foster care, mental health, immigration, and workforce development. We especially encourage proposals from teams with African American, Latinx, Native American, and Asian American members in leadership roles. The partnership leadership team includes the principal investigator from the research institution and the lead from the public agency or nonprofit organization.

Program Goals

The Institutional Challenge Grant asks grantees to pursue four goals:

Grow an existing institutional partnership with a public agency or nonprofit organization.

The research-practice partnership will have defined objectives, roles, and agreements, and will be built for the long term. In this way, the partnership will be mutually beneficial, enabling the partners to develop and pursue a joint research agenda that is relevant to the public agency or nonprofit organization’s work over an extended period of time.

Pursue a joint research agenda to reduce inequality in youth outcomes.

The partnership’s research will aim to build, test, or increase understanding of programs, policies, or practices to reduce inequality in the academic, social, behavioral, or economic outcomes of young people ages 5-25 in the United States. Specifically, the research agenda will seek to inform responses to inequality on the basis of race, ethnicity, economic standing, sexual or gender minority status, language minority status, or immigrant origins.

Create institutional change to value research-practice partnerships within research institutions.

The research institution will design a feasible strategy for institutional change that addresses observed structural, motivational, and financial barriers that inhibit research-practice partnerships at the institution. By establishing structural supports and incentives that encourage skilled, mid-career researchers to conduct joint work with policymakers and practitioners, the institution will develop an environment for partnerships to thrive.

Enhance the capacity of both partners to collaborate on producing and using research evidence.

Through new experiences that foster deeper understandings of a given policy or practice context and deepen relationships with partners, grantees on the research side will enhance their capacity for participating in effective partnerships. At the same time, the public agency or nonprofit partner will enhance their own capacity to partner with researchers , as well as understand, conduct, and use research through activities such as technical assistance, infrastructure improvements, or staff training.