NOTE: Proposals are by invitation only. However, interested organizations are encouraged to contact Groundswell with a brief summary of their work and, where possible or appropriate, staff will schedule a call to discuss.

Background

Groundswell considers birthing rights to be a core component of reproductive justice (RJ). Consequently, Groundswell supports community-based efforts that promote a sense of fundamental dignity for parents, families and communities by reclaiming the sacredness of the birth process and the power of choice around how, when and where birthing happens. To that end, Groundswell believes that access to quality midwifery care is a fundamental human right that should be available to all, regardless of race, age or economic status.

• Improve pregnancy and birth outcomes for women of color, low-income women, young women, transgender and gender nonconforming people; and
• Support parents, families and communities to reclaim their power, restore their relationship to their bodies and each other, and transform how the next generation is welcomed into the world.

The Birth Justice Fund supports organizations, projects and midwives who are working to:

• Increase access for marginalized communities to culturally competent midwifery services, doula support and other holistic birth options, while promoting a sense of fundamental dignity for parents, families and communities.
• Support the entry and sustainability of women of color, low-income women, young women and transgender people into a variety of birth work professions (i.e. lactation consultants, doulas, postpartum service workers and midwives). Increase the number of professionally trained midwives of color.
• Build an infrastructure of support for birth workers of color to increase their knowledge and skills, and advocate for policies and practices that will better meet the needs of their communities.
• Connect women of color, low-income women, young women and transgender people more deeply to themselves, their power and their ability to transform their communities by employing the values inherent to midwifery and other traditional birth practices.

To support a thriving field, the Fund engages in the following key strategies:

• Direct grantmaking to organizations and projects.
• Partnering with new and existing funding sources to increase support for this under-resourced, but critically important work.
• Movement building support to strengthen the intersection of birth justice and other reproductive justice organizing and advocacy efforts.

Guiding Principles of the Fund

Empowerment

We recognize the importance of choice, access to information and resources, and education that empowers people to make their own decisions and act on their own behalf in pursuit of their reproductive health and wellbeing. We recognize that women, in particular, have been disempowered in this regard — but that not all women are disempowered in the same way — and that transgender and gender nonconforming people also face disempowerment. We believe that an empowering birth experience offers a strong space from which to organize and advance systemic change.

Community-based

We honor birth as a sacred community process that places the voices and leadership of parents at its center and addresses issues of equity, access, and birth justice within the context of the whole community.

Interconnected 

We see value in connecting individuals, communities, and generations of women in order to break down isolation, deepen understanding across difference, and join together for greater systemic impacts. We see value in connecting people who parent and give birth across sex, gender, race and class differences.

Holistic 

We believe that the most transformative approaches to childbirth integrate the whole being — mind, body, and spirit — of the person giving birth. This allows for the healing of past traumas and strengthens family and community relationships, including our relationship to the Earth.

NOTE: The Catalyst Fund has one primary grantmaking round in the fall of each year. To apply - Proposals are by invitation only. However, interested organizations are encouraged to contact Groundswell by email with a brief summary of their work and where possible/appropriate, staff will schedule a call to discuss.

Catalyst Fund

The Catalyst Fund supports organizations that are using grassroots organizing to advance reproductive justice policy and systems change. It centers efforts led by women of color while also supporting work led by low-income white women and transgender people, who together make the up the constituency who experiences the greatest reproductive health disparities and the largest barriers to reproductive freedom in the U.S.

Catalyst awards grants directly to grassroots organizations, including matching grants designed to bolster organizations’ efforts to raise new money from other sources. Particular attention is paid to organizations building cross-movement alliances between reproductive justice efforts and other social justice organizations, including labor, environmental and economic justice. Catalyst also awards matching grants to public foundations and women’s funds who make grants to organizations led by women of color and transgender people of color. Catalyst grantees are the main participants in Groundswell’s two flagship capacity building programs aimed at boosting the grassroots power of the field: the Integrated Voter Engagement Program and the Grassroots Organizing Institute. Catalyst has a strong track record of galvanizing new money for RJ from foundations and individual donors. Since Groundswell’s first RJ grants were made in 2008, grantmaking partners and grassroots organizations receiving matching grants have catalyzed $41 million into primarily women of color-led RJ work.

The Catalyst Fund has one primary grantmaking round in the fall of each year.

When identifying groups to support through the Catalyst Fund, Groundswell looks for organizations with:

• A highly engaged and growing membership/constituent base comprised of people directly impacted by the conditions that they seek to transform;
• Organizational leadership that reflects the diversity of this base;
• Clear mechanisms for leadership development;
• The ability to mobilize a base to win concrete policy changes;
• A strategic direction with clear goals and objectives that are driven by the membership/constituency;
• Ability to forge inter- and cross-movement alliances and to work well in coalition;
• Innovation in framing and thought leadership;
• A clear timeline for achieving goals and objectives and organizational capacity to achieve these;
• An integrated racial, gender, and class justice analysis;
• Connections to intermediary support organizations that build the capacity and collective power of the RJ movement;
• A strong track record of policy wins or strong strategy towards future wins; and
• System for measuring the impact of the work, including clearly defined benchmarks for success.

Catalyst provides the following types of support:

The fund provides general operating grants, capacity building grants and project grants, with grant sizes ranging from $20,000-$100,000.

Core Fund – Reproductive Rights and Justice

The Foundation has been a long-time funder in the reproductive health and rights fields. In 2012, the Foundation officially shifted its strategic direction to a more comprehensive reproductive justice framework that recognizes how race, class, gender, and sexual identity affect women's reproductive health and autonomy, subsequently changing the name of the program from Reproductive Rights and Services to Reproductive Rights and Justice.

The Foundation acknowledges a critical and historically less-recognized battle—that of women of color and low-income women who have suffered terribly under deeply racialized reproductive politics. Through this intersectional framework of Reproductive Justice, created by Black women activists in 1994, the Foundation’s grantmaking includes a mix of innovative national and state-based organizations using a wide range of strategies, such as base building, leadership development, public education, policy advocacy, voter engagement, and culture change to secure reproductive justice for all people. The Foundation will also support organizations utilizing legal advocacy and litigation to protect the dignity and human and civil rights of all women, especially the most marginalized and including trans people.

By increasingly centering the voices and activism of people who have been most marginalized and following their lead, the Foundation’s grantees have had a major impact, despite setbacks and losses, in communities across the country. From leveraging new alliances to building a stronger grassroots base, the Foundation’s reproductive justice grantees are shifting power while effectively blocking regressive laws and advancing policy wins at the local, state, and federal levels.

The Foundation maintains its commitment to general operating support, especially for state-based and local organizations. For larger and policy-focused groups, and in the case of collaborative campaigns, project-specific support may be appropriate.

Type & Size of Grants

General operating and project grants considered. Grants average $45,000 over two-years.

Global Reproductive Health

We work with reproductive health advocates, researchers, and providers to advance quality sexual and reproductive health information, services, and rights around the world.

We are committed to promoting reproductive health and rights, with a focus on high quality information and services.

To do this, we use evidence and partner with global research and advocacy organizations, including networks led by young people, to shape the discourse around sexual and reproductive health and rights at regional and global levels.

We also focus on ensuring women and young people receive quality reproductive health services—including contraception, abortion, and post-abortion care—in priority regions of Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia.

Together with our grantees, we are working to build movements to increase political will, improve policies, and mobilize funding to support reproductive health and rights and ensure the global community, including governments and funders, prioritizes quality reproductive health care and embraces youth-led movements.

What We Fund- Our Priorities

Only through equitable systems can we find & sustain solutions to the biggest challenges today and into the future.

Build Just Societies

We support a strong civil society and inclusive institutions and governance to build just and equitable societies for all people.

Protect & Restore the Natural World

We champion bold climate solutions, an ocean that sustains us, and scientific innovation and discovery to secure the health and future of people and the planet.

Invest in Families & Communities

We collaborate with leaders and organizations to promote resilient and vibrant communities where children and families thrive and have the power to shape their lives.

The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation promotes social justice and human rights through its five program areas: Jewish life, strengthening Israeli democracy, health and mental health, educational opportunity, and human rights. Support is provided to organizations in the United States and abroad.

The Foundation supports organizations that promote systemic change, involve constituents in planning and decision-making, encourage volunteer and professional development and engage in ongoing program evaluation.

International Human Rights Program Area

The Foundation’s program in International Human Rights reflects the commitment of its founders to the principles of universal rights. As President of the American Jewish Committee from 1949 to 1954, Jacob Blaustein worked to protect the civil and religious rights of Jews and other minorities and to promote intergroup tolerance. He was a lifelong advocate for human rights and helped to promote the idea of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position that was established more than twenty years after his death in 1970.

The Foundation funds a small number of grantees that work to advance international human rights. The Foundation generally supports US based organizations that address international issues, rather than those based abroad. The Foundation rarely provides support for programs or projects that focus on one country or region.

Internationally, the Foundation works in three areas:

• Advancing women's and reproductive rights. We do not provide support for domestic programs in this area.
• Protecting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers who seek refuge in the United States and other countries.
• Supporting cross-cutting programs that advance leadership development, capacity-building and training across issues. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals in this area.

In 1971, the Foundation created and endowed the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights at the American Jewish Committee. This is an independent entity with its own governance, programmatic priorities and grantmaking program.

Interests & Priorities

Democracy & Civil Liberties

Goal: Ensure informed, active, and equal citizen participation in the democratic process and protect civil liberties from emerging threats.

Geographic Area: National

Strategies:

• Protect and expand access to voting.
• Ensure political equality for all by reducing the influence of money in politics.
• Strengthen policy and education efforts to prevent gun violence.

Education & Literacy

Goal: Strengthen public education for grades kindergarten to 12.

Geographic Area: San Francisco

Strategies:

• Advance education and literacy projects that support the strategic priorities of the San Francisco Unified School District.
• Support community-wide literacy projects.

Goal: Strengthen civic education for grades kindergarten to 12.

Geographic Area: National

Strategies:

• Promote efforts to make civics more of a priority for states and school districts.
• Support professional development for teachers to refresh and expand knowledge of civics and develop skills for teaching it effectively.

Environment

Goal: Address the environmental impacts of producing, consuming, and disposing of goods.

Geographic Area: National

Strategies:

• Advance sustainable industry practices throughout the lifecycle of products.
• Influence market shifts toward environmentally-responsible materials and decreased use of harmful chemicals.

Goal: Reduce local sources of greenhouse gas emissions and help prepare for the impacts of climate change on Bay Area ecosystems.

Geographic Area: San Francisco Bay Area

Strategies:

• Advance responsible land use and transportation policies and practices.
• Promote strategies to protect natural resources from the effects of climate change.

Jewish Community

Goal: Ensure a more vibrant, inclusive, and safe Jewish community.

Geographic Area: National, with a preference for projects that impact the San Francisco Bay Area

Strategies:

• Support innovative, experiential projects that enhance Judaism’s relevance in contemporary life.
• Engage the Jewish community in combatting climate change, expanding access to voting, preventing gun violence, and protecting reproductive health and rights.
• Combat antisemitism and discrimination against Israel by advancing education, advocacy, and communication about Jews, Judaism, and Israel.

Reproductive Health & Rights

Goal: Support abortion service delivery, training, safety, and clinics.

Geographic Area: National and Northern California

Strategies:

• Promote activities that increase and improve abortion provider training.
• Protect the safety of abortion healthcare professionals and their clients.
• Support Northern California-based health clinics that offer abortion services.

Note: The Foundation asks organizations with which it does not have a standing relationship to submit an LOI as the first step in the grant application process. Current grantees may skip the LOI process and proceed directly to a grant application. For 2024, current grantees are organizations that received a grant in 2021, 2022, or 2023.

The Leland Fikes Foundation is a private, grantmaking foundation in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1954, the Foundation is named for Leland Fikes, a prominent oil and gas executive, real estate investor, and philanthropist. During its early decades, the Leland Fikes Foundation funded a broad array of causes. More recently, the Foundation has intentionally narrowed its focus and now primarily supports organizations concentrated in four major fields.

The Leland Fikes Foundation funds general operations, programs and direct services, advocacy, capital, and capacity building.

Funding Priorities

During its early decades, the Leland Fikes Foundation funded a broad array of causes. More recently, the Foundation has intentionally narrowed its focus and now primarily supports organizations concentrated in four major fields.

The Leland Fikes Foundation funds general operations, programs and direct services, advocacy, and capacity building in alignment with our four strategic priorities:

Reproductive Health, Rights, and JusticeWe support a range of strategies to improve access to reproductive healthcare.

Civic EngagementWe seek to strengthen a free, inclusive, and transparent democracy. This work includes support for public policy, advocacy, litigation, civic engagement, and expanding voting access.

Dallas-Area Human ServicesWe support our local community though a variety of social service organizations addressing community needs such as housing, food, employment, and physical and mental health.

Medical Research (by invitation only)We invest in innovative and promising medical research projects to advance science and healthcare.

Just as systemic racism and other structural inequities permeate all areas of society, we seek to further equity through all areas of our grantmaking. Applicants should be prepared to share how racial equity informs their program development and implementation. We are committed to listening, learning, collaborating, and deepening our work to combat racism and injustice in each of our stated priority areas.

Timing

• We fund on a calendar year basis.
  • The grant application is available starting in mid-October, and remains open until the Q4 deadline.
• Applications are reviewed quarterly.
• Organizations may apply once per year, in advance of whichever deadline best meets your current needs.
  • You do NOT need to wait 365 days from your last grant.
• Please note that all 2024 deadlines are Wednesdays.
  • Applications received after these dates will be held and considered in the next quarter.

Mission and Purpose

The Anna Lalor Burdick Program funds initiatives that bring women information and access to reproductive health care, contraception, and pregnancy termination in order to help broaden and enhance their options in life.

Funding Interests

The Anna Lalor Burdick (ALB) Program supports programs that offer sexual and reproductive health education to women. It is interested in programs serving women who are disadvantaged by poverty, discrimination, geographic isolation, lack of comprehensive sex education, hostile public policy, or other factors leading to inadequate sexual and reproductive health.

The ALB Program is particularly interested in supporting new programs or initiatives, or innovations in successful programs. Programs at new or small organizations, including those with a grassroots base, that are capable of delivering excellent services will also be considered.

Programs should

• have a comprehensive approach to SRH education that includes unbiased information on all options 
• include novel ideas or innovative methods of delivering information
• define clear goals and intended outcomes as well as a feasible plan to assess impact and success
• be exemplars for replication if successful
• be economically sustainable if successful

Funding Availability and Duration

The ALB Program awards a small number of grants in the range of $10,000 to $35,000, with an average grant size between $15,000 and $25,000.

Grants are awarded for one year. On rare occasions, trustees invite follow-up work to a project that has shown outstanding results or promise during its first year.

Temporary Modification

Attention Applicants:

Due to the increase in restrictions for women living in places where the right to choose has been or threatens to be abolished, we are focusing our efforts on supporting organizations that value reproductive rights and help women gain access to contraception and abortions.

NOTE: Applications by new grantees are will not be accepted in the Fall 2023 cycle.

Mission

Wild Geese Foundation works in an intersectional manner to defend human rights, promote food justice and sovereignty, and to uplift youth. We acknowledge a society in which marginalized humans do not thrive is unsustainable.

Nationally, we support five issue areas: Reproductive justice, LGBTQ equality, youth, climate justice and organizing in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. Additionally, in the state of Massachusetts, we support food justice and expanding access to affordable and healthy food.

We focus our support on organizations with Black, Indigenous and People of Color leadership with the understanding that centuries of white supremacy and violence must be overcome. Our climate justice grants support restoring our planet to health so all life can be nurtured. Our support for reproductive freedom for all people is unequivocal.

We believe, as Mary Oliver said, “You do not have to walk on your knees” to access resources needed for the work to be done.

Focus Areas

• We support the LGBTQ community to create a safe space for all from cradle to grave 
• We support projects that uplift youth and young people knowing that a society in which youth cannot thrive is unsustainable and unlivable.
• We support women’s right to reproductive freedom and self-determination.