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AI Reporting Grants

We seek applications for our reporting initiative focused on AI and surveillance technologies and their impact on communities around the world. We value accountability and data reporting, collaborations, and cross-discipline approaches.

Grant Overview

Governments and corporations use AI technologies to make life-changing decisions for millions of people – in policing, medicine, social welfare, the criminal justice system, hiring, and more. How do these systems work? What data do they rely on? Who benefits from the technology? And who gets hurt?

What We're Looking For

We welcome in-depth stories that explore with nuance how AI systems are designed, sold and deployed in communities around the world. We value reporting that centers on the people that are directly impacted by automated systems, as well as solutions-oriented stories. We encourage applications for all formats of reporting and also on lesser reported topics, including: 

• AI industry supply chains 
• Procurement processes for algorithmic and surveillance systems
• Environmental impacts of AI 
• AI & disinformation networks 
• AI warfare 
• AI regulation and governance 

Transparency and governance is a cross-cutting theme for all of our focus areas. We seek to support deep dive reporting projects that follow the money across borders; shed light on opaque and harmful supply chains; and investigate the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption.

We are also interested in receiving proposals for collaborative reporting projects by teams of reporters working on AI accountability stories. 

About Us

AJA Foundation seeks to help those who have done everything society asks of them, yet for whom access to essential resources and the probability for advancement that comes from them remain elusive at best and structurally impossible at worst.

We know that the “playing field” of opportunity tilts substantially and unfairly towards those coming from advantage and that nobody succeeds on their own. AJA Foundation is dedicated to leveling the playing field by investing globally in organizations addressing what we see as fundamental human rights with a focus on equal access to clean water, quality education and essential healthcare.

What We Fund

Water

Billions of people lack access to clean water. This affects health and hinders education, employment, economic growth, and gender equality.

Having access to clean water not only saves lives and leads to better health outcomes, it creates a domino effect of positive change throughout entire communities by improving access to education, food, employment, gender equality, and mitigates the effects of climate change.

Over the last 15 years, AJA Foundation has invested approximately $3 million to support five clean water initiatives. Some have been multi-year commitments.

Education

Access to primary education is inequitable. Children who are economically disadvantaged lack access to curriculum and support necessary to thrive academically.

Education is the critical tool for upward economic mobility. Students who are structurally denied necessary coursework and critical support like tutoring, mentoring, and scholarships cannot reach their full potential.

The AJA Foundation has invested over $4 million to date in programs that empower deserving students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Investing in the potential of these students not only improves their financial future, it unlocks broader economic opportunities for entire communities and fosters future leadership.

Health

Half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services. This not only puts the individual's health at risk, but also the stability of communities, societies, and economies.

Billions of people do not live close enough to medical centers or providers to access basic healthcare or are too poor to afford it. As a result, far too many medical conditions that are routinely treated in the developed world go untreated in the developing world. The same is true for prevention.

Because where you are born should not determine access to healthcare, the AJA Foundation has invested over $1.8 million in organizations delivering quality healthcare in developing countries. In addition to prevention, health services include maternal, newborn, and pediatric medicine and treatment of common diseases.

Become a Partner

At the core of our model are our partnerships with courageous, dynamic organizations that are improving the lives of children and youth in the heart of their own communities.

We eagerly look for new groups and individuals to partner with across the globe, based on our regional strategies, and particularly when we launch and expand thematic and regional initiatives. Please explore information about our regional strategies and initiatives in Africa, the Americas, Europe and Eurasia, and Asia.

Global Fund for Children raises all the funds that we use to invest in community-based organizations around the world. We know that organizations spend precious time preparing proposals for prospective funders. We appreciate there are many worthy causes and changemakers that we will not be able to support. As such, we do not ask organizations to submit proposals. We visit organizations in person and build relationships, getting to know possible new partners when we have raised funds. As a first step, we maintain a database of organizations we can get to know if we have just the right opportunity.

Focus Areas

Together with our partners, we are building a future where all young people enjoy equal resources and opportunities in society and can live to their full potential.

Our work advances the rights of children and youth across four focus areas and five regions. We have a deep commitment to courageous organizations that support young people facing poverty, injustice, and discrimination.

We support grassroots organizations that are not afraid to tackle the root causes of poverty with innovative, local solutions. Most offer holistic care to comprehensively address the needs of each child. Many become regional and national leaders in children’s rights—raising awareness, influencing policy, and ultimately impacting thousands of children and youth beyond their doors.

Education

Every child deserves the chance to learn, grow, and dream. We work closely with our partners to make sure children across the world can learn, play, and go to school. We are committed to helping every child reach their potential through equal access to quality education.

Gender justice

GFC and our partners promote gender equity, advance girls’ education, inspire healthy masculinities, support the rights of LGBTQ+ youth, and ensure that young people live free from gender-based violence and exploitation.

Safety and wellbeing

We are committed to ending violence and exploitation of children, to helping young survivors rebuild their lives, and to protecting the mental health and wellbeing of every child and young person.

Climate resilience

Young people are mobilizing to address climate change. They are building resilience in their communities, educating their families and communities, advocating for policy changes, and stewarding the environment. We work with young leaders and youth-led organizations finding real solutions for both people and the planet.

Youth power

Young people are achieving incredible things - creating change in the present and shaping the future. We help young people become leaders and changemakers, making sure they have the opportunities, skills, and confidence to tackle the issues central to their lives and their communities.

Solidarity in emergencies

In times of crisis, we are committed to supporting our partners around the world as they respond in their communities. From natural disasters to conflict or health emergencies, our local partners are well-positioned to address emerging challenges. GFC provides emergency grants, technical support, and wellbeing solidarity to our partners as they navigate emergencies impacting their organizations and their communities.

Impact and Learning

Global Fund for Children funds community-based organizations and works closely with them to strengthen their capacity to create change. Our primary impact is on the organizations we support, and by extension, the impact they create with and for children and young people, in their communities.

Every organization has its unique aspirations and approaches, so our work with each organization is unique, tailored, and made possible by trust and understanding of their unique contexts.

We capture global quantitative indicators to capture how organizations change over time, but qualitative stories of change are critical to understanding the impact of GFC’s work. Our impact and learning approach is rooted in feedback, participatory learning reviews, and a commitment to capture only the information GFC and our partners will actually use to deepen our learning and to become more effective in our closely collaborative work.

Established in 1982 in Kingsville, Texas, L'Aiglon Foundation has an established interest in supporting projects in the areas of land/watershed conservation, education, the creative arts.

L’Aiglon Foundation strives to maximize the impact of its charitable giving over a wide spectrum of organizations and groups. We target our funding in the areas of:

• education;
• environment; and
• cultural arts.

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Grants

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation only accepts unsolicited proposals for specific areas within the education, family economic stability and childhood health sectors in select countries where we work, namely the United States, India and South Africa.

As a guideline, the foundation does not fund more than 25% of a project’s budget or more than 10% of an organization’s total annual operating expenses.

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation has always recognized the power of providing grants to partner organizations that we knew were already working hard to improve the lives of urban children living in poverty. By aligning with organizations that are already making a difference, we continue to make an immediate impact on the lives of thousands of children.

Foundation priorities:

We fund social enterprises that directly serve or impact children or youth from urban low-income communities in the areas of education, health, and family economic stability (including livelihoods and financial inclusion). These social enterprises may be structured as for-profit or nonprofit entities.

Partnerships

We collaborate with a range of organizations focused on creating opportunities for children and families living in urban poverty, with a deep emphasis on measuring impact. Our funding advances projects already making an impact in education, health, and family economic stability. Through these enduring and long-standing partnerships, we create lasting change together.

Philosophy

The Save Our Seas Foundation has funded almost 400 projects in over 80 countries around the globe. Each project strives for deeper understanding and more innovative solutions in marine research, conservation and education. In 2021 the foundation celebrated its 18th anniversary. With the experience and maturity we have gained during these past 18 years we look forward to the next decade as an ongoing evolutionary and refining process. We continue to grow and learn as a foundation, seeking out and supporting the best and brightest people whose innovative projects make a real and lasting impact on the health of our oceans – and ultimately for every person on the planet.

In the effort to protect our oceans, the Save Our Seas Foundation funds and supports research, conservation and education projects worldwide, focusing primarily on charismatic threatened wildlife and their habitats.

General Approach

• The Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF) is committed to supporting activities that have the capacity to make a real difference to the health of the oceans and to the survival of threatened aquatic species and habitats.
• With a view to achieving this aim, the Foundation has developed a policy of supporting, in particular, applicants working on exceptional projects, on remarkable species or habitats and/or in unique locations.
• The purpose of this policy is to support research, conservation or educational projects that are capable of attracting significant public attention and that, as a result, may genuinely increase public and government awareness of the urgent need to protect the marine environment.
• As part of this approach, the Foundation requires all grant holders to undertake public awareness and environmental educational activities (giving talks, issuing press releases, etc.) as part of their project.
• Foundation staff (including the dedicated SOSF Communications team) is available to assist grant holders in such public relations work, and grant holders are expected to collaborate with them in preparing public awareness materials.

Ocean Storytelling Photography Grant

We are delighted to introduce our new emerging Ocean Storytelling Grant, which will focus on photography in its inaugural year.

General Approach

• At the Save Our Seas Foundation (SOSF), we have a strong history of supporting marine conservation and education projects and believe that to truly translate knowledge into effective, meaningful change we must communicate through engaging stories.
• While we are specifically looking for photographers who can tell conservation stories about our oceans, the call is not limited to underwater photography. Applicants should think broadly – story topics can range from the animals themselves to fisheries and to the communities whose lives are intertwined with marine life.
• We are particularly seeking to support early career and emerging storytellers and aim to encourage new voices with new perspectives and photographic approaches. Applicants should therefore have no more than five years of professional experience in any photography-related discipline.

Philanthropy is our commitment to communities in which we operate and broader society. We focus our resources on a limited number of key projects that can deliver valuable benefits from our contributions and those of our partners. We give priority to innovative, high-quality projects that meet the following criteria:

• promote sustainable development
• offer an opportunity for Roche to use its expertise and logistics capabilities
• involve Roche actively at an early stage with local authorities and established partners
• engage Roche employees in cultural (focus on contemporary arts), educational and social activities
• managed by an accredited charity

Our four focus areas

Humanitarian and Social

We direct the majority of our philanthropic donations to humanitarian and social development projects.

Science and education

We are dedicated to programmes that promote scientific interest and provide educational opportunities for young people around the world.

Community and Environment

We are committed to building stronger communities and responding to natural disasters sustainably.

Arts and Culture

We support groundbreaking contemporary art, cultural projects and activities that explore the parallels between innovation in art and in science. 

The Global Commons Alliance’s Accountability Accelerator

The Accountability Accelerator is currently funding early-stage projects and organizations that contribute to building an accountability architecture across the four clusters with significant grant making through a regional lens across Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.

We support the development of a robust accountability ecosystem for corporate action on nature by making small to mid-sized grants (~USD 50,000-100,000) to specific projects that fit with our areas of work: Data & Standards, Finance, Legal, and Campaigns. We specifically focus on closing gaps in the accountability landscape and on projects that are early-stage and require higher-risk seed funding that might be deemed too risky by larger funders.

We work with applicants to co-develop proposals and accept proposals on a rolling basis. We pride ourselves in our ability to be reactive and nimble to catch and support urgent and time-sensitive projects, including lesser-known or early-stage ideas and organizations, with a keen attention to local organizations at the front-line of where devastation of nature is happening.

Across our clusters, we support projects which align with the following elements of the accountability ecosystem:

• Frameworks and tools, including standards, frameworks and targets based on credible data to enable business and financial institution commitment, disclosure, planning and action.
• Incentives and capacity building for companies to act by enabling service providers,  NGOs & business networks share knowledge, guidance & tools for business & FIs to identify, address and act on the harm to nature.
• Assurance and pressures, including third party validation of science based targets for natures, verification of transition planning and progress, and enabling a broad set of stakeholders advocate for action while driving corporate accountability
• Policy and regulation through influencing governments and regulators to embed nature and society into policies, finance rules, and legal framework & create economic incentives for business and FIs to act.
• Community mobilization by which citizens are mobilized, IPLC rights are recognized and people everywhere are supported in their efforts to hold corporations accountable, especially their supply chains and impacts on the ground.

Finally, the Accountability Accelerator recognises and supports the rights and leadership roles of Indigenous Peoples and local communities as stewards of nature and the vast majority of the world’s biodiversity regions. We endeavor to have at least half our grants going to regional and local organizations, where the impacts of global agricultural, manufacturing, and commodity supply chains are most deeply felt on the ground.

Our Mission

The Tony Robbins Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to empower individuals and organizations to make a significant difference in the quality of life of people often forgotten.

We’re dedicated to creating positive changes in the lives of youth, seniors, the hungry, homeless and the imprisoned population, all who need a boost envisioning a happier and deeply satisfying way of life. Our passionate staff, generous donors and caring group of international volunteers provide the vision, inspiration, and resources needed to empower these important members of our society.

Grants

Dedicated to meeting challenges within the global community, creating solutions and taking action, The Tony Robbins Foundation provides monetary donations to various organizations around the world. Funding requests are evaluated on an ongoing basis. We look for organizations that align with our mission to empower individuals and organizations to make a significant difference in the quality of life of those often forgotten.

Transparency & Governance Reporting Grants

We seek applications for our reporting initiative focused on the systems, organizations, and people that destabilize countries, erode democracies, and enable corruption. We value cross-border and collaborative reporting, data-driven projects, and innovative, interdisciplinary approaches.

Grant Overview

Pulitzer Center grantees report on shadowy finance schemes, mismanagement, abuse of power, and other systemic exploits and failures that destabilize countries, erode democracies and governance, and empty national coffers. They investigate the root causes of corruption, including the laws and policies that provide cover to otherwise immoral activities.

We are actively seeking to support deep reporting projects that follow the money across borders; shed light on opaque and harmful supply chains; and investigate the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption. 

Welcome

The Violet Jabara Charitable Trust was founded in May, 2007, to continue the philanthropic work of its founder Dr. Linda K. Jacobs, and it is named after her mother, Violet Jabara Jacobs. The mission of the Trust is two-fold: to help improve the lives of the people in developing countries of the Middle East and to foster greater understanding of Middle Eastern culture in the United States.

Areas of Interest

The Trust makes grants to organizations which work in developing countries in the Middle East (see below.) Within this geographic focus, the Trust welcomes innovative ideas in the fields of

• International Economic Development, including, but not limited to
• Health
• Environmental Issues
• Peace Initiatives
• Microfinance
• Social Entrepreneurship
• Education
• Reproductive Health
• Women’s Welfare and Livelihoods
• Arts and Culture

The Trust also makes grants to American organizations which promote deeper understanding of Middle East issues and culture (particularly related to those countries listed above) in the United States. Organizations which promote or produce, for example, films, film series, art exhibitions, blogs or popular books are encouraged to apply. Academic research may also be funded. Applicants must present a strong case that their projects will have a broad, positive and lasting impact on American attitudes towards the people or culture of the Middle East.

The Trust looks for non-traditional approaches to the challenge of sustainable development on the one hand, and cultural education on the other, but it leaves it to the grant-seeker to come up with and present those approaches. New and emerging methodologies that can use modest amounts of funding to jump start larger efforts will be given priority. The Trust will not be risk-averse in its approach.

To advance its mission, the Trust makes grants and/or Mission Related Investments that are aligned with funding and programmatic priorities. As such, the Trust gives donations to non-profit groups, both in the US and abroad. Preference will be given to smaller, local organizations over large, global ones. Donations can be made for general operating purposes as well as for specific projects (i.e., both unrestricted and restricted donations) depending on the nature of the request and the capacity of the organization.

Our Work/Environment Reporting Grants

The Pulitzer Center is now accepting applications for its initiative focused on climate change and its effects on workers and work. As the world heats up, what jobs and employment sectors, what factory practices, what sorts of manufacturing–from computer chips to batteries to food production to fast-fashion–are threatened or must change? 

GRANT OVERVIEW

The Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit organization that supports independent global journalism, is now accepting applications for a reporting initiative focused on climate change and its effects on workers and work. 

This ambitious initiative, Our Work/Environment, seeks to explore the global climate risks playing out in fields and on factory floors and being discussed in company boardrooms. As the world heats up, what jobs and employment sectors, what factory practices, what sorts of manufacturing–from computer chips to batteries to food production to fast-fashion–are threatened or must change? 

What factors will affect work? Heat, yes. Competition for water, for sure. We want you to reveal the real-world problems of working as temperatures rise, and then tell us much more. Stories that document the impact on labor rights and the livelihoods of some of the world’s most vulnerable workers—including women who are often heads of household—as well as those that document companies that are working on solutions, and which are aiming for sustainability at scale, are of interest. 

Transparency and governance is a cross-cutting theme for all of our focus areas. We seek to support deep dive reporting projects that follow the money across borders; shed light on opaque and harmful supply chains; and investigate the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption.

 The amount awarded depends on the scope and complexity of the project, the media formats involved, and the distribution plan.

Mission Statement

The CPPS Heritage Mission Fund, imbued with the gospel message and the mission and charism of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, responds to requests for financial support for programs and projects that promote the values of Precious Blood Spirituality, dignity of all life, healing and reconciliation, solidarity with the poor, the common good and meeting the unmet needs of the time.

Grantmaking

The values foundational to the CPPS Heritage Mission Fund flow from the Spirituality of the Precious Blood, that is, the redeeming love of Jesus. The values listed here have been essential to the lives and ministries of the Sisters of the Precious Blood throughout their history. No matter what ministries the Sisters were involved in, these values gave life and spirit to their service. These values are truly the heritage and legacy of the Sisters of the Precious Blood.

As grants are received and reviewed by the Distribution Committee of the Board, they will be evaluated in light of these values. Each grant, in some way, should be able to exhibit how one or more of these values are essential to the services offered in the project or program for which funds are being requested.

Values/ Priorities

Precious Blood Spirituality: This foundational value expresses the redeeming love of Jesus which holds each person as precious in God’s sight. No one is beyond the love of God and each person bears the responsibility to care for the other. All other values flow from this.

Promotion of the dignity of and respect for all life: This value recognizes the interconnectedness of all living beings from the earth itself to human beings created in the image and likeness of God. All are stewards of this creation and of all life that God has entrusted to our care.

Healing and reconciliation: This value acknowledges that the world and the people in it are wounded and in need. The fruit of healing and reconciliation — flowing from Precious Blood Spirituality — is the restoration of wholeness in people’s lives and in the world.

Solidarity with the poor: The Gospel values of compassion and mercy make it necessary that we minister to those who are suffering from oppression, poverty and/or exclusion. These needs can be of a material, spiritual, psychological or social nature.

Emphasis on the common good: This value seeks to shift the focus from an emphasis on individual rights to one which would benefit the common good. This value places the good of the whole in right relation to that of the individual.

Responding to unmet needs of the time: The CHM Fund seeks to support those projects that address needs not being met by government, local or other organizations, non-profit or otherwise.

Types of Grants

The Letter of Inquiry must be submitted complete and with required information. If your organization in selected to continue in the process, an invitation to apply with a link to a grant application will be sent to you.

Types of Applications: The five types listed below identify the programs/projects that would be acceptable. Ordinarily grant amounts range from $5,000 to $100,000 (maximum). Read each description carefully and decide which type best suits your need.

In the rare instance that you feel your request does not fit any of the above categories, e-mail the Executive Secretary at execsec [at] cppsheritagemissionfund.org for further assistance.

What we do

Since its inception, LOF has donated almost $6 million to support social justice and humanitarian causes across the US and globally, providing vital funding for disaster relief aid, protection for children and families in war torn countries, food insecurity programs, racial justice, incarceration prevention, and self-defense workshops for marginalized communities. 

With an average donation of $25 per campaign, we are able to send funds to organizations making a difference on the ground worldwide.

Our Values

Community

We are fueled by the spirit of our fans and donors and reciprocate that energy back into communities around the world.

Tenacity

We believe it is our job as artists to generate awareness about issues and injustices in our world, and we are on a constant quest to grow our support base and create change.

Music

We are bound by our shared passion for music and it serves as a vehicle for the impact we aim to deliver.

Grants to Charities:

Grants to organizations are made to tax-exempt public charities under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Program interests include, but are not limited to: LGBTQIA2S+ support, disadvantaged youth, public health, women, the environment, the arts, the hungry and the unhoused. The Looking Out Foundation generally does not support: endowment programs, fund raising events, annual appeals of well-established organizations, scholarships, or grants to individuals. 

Please note that the Looking Out Foundation receives far more requests each grant cycle than it can support. The average grant allocation is between $5,000 and $25,000. Organizations who have already previously received grants from the Looking Out Foundation, are strongly encouraged to diversify their funding base and develop alternative sources of support. The need is ever changing, therefore so is our focus. 

The FAWCO Foundation Development Grant

The purpose of the program is to fund projects that can make an immediate impact and lead to success for the people they support. The assistance offered should be direct, with a goal of sustainability.

Through The Foundation, FAWCO Member Clubs and FAUSA have been aiding worthy and reputable charitable projects around the globe for over 50 years. Some clubs are working “hands-on” with their projects while others make financial contributions or donations of goods. The Development Grants provide the financial assistance that can help the recipients achieve their goals.

The Foundation encourages FAWCO clubs to nominate grassroots organizations that receive little to no sponsorship or support from other sources.

Grant Categories

Education

For projects:

• promoting literacy and supporting academic studies,
• that build or provide classrooms, libraries or general learning facilities for disadvantaged women/children, 
• that provide training designed to lead to economic and social empowerment for women and girls.

Human Rights

For projects:

• providing vocational training, teaching practical skills, promoting social entrepreneurial initiatives for at-risk/marginalized population groups,
• addressing the critical problems of violence, food and shelter, healthcare, education, poverty, advocacy, human trafficking, prostitution, refugees, including all those impacted by economic, political or other forced migration,
• promoting cultural understanding

Global Issues

For Projects:

• that fall within any of the FAWCO focus areas with which we align our Development Grants i.e., Education, Environment, Health or Human Rights.
• that recognize club’s local charities often overlooked on the world stage, 
• that take place in the nominating club's home country.

The Foundation is dedicated to providing financial assistance to organizations committed to improving our world. Solutions to the problems of today's world still lie in the values of innovation, practicality, hard work, and compassion.

The Foundation considers applications for grants in the following areas:

• Education
• Social Service
• Health care
• Civic and cultural
• Environmental

The categories above are not intended to limit the interest of the Foundation from considering other worthwhile projects. In general, the Foundation guidelines are broad to give us flexibility in providing grants.

The majority of our grants are made in the U.S. However, like Dr. Scholl, we recognize the need for a global outlook. Non-U.S. grants are given to organizations where directors have knowledge of the grantee.

Overview and Objectives

The Global Forest Watch Small Grants Fund (SGF) seeks to build the capacity of civil society organizations to effectively use GFW tools and data to reduce illegal or unplanned deforestation. Successful projects translate data into action, applying GFW to overcome challenges in protecting the world’s forests.

Project scope should fall into one or more of the following approaches:

• Advocacy
  • Examples include:
    • Using data and imagery found on GFW alongside community territorial maps to advocate for land titles and other strengthened land rights.
    • Create an open data platform with MapBuilder by crowdsourcing, compiling and publishing data on concessions that overlap with ancestral community lands, and support communities in applying public pressure to get these concessions revoked
• Forest Monitoring and Enforcement
  • Examples include:
    • Develop the capacity of forest monitoring brigades to conduct field verifications of near-real time alerts with the Forest Watcher mobile application and other technologies, and work with enforcement officials to stop unplanned or illegal deforestation.
    • Support Indigenous communities in developing response protocols, formulating legal strategies and compiling evidence of illegal deforestation including satellite imagery, data and analyses, and submitting it to law enforcement through formal complaints or other legal processes.
    • Train police, prosecutors and/or judges to raise awareness as to how satellite imagery and data can be used to provide accurate, timely and cost-effective evidence of deforestation.
• Journalism and Storytelling
  • Examples include:
    • Publish stories, data visualizations, and/or videos highlighting where illegal deforestation is occurring and how it impacts local livelihoods or ecosystems to raise public awareness and put pressure on authorities to respond.
    • Use data found on Global Forest Watch to analyze the direct and indirect impacts of proposed development projects on local livelihoods and forest biodiversity and share these through traditional media outlets and social media channels.
• Stakeholder Engagement and Capacity Building
  • Examples include:
    • Build the capacity of Indigenous or local communities and/or law enforcement agencies to utilize alert systems accessed through GFW tools to monitor, verify, and respond to forest threats within community lands or protected areas.
    • Work with forest fringing communities to understand their needs for protecting their forest and co-design land defense strategies using GFW and other technologies to protect their forest landscapes.
    • Create an online course that specifically addresses issues of deforestation in your community and teaches non-experts how to use GFW tools to investigate and report on deforestation in their area.
• Informing Land Use Management and/or Policy
  • Examples include:
    • Train a collective of smallholder farmers to monitor and manage their areas using forest, land use and carbon data.
    • Use data and insights found on GFW to conduct high quality research and put together policy briefs to influence land use policy for more sustainable land management and long-term land use planning.
    • Use GFW to identify and establish areas or jurisdictions as nature based solutions, REDD+ or other payment for ecosystem services projects, and monitor compliance.

Award Information

Small Grants Fund at a glance:

• The Small Grants Fund awards organizations between $10,000 and $40,000 USD
• The number of projects selected can range from 8-15, with 12 being the average
• Projects for next year's grant cycle will run from June 1 – May 31.
• Each grantee will be assigned a WRI staff member as an advisor, who will provide virtual technical support and other assistance.

In addition to the financial support and technical assistance, SGF recipients become part of a network of organizations and receive benefits that extend beyond the lifetime of their grant. These include opportunities to connect with others in the GFW network, invitations to GFW events, opportunities to test and provide feedback on new GFW features, and the potential to be featured in blogs, social media, or other WRI communications materials.

Our Mission

Our mission is to champion the power of stories to make complex issues relevant and inspire action.

Background

Climate and environmental issues have been at the core of the Pulitzer Center’s work since its founding in 2006. The Center has supported breakthrough journalism that led to real-world impact: engaging and mobilizing communities, prompting demands for change, influencing decisions to halt environmentally destructive practices, and many more.

Since 2022, the Pulitzer Center has actively participated in the UN Conference of the Parties (COP) to join the climate community in addressing the socio-environmental challenges and opportunities of the present. As an important stage for climate and governance conversations that are at the heart of our work, COP is a key place to address relevant issues brought to life in our programs and stimulate collaboration. For this reason, we are launching an initiative aimed at supporting civil society projects that can feed into the conversations we hope to have at COP.

As Pulitzer Center bridges the gap between information and action, this microgrant aims to support civil society organizations and groups to utilize Pulitzer Center reporting to contribute to a more informed and empowered community, inspiring action on climate change, rainforests, ocean, transparency and governance.

The objective is to have Pulitzer Center-supported journalism as the inspiration for the projects supported by this civil society microgrant. By leveraging this reporting, we expect to build projects that amplify the voices of affected communities, foster public debate, and drive meaningful audience engagement that will lead to impactful conversations at COP.

Topics that will be supported

The civil society organization microgrant builds on the Pulitzer Center’s impactful journalism projects, which focus on the following:  

• Climate and Labor:
  • Exploring the intersection of climate change and labor, including the challenges faced by vulnerable communities and the business sector's response to navigating climate-related impacts on workers’ rights.
• Rainforest:
  • Highlighting critical issues and solutions in tropical forests, such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, the rainforest, and energy transition nexus, and the effects on Indigenous and local communities.
• Ocean:
  • Addressing pressing topics like overfishing, marine pollution, climate change impacts on ocean ecosystems, and the livelihoods of coastal communities.
• Transparency and Governance: 
  • Uncovering governance challenges, good practices in natural resource management, and the ecological and societal impacts of policy decisions.

Type of activities we support

Examples of activities may include, but are not limited to: 

• Multi stakeholder dialogue:
  • Facilitating transparent and meaningful dialogues that bring together affected communities, journalists, decision-makers, and academia to advance climate and environmental action.
• Public forum:
  • Organizing a national forum to foster public debate on key environmental issues, with Pulitzer Center-supported reporting as one of the knowledge or data sources to provoke discussions and inspire solutions.
• Community engagement:
  • Knowledge-sharing activities between journalists and communities to amplify underreported issues and underrepresented voices. 
• Creative campaign:
  • Supporting creative campaigns to raise awareness on climate and environmental issues by amplifying journalism reporting and the diverse voice of affected communities;
• Other innovative projects: 
  • Creative ideas such as art exhibitions or other innovative mediums and platforms are also accepted.

Selection Criteria

• Journalism-inspired: 
  • All projects must utilize at least one reporting and involve one journalist supported by the Pulitzer Center as a central part of the project. 
  • The journalists can be involved at various levels, for project development and consultation, for example, and their participation will need to be confirmed once the project has been selected. 
• Audience-centric:
  • Describe the project's target audience and why this project is important for them.
• Impact-focused: 
  • Designed to achieve short-term outcomes that align with:
    • Improving the awareness and critical thinking of communities on critical climate, environment, and its intersectional issues
    • Contributing to more informed and transparent dialogues and decisions, practices, and policies related to climate, environment, and its intersectional issues
    • Equipping communities with information to take action at the local or global level.

Funding

Grants range from US$2,000 to US$4,000. We expect projects to be implemented and concluded within nine months of approval.

Our Mission

Our mission is to champion the power of stories to make complex issues relevant and inspire action.

Background

Every year, the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties (COP) convenes a global summit to assess progress and commit next steps to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and tackling the climate crisis. The latest COP 29 focused on finance left  unresolved agreements and outstanding commitments. Despite some disappointments, work and collaboration will continue this November as the climate community comes together again at the next COP. 

Central to these talks will be a focus on the pressure on the world’s threatened rainforests and ocean, the ecosystems on which  local communities depend for food, income, and livelihoods. Extractive industries will continue to drive market demand for resources that come from these frontiers; policies and regulations will be manipulated to accommodate political and business interests; the rights of vulnerable people will likely be violated; and new research, innovation, and solutions will emerge to respond to challenges. And so will the demand to report these issues to the public, who will ask for greater accountability based on what journalism can reveal. 

The Pulitzer Center aims to support projects that illuminate and investigate how the governance of rainforest and ocean ecosystems fits with domestic and international climate policies and actions. We hope that reports from the projects can serve as resources and catalysts for the climate community and interested members of the public as they prepare for the next round of COP discourse and negotiations.

What We Are Looking For

The Pulitzer Center is launching a special call for grant applications focusing on the COP. Journalists, editors, and independent media organizations are invited to submit a proposal highlighting environmental issues that are critical for the upcoming COP. 

The projects should focus on rainforests and ocean ecosystems, and the industries and management around them in regions that are most impacted, such as the Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. We seek project proposals that explore the intersection of climate policies and systemic issues affecting rainforests and the ocean, as well as the impact on local communities and surrounding ecosystems. Projects should consider these questions: why the issues need to be reported, why they haven’t been addressed, and what is at stake. And, equally important, what are the solutions, who should be involved, and who should be held accountable?

The projects can investigate how regulations, or the lack and misuse of them, enable industrial operations which exacerbate climate impacts; they can track supply chains that result in the destruction of protected areas and displacement of local communities; they can examine carbon trading or blue carbon schemes and how they are linked to lowering emissions; or they can showcase how scientific innovation helps vulnerable communities reduce climate risks. 

The projects should consider the voices of local and marginalized communities, and they can be cross-border investigations. We encourage projects driven by collaboration, innovation, and the use of data and technology. We look for projects with strong distribution plans with and commitment from credible local, regional, or international news outlets (print, online, broadcast, visual, radio, or a combination). 

Examples of topic ideas to explore:

• Land use and large-scale agro-industry
• Indigenous rights and policies
• Carbon storage and market schemes
• Extractive industries (mineral or deep-sea mining)
• Climate change and its effects environment and workers
• Oil and gas exploration
• Cross-border timber, wildlife, and fisheries trade and supply chains
• Renewable energy
• Marine geoengineering and marine carbon dioxide removal
• The blue economy, blue carbon, and ocean finance
• Blue carbon and ecosystem value
• Industrial waste management and environmental pollution
• Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), including ocean actions
• Shipping: emissions, pollution, labor 

Selection Criteria

Proposed projects should:

• Clearly show why the proposed topic is important for COP dialogues and actions.
• Be original and in-depth 
• Demonstrate attention to editing, reporting, and safety standards (for example, showing throughout pre-reporting research, avoiding unnecessary travel, and implementing safety measures for journalists and communities).
• Have a strong and wide distribution with relevant target audience. 
• Utilize innovative reporting techniques, such as data journalism and multimedia engagement.
• Involve collaboration. This could include local and/or Indigenous journalists, or domestic-international media partnerships. 
• Projects involving collaborations (such as between national and/or Indigenous journalists, or between domestic-international media partnerships) will get extra consideration, though projects by solo journalists or single media outlets are acceptable

Funding

Range between $5,000 to $15,000, depending on project specifics.

Budgets can include:

• Costs for field work, like travel, lodging, and meals
• Compensation for local journalist partners or translator
• Data analysis and visualizations

The African Bird Club (ABC) funds conservation projects across the African continent and related islands through our Awards and Major Grants Programmes. ABC is a critical player for conservation in Africa with a strong track record of helping to conserve the region’s birds and their habitats. Since our Conservation Fund was launched in 1996, we have made grants totalling over £600,000 to support more than 300 projects in 50 countries and territories of the ABC region.

Expedition Awards

Expedition Awards of up to £5,000 each may be made for larger, more ambitious projects outside the applicant’s home country. Such an award is often only one component of the funding for the expedition, which must take place within mainland Africa or related islands and be conservation-based with a strong bird component. The expedition must also be associated with a bona fide academic institution, conservation NGO or recognised natural history or bird club, and be able to demonstrate prior approval from the government of the host country.

Our Mission

Our mission is to continue and further the philanthropic legacy of Gardner Cowles, Jr. and the Cowles family, which includes promotion of education, social justice, health, and the arts.

The Founder

The Cowles Charitable Trust was first established in 1948 by Gardner “Mike” Cowles, Jr. (1903-1985). Born into the Cowles publishing family of Des Moines, Iowa, Mike was the youngest of Gardner Cowles and Florence Call Cowles’ six children. A newspaper editor and publisher by trade, he was committed to his family’s traditions of responsible, public-spirited, and innovative journalism as well as philanthropy. 

The Cowles Charitable Trust supports the arts, education, the advancement of ethical journalism, medical and climate research.

 Underwriting Community Well-being: Peace Building Ventures

NextWorldNow (NWN) holds that world communities can work together in an informed and personal way, leveraging technology and resources, to improve the well-being of participants in each community. 

Our Aim

We invest in and support community development projects requiring modest capital. We fund projects that are owned by the local community, whose social impact and return on investment can be measured, and whose success can be sustained. In the spirit of innovation, we aim for a diverse "portfolio" of projects and geographies to spread creative solutions. 

We work to discover and apply best practice social investment models on a small scale personal level. Our process invites ongoing direct connection with the sponsored community rather than an anonymous one-time donation. We believe it is possible to invest in projects that increase the wellbeing of communities while avoiding unintended harm. We operate with minimal overhead and a goal of funneling nearly 100% of grant resources to the intended community project.   

NextWorldNow Community Investments (NWN) works with individuals, communities, and other organizations to make this happen. We invite communities with project ideas to submit their requests for funding. We study the requests and make funding decisions. We welcome scale-able partnerships with other organizations on joint projects. We invest in solutions built to last, looking beyond short term fixes to address long standing problems. We continue to refine our process as we learn more about what works and what does not. NWN is a non profit private foundation with United States 501 (c) (3) status.  

Mission

We partner with communities, providing resources for projects defined by local leaders to improve the lives and well-being of the people in the community.

Vision

We see a world where every person has the basics for well-being: clean water, good food, housing, health care, safety, education, social activity, and jobs. We know that the current state of the world represents many unmet needs. Despite the size of the need which seems unlimited, we choose to act. We believe that small change leads to bigger change and is a preferred option to a default acceptance of the status quo.

Why This Program

We hold that we are connected with one another in the world community. Like thousands of individual cells connected within a single body shaping its health, the actions of individuals within the world community effect the wellbeing of all. Discomfort in a part of our collective body impacts the whole and serves as a source for other downstream social ills. This program is designed for individuals who share a view of a larger self, have decided that they have enough means to live comfortable lives, and want to share their resources with others in a creative and smart way.

Our Values

The following core values inform our mission and guide our actions as investors:

• Respect: We believe the community should decide what the community needs   
• Optimism: We believe that good outcomes can be the rule, not the exception, based on disciplined and continuous effort
• Innovation: We challenge ourselves and our collaborators to think creatively     
• Leverage: We expect that a smart investment process will grow resources, not waste them  
• Accountability: We deliver what we promise and avoid promising more than we can deliver. 
• Efficient: We are careful managers of resources
• Life Affirming: We enjoy being alive and want the same opportunity for all  
• Enlightened Compassion: We care for the well-being of others without neglecting care of self   

How We Work

NextWorldNow learns about community based projects that need more resources to meet their goals. We connect with the leaders, learn about their work, and decide which projects to invest in. Investments may include time spent supporting a project, in-kind resources, and financial grants. We invite community proposals. We rate the likely success and the impact of the project – such as how many people will benefit. We look for people and groups who have new ideas for old problems. We prefer to invest in a variety of geographic locations and issues in order to learn more about the world and its people. We may take on projects that are beyond our funding means by seeking like organizations to partner in the investment. 

What are our target investments?

Consistent with our mission, we are interested in supporting many types of community programs: 

• Civic Participation
• Education
• Effective Development 
• Environmental Mediation – Water, Sanitation, Deforestation
• Health Care Access and Treatment
• Human Rights
• Peace and Human Security
• Shelter
• Smallholder Productivity and Food Security
• Sustainable Markets/Livelihood

Thematic Areas

In all our areas of geographic focus, we support communities in the stewardship of their landscapes and seascapes and the biocultural diversity found in these places.

We welcome inquiries from nonprofit organizations working to:

• Conserve terrestrial and marine biological diversity.
• Sustain cultural diversity, linguistic diversity, and traditional knowledge systems and practices.
• Maintain ecosystem services (including, water, soil, and carbon sequestration).
• Support food sovereignty and economic vitality of local communities.
• Sustain healthy reefs and fisheries.

And, in coastal communities along the North Shore of Massachusetts, in addition to the thematic areas listed above, we support artistic expression projects that at their core:

• Raise awareness of an issue or catalyze action.
• Help promote the protection of the environment.
• Help foster community diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Approaches

We support community-based projects that seek to meet their objectives in a variety of ways. Among the kinds of approaches we support are those concerned with:

Among the kinds of approaches we support are those concerned with:

• Creating and/or ensuring effective management of terrestrial and marine protected areas, in particular where governance is led by communities (e.g., Indigenous Peoples’ and Community-Conserved Areas and Territories [ICCAs]).
• Ecological restoration involving native species, prioritizing efforts linked to existing conservation areas already valued by communities (e.g., a watershed, community forest, or sacred grove).
• Providing enhanced and alternative livelihoods to support local economies and community well-being (e.g., through agroecology and non-timber forest products).
• Environmental education that draws on Indigenous and local traditions and languages to address present-day problems.
• Use of the arts and other innovative methods to convey social and environmental messages.
• Fostering civic engagement of communities through creative facilitation and other methods (e.g., community-mapping exercises).

Our Philosophy

The Bess Spiva Timmons Foundation, a family foundation, was established by Mrs. Timmons in 1967, to enable her children and grandchildren to carry on an already existing program of assistance in the areas of education, health, medical research, the arts, and programs with emphasis to benefit minority groups, social services, and ecology. Consideration is also given to experimental ventures in these designated areas. 

Grants generally range from one to five thousand dollars.

Gupta Family Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, USA. Our mission is to support organizations that provide focused intervention in the lives of people who have been disadvantaged in some way to help them become self-reliant. We take a very broad view of “disadvantage” to include anything that holds a person back from realizing their potential, such as poverty, physical or mental disability, social alienation, etc. The foundation also supports relief agencies that serve people affected by emergencies such as natural disasters.

The foundation evaluates and awards annual and multi-year grants ranging from $5,000 to over $250,000 (USD). Our focus is on funding smaller organizations all around the world that are led by individuals with a deep personal commitment to their missions. 

Our selection criteria include:

• Mission alignment
• The organization is run by the founder or, if not, by a successor who embodies the original inspiration, passion and commitment of the founder.
• At least 90% of grant monies reaches the intended beneficiaries.
• The organization is non-sectarian, i.e.,
  • It does not, directly or indirectly, support or condone the proselytization of any religion,
  • It is not supported by or affiliated to a religious organization.

Background

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime and pave the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

We have set three ambitious goals for our work:

• Economic Inclusion for Family Wellbeing
• Equitable and Accountable Public Health and Healthcare Systems
• Healthy and Equitable Community Conditions

Making progress toward those Generational Goals requires changing the systems that underpin our society. Currently, those systems create and uphold inequity by placing more value on some lives than others, based on race, class, and other factors. To create a more equitable future, we must identify and dismantle structural racism in our systems. We must create space for health practitioners, community leaders, and researchers to rethink the way our systems work, dream up new possibilities, and put one foot in the future to anticipate opportunities or roadblocks that future may bring.

Through our Ideas for an Equitable Future team, we support visionary thinkers—scientists, anthropologists, engineers, technologists, creatives, and others—who are imagining what the world might look like in the next 10 to 100 years.With our funding, they explore how those futures may unfold in ways that could slow down or speed up our collective efforts to dismantle structural racism and improve health equity.

By applying this future-facing lens, our grantees are uncovering how emerging social, cultural, scientific, technological, environmental, and economic trends and forces could shape the future of health for everyone. They are also discovering and experimenting with cutting-edge ideas that have the potential to tear down barriers to health and wellbeing and reinvent our systems so that they work better for us all.

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation Vision

The Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, "A Foundation for All", was established in 2002. It was begun in order to give a clear voice for those who wish to be a part of the many, worthy, forces for change in our world.

We are a foundation whose purpose is to look ahead towards the future, giving the past its due by remembering where we came from, and how much we can all accomplish together. We aim to make the critical difference on our planet by recognizing and having respect for our ever changing world. We respect all Life, the Environment, and all People, no matter who they are.