Best Social Justice Grants in Pennsylvania

The Transformative Organizing Grants, funded by the Arch Community Fund, aim to bolster grassroots movements advocating for systemic change. These grants, ranging from $15,000 to $25,000, prioritize organizations with 501(c)(3) status and an annual budget under $1 million. The focus is on empowering community leadership through anti-capitalist solutions, promoting intersectionality, and addressing immediate needs while fostering long-term structural change. Eligible groups are encouraged to apply for support in their transformative organizing efforts.

About NIF

Advancing Equality for All Israelis

The New Israel Fund (NIF) helps Israel live up to its founders’ vision of a society that ensures complete equality to all its inhabitants. Our aim is to advance liberal democracy, including freedom of speech and minority rights, and to fight the inequality, injustice and extremism that diminish Israel.

From Israel’s first rape crisis centers, to fighting discrimination, NIF-funded organizations have driven positive social change and furthered justice and equality. NIF has provided over $350 million to more than 950 organizations since our inception in 1979.

Naomi Chazan Global Activism Fellowship

Want to travel to Israel/Palestine while advancing equality, democracy, and peace for all?

The New Israel Fund’s Naomi Chazan Global Activism Fellowship offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to visit Israel/Palestine, meet frontline Israeli and Palestinian activists, and learn about issues of war, peace, and inequality by seeing the reality on the ground. 

Fellows will visit Israel/Palestine on November 3-10, 2026.

This trip is a great opportunity to learn alongside peers and friends (ages 21 – 35). NIF is based on the simple idea that those of us who share a commitment to Israel/Palestine and to progressive values can join together to work for equality, freedom, and human rights. You will join a cohort of participants from the U.S. and Canada building relationships across borders to be sustained for years to come.

Following the trip, participants are expected to organize at least two NIF events in their home communities, with support from NIF staff. These events could look like a report-back highlighting the participants’ learnings from the trip, educational programs featuring NIF grantees/partners, or something else entirely that is tailored to the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual needs of the fellow’s communities.

The program is subsidized by generous donors in the NIF community. All “on-the-ground” costs—your hotel accommodation and almost all meals—will be covered by NIF. Participants are responsible for purchasing their own airfare and travel/health insurance. If the cost of airfare is a barrier for you, please apply anyway. Limited airfare subsidies may be available.

The Baugh Foundation supports progressive, inclusive, nonprofit organizations that reflect the love of Christ by providing assistance to those in need, enriching the lives of children and youth, keeping faith communities informed and engaged, and guarding the wall of separation between church and state.We welcome applications from progressive, faith-based organizations. At this time, the vast majority of our funding goes to progressive Baptist organizations or initiatives, and organizations that work to guard the separation of church and state. We believe that a free church in a free state is dependent upon a functioning democracy.Funding Priorities: 

• Social justice and advocacy
• Progressive faith-based journalism
• Meeting basic human needs
• Progressive faith-based post-secondary education
• Inclusivity initiatives
• Arts and enrichment

The Amy Adina Schulman Memorial Fund

The Amy Adina Schulman Memorial Fund is a Princeton, New Jersey-based endowment fund providing grants to individuals, young adults who volunteer or intern for progressive social action projects or programs in an area of their interest and commitment. The Amy Adina Fund also sponsors a lecture each year on a relevant and timely topic related to its educational mission.

The Amy Adina Schulman Memorial Fund was started in 1987 one year after Amy Adina, 20, died suddenly while a student and activist at Rutgers University. It is a realization of her family and her communities’ desire to celebrate her life, to fulfill her dreams and her potential. Since its inception, almost 1,500 grants have been awarded for work in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States—nearly $1,000,000 in total. The Amy Adina Schulman Memorial Fund is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

About Our Grants

Small grants (depending on length of service), are awarded to as many applicants as possible rather than giving larger amounts to fewer individuals. The number of awards has grown each year thanks to annual contributions as well as to gifts sent to the Fund to honor special occasions and life cycle events.

The Richard L and Freda K Flerlage Foundation

Our Mission

Working to empower underserved populations through small grants in support of literacy, healthcare, reduction of poverty, and the promotion of social and environmental justice.

We are a small family foundation, when possible we aim to support organizations with relatively small operating funds where our small grants will have their greatest possible impact.

Our average grant is $3,800.

Foundation of the Federal Bar Association

The Foundation of the Federal Bar Association provides the best way for practitioners to give back to the Federal legal community. Chartered by Congress in 1954, the Foundation serves people in communities across the United States through its generous grants, scholarships, and programming.

Our Mission: The Foundation’s mission is to:

• Promote and support legal research and education;
• Advance the science of jurisprudence;
• Facilitate the administration of justice;
• Foster improvements in the practice of Federal law

Foundation Grants

Foundation grants support community service projects and civics programs which comply with the Foundation’s mission to promote and support legal research and education; advance the science of jurisprudence; facilitate the administration of justice; and foster improvements in the practice of Federal law.

Civics Education Grant

The Civics Grant Program is designed to support projects and initiatives that promote a wider public understanding of democratic principles, the judicial system and the rule of law. Through targeted funding, the program empowers FBA chapters, sections, divisions, national standing committees (FBA entity), and other organizations to develop and support projects in their communities that foster public understanding of the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship, particularly among younger Americans.

Applicants may only receive one (1) Foundation grant per year.

Proteus Fund

Proteus Fund partners with foundations, individual donors, activists, and other allies to work strategically towards racial, gender, queer, and disability justice and an inclusive, fully-representative democracy. We curate an ecosystem of mutually reinforcing, aligned donor collaboratives and fiscally sponsored projects that deploy a creative array of strategies and tactics to further this vision.

RISE Together Fund: Small Grants

Call For Application

RISE Together Fund (RTF), an initiative of Proteus Fund, is announcing an open call for inquiries for our 2026 Small Grants Fund for U.S. public charity organizations or fiscally sponsored projects of such organizations, that support Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian (BAMEMSA) communities.

As part of RTF’s commitment to prioritizing the needs and sustainability of the fields we collectively support, RTF will provide organizations with general operating grants to allow for organizational flexibility when possible. 

About RTF's Small Grants Fund

BAMEMSA movements have a strong history of organizing and collaboration, and are well poised with the knowledge, learning and experience to build an inclusive, multiracial democratic future and respond to the current unconstitutional threats facing the country. Through this fund, RTF aims to resource community power building organizations that use a multiplicity of approaches to create change rooted in the strength and leadership of BAMEMSA movements.

RTF supports groups that build community power, strengthen movement bases, defend civil and human rights including freedom of protest, speech, religion, and association, end the criminalization and surveillance of our communities, and respond to the rise in xenophobia, Islamophobia, and hate. RTF values groups that are intersectional in their approach and have or are developing sustainable long-term strategies to support BAMEMSA communities and movements.

Priority Issue Areas

• Protecting and advancing the rights of immigrant and refugee BAMEMSA communities by responding to harmful policies and practices, and strengthening community-led advocacy at the local, state, or federal level.

• Mobilizing BAMEMSA communities for nonpartisan civic engagement and election protection by increasing nonpartisan voter participation, combating voter suppression, and building sustained civic infrastructure ahead of, during, and between elections.

• Advocating for U.S. policy changes that end violence in Gaza and the West Bank by elevating Palestinian voices, influencing public discourse, and engaging in advocacy that shifts U.S. political, diplomatic, or funding decisions.

• Challenging harmful national security frameworks and their impacts on BAMEMSA communities by documenting, exposing, and organizing against surveillance, Islamophobia, and policies rooted in the War on Terror, particularly in the context of 9/11’s 25-year legacy.

• Responding to emerging opportunities and threats affecting BAMESMA communities such as influencing policy developments, addressing civic issues in the U.S., or developing narratives to change public discourse. This includes work addressing weaponizing issues around bodily autonomy and LGBTQ+ identity to fracture movements and communities.

Priority Strategies

RTF values organizations that take an intersectional approach and are intentionally building long-term community power. We prioritize support for groups that strengthen movement ecosystems, deepen their base, and defend the rights of BAMEMSA communities through the following strategies:

• Convening, Collaboration, and Movement Coordination: Bringing together organizations, leaders, and coalitions to align shared goals, coordinate strategies to advance shared visions, and reduce fragmentation across the field. This includes facilitating strategic convenings, developing platforms for collaboration, building cross-issue or cross-regional partnerships, developing shared agendas or issue campaigns, and strengthening trust and alignment among movement actors.
• Community Power-Building, Base Building, Civic Engagement, and Organizing: Expanding and activating a grassroots base within BAMEMSA communities to drive collective action and policy change. This includes community leadership development, public education campaigns, community organizing, nonpartisan voter engagement and election protection, and ongoing nonpartisan civic participation efforts that build sustained community power.
• Legal and Policy Advocacy Infrastructure: Advancing legal strategies and policy advocacy that expand and protect the rights of BAMEMSA communities. This includes impact litigation, legal advocacy, know-your-rights efforts, policy development, and advocacy at a local, state, or federal level.
• Communications and Narrative Strategy: Shaping public discourse and advancing narratives that reflect the experiences, dignity, and demands of BAMEMSA communities. This includes developing messaging strategies, producing and amplifying media, countering harmful or divisive narratives (including those targeting immigrants, religious minorities, LGBTQ+ communities, and reproductive rights), and increasing the voice share of BAMEMSA community members.
• Bolstering Movement Infrastructure: Strengthening the internal capacity and long-term sustainability of organizations and the broader movement ecosystem. This includes organizations supporting leadership development and pipelines, data and technology infrastructure, security and safety, and other core functions that enable groups to operate effectively and respond to evolving challenges.

Limited funding may be available for requests above $25,000.

Seattle Foundation

Seattle Foundation is an agent of change, igniting powerful, rewarding philanthropy to make Greater Seattle a stronger, more vibrant community for all.

At Seattle Foundation, we believe that community is more than a place. It’s the shared understanding that our joy and well-being are tied to one another. Every day we work with nonprofits, philanthropists, and partners like you to strengthen community by igniting powerful philanthropy and advancing long-term solutions. Because it takes all of us to create a joyful region where every person can thrive.

Theresa Earenfight Scholarship

The purpose of the Theresa Earenfight Scholarship is to support undergrad or graduate students who are passionate about the intersection of social justice and animal welfare within a historical context. Applicants should be studying history, in particular how history intersects with animal activism, animal rights, animal liberation, and other related topics. Preference will be given to students with strong financial need, students of color and those from historically marginalized communities, and/or students who may face barriers to receiving other scholarships. This is a $10,000 annual scholarship renewable through the completion of the student’s degree, assuming the student continues to meet the eligibility criteria. The scholarship may be applied to tuition and fees, or other academic expenses payable to the college or university.

Deb & John Quirk Memorial Scholarship

The Hastings Community Foundation is excited to announce the creation of the Deb and John Quirk Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will provide a $10,000 annual scholarship and is renewable for a total award of up to $40,000. One scholarship will be awarded each year. This scholarship is only available to graduating seniors from Hastings High, Adams Central, or Hastings Catholic Schools. Applicants must be focused on impacting social justice through their education and future employment, as illustrated through an essay submitted to the scholarship committee.

The Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship is a yearlong program designed for early-career and mid-career faculty to enhance their scholarly writing and leadership skills. Participants will receive mentorship and training to develop personalized career roadmaps, navigate challenges, and create impactful research questions. The fellowship, costing $1200, also offers limited scholarships thanks to generous donations. It equips fellows with vital skills for academic advancement, promoting their potential for leadership roles in their institutions.

Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship

The yearlong Leadership through Scholarship Fellowship offers training and mentorship for early-career and mid-career faculty with a focus on developing scholarly writing skills for academic advancement and leadership.

Mid-Career Fellows

Mid-career fellows will benefit from tailored mentorship and guidance to reach the next milestone in their careers, including:

• Receive 1:1 mentorship specific to their challenges or roadblocks to promotion or leadership
• Participate in a detailed CV review to determine edits for promotion
• Work as a group with mentor faculty on challenges in scholarship to move forward with stuck projects
• Learn how to navigate mid-career leadership challenges

The tuition cost for fellows is $1200. A limited number of scholarships are available to cover the fellowship tuition due to a generous gift from Drs Marjorie Bowman and Robert Choplin.

Benefits of the Fellowship

Duane Roberts Scholarship

The Duane Roberts Scholarship was established in memory of Duane Roberts, a Kalamazoo Public Schools graduate, community activist, and KPS Board of Education member, to provide scholarship support to KPS minority students.

KZCF scholarships may be applied to any items under your school’s cost of attendance (COA). Each school has a different COA that may include items such as tuition, fees, housing, transportation, food, health insurance, etc. Scholarship payments are sent directly to your institution. 

This scholarship is a one-time award, meaning that it will not repeat in subsequent years. The money awarded can be applied to your education costs alongside other scholarships or funding that you may receive, and there are no necessary steps once funds are sent.

The Stray Dog Institute Grants aim to transform food systems by providing funding and support to nonprofits focused on animal welfare, environmental advocacy, and food justice. With grant amounts typically ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, the Institute prioritizes pragmatic solutions that foster dignity, justice, and sustainability. By addressing systemic issues in food production, they promote a compassionate approach that respects both people and animals. This initiative seeks to create a sustainable future for all stakeholders in the food system.

The Alpha Delta Kappa Xi Education Scholarship supports graduate students pursuing careers in education. This scholarship aims to recognize and foster fellowship among educators, promoting educational excellence and altruism. By providing financial assistance, it encourages aspiring educators to achieve their goals and contribute to the field of education. Eligible applicants can complete a single online application to match with multiple scholarship opportunities, streamlining the application process.

The ISF Public Interest Legal Fellowship empowers American Muslims by providing opportunities in public interest law. This fellowship offers a salary of $70,000, professional development workshops, and mentorship to help fellows advance their careers. Applicants must be active members of the Muslim community, have graduated from law school within the last three years, and have secured a host organization for their project proposal. This initiative aims to increase representation and influence in policy-making.

The ISF Distribution Grant, offered by the Islamic Scholarship Fund, aims to support emerging Muslim filmmakers in distributing completed narrative and documentary films. Launched in 2014, the program fosters positive storytelling about the Muslim community. Grant recipients receive funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities to enhance their projects. With over $625,000 awarded to date, this initiative emphasizes the importance of showcasing diverse narratives through festival submissions and digital platforms, ensuring broader audience engagement.

The ISF Impact Campaign Grant supports completed short or feature-length films that aim to create a positive societal impact through outreach and community engagement. This grant is available to all filmmakers, focusing on projects that depict American Muslim narratives. Recipients will receive funding along with mentorship to enhance their impact campaigns, which must include a comprehensive proposal detailing goals and success metrics.

The ISF Documentary Film Grant supports emerging Muslim filmmakers creating impactful narratives that resonate with diverse audiences. Established in 2014, this grant has allocated $625,000 to over 111 filmmakers, focusing on projects in production or post-production. It offers funding, mentorship, and networking opportunities, emphasizing journalistic integrity and originality. Eligible projects must depict American Muslim themes and be consistent with ISF's mission of using art to influence public policy and opinion.

The ISF Social Justice Short Film Grant supports emerging Muslim filmmakers in creating impactful short narrative or documentary films that address social justice issues. Launched in 2014 by the Islamic Scholarship Fund, this program aims to raise awareness and provoke dialogue about inequality and oppression. With a total of $625,000 awarded, the grant offers funding along with mentorship and networking opportunities to enhance storytelling and community impact.

The ISF Narrative Film Grant, established by the Islamic Scholarship Fund, supports emerging Muslim filmmakers by providing funding for narrative films in production or post-production stages. With a focus on compelling storytelling and positive portrayals of the Muslim community, the grant offers mentorship and networking opportunities to enhance the filmmakers' projects. Since its inception in 2014, it has awarded $625,000 to over 111 filmmakers, promoting diverse narratives that resonate with audiences.

The AES Hawaiʻi Foundation Grant supports communities near AES Hawaiʻi’s renewable energy projects, focusing on social justice, education, environmental stewardship, and community health. Preference is given to nonprofit organizations in these areas, but statewide entities may also apply. Successful projects should align with the Foundation’s impact pillars, demonstrate measurable community benefits, and address unmet needs, ensuring long-term positive effects on the local community.

The Pittsburgh Foundation Equity and Social Justice Grants: Youth Justice aims to support nonprofit organizations addressing the needs of youth involved with the criminal and juvenile justice systems in Allegheny County. The foundation prioritizes funding for initiatives that promote civic engagement and systemic change, emphasizing leadership from those directly impacted by injustice. Grants typically range from $10,000 to $150,000, aiming to prevent disproportionate youth system involvement and enhance staff skills in trauma-informed practices.

The Foundation for Health Equity (F4HE) is dedicated to addressing systemic health inequities in Northwest Philadelphia. Through strategic partnerships, they empower organizations to tackle issues like food insecurity and promote healthy aging. Grants are available for 501(c)(3) nonprofits in specific zip codes, supporting both immediate needs and systemic change. F4HE emphasizes advocacy, community engagement, and sustainable health solutions to foster vibrant neighborhoods where everyone can achieve optimal health.

The WWT Foundation Grant aims to empower organizations aligned with the foundation's values, focusing on community service, employee engagement, and business impact. Key areas of support include career readiness, STEM education, human services, and health and wellness. Eligible organizations must be located in the U.S. and registered as 501(c)(3). Applications are accepted year-round, allowing for flexible engagement and support for impactful community initiatives.

The Bread & Roses Opportunity Fund Grant supports grassroots initiatives aimed at advancing social, racial, and economic justice in the Philadelphia area. Since its inception in 1977, the fund has provided over $17 million to local organizations committed to collective action and systemic change. Grants are available for special projects or urgent needs, focusing on community organizing rather than social services, and prioritize leadership from within affected communities.

The Emergent Fund Grant, established in 2016, supports BIPOC-led social justice movements through rapid response funding. It addresses urgent community needs by providing low-barrier grants to organizations facing crises such as family separation and systemic oppression. The fund prioritizes initiatives that foster Black liberation, multiracial solidarity, and empower communities to build transformative power. By investing in innovative strategies, the Emergent Fund aims to challenge oppressive structures and advance social justice, ensuring that impacted communities are at the forefront of their own advocacy.

The Actions of Public Witness Grant, offered by the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program, provides matching grants of up to $1,500 to Unitarian Universalist congregations engaging in timely actions of public witness. This initiative supports efforts in social and environmental justice, encouraging congregations to mobilize during critical moments. Grants are available on a rolling basis and are intended for urgent projects that extend beyond the regular grant timeframe. Notably, individual applications are not accepted.