Search Through Social Justice Grants in California in the U.S.

Overview

Founded in 2007 by Kat Taylor and Tom Steyer, Beneficial State Bank is a B Corp Certified community development bank with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. One hundred percent of the economic rights of Beneficial State Bank are owned not by private shareholders, but by nonprofit organizations, including Beneficial State Foundation. As nonprofit shareholders, we reinvest all distributed bank profit back into communities to promote thriving people, a healthy economy and a prosperous planet. This ownership structure allows us to learn and develop new metrics and standards as Beneficial State Bank tests and implements equitable banking products and practices.

As of 2023, Beneficial State Bank is a $1.7 billion asset state-chartered, federally insured bank with branches in California, Oregon, and Washington. Learn more about the origins of Beneficial State Bank.

Supporting Our Communities With Sponsorships

From day one, Beneficial State Bank has been committed to supporting our community above and beyond our lending by providing sponsorships to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations each year. We provide sponsorships to 501(c)(3) organizations in California, Oregon, and Washington that are engaged in transformative social justice and environmental work in our target sectors:

Social:

• Affordable and Multi-family Housing
• Arts, Culture and Community Building
• Education and Youth Development
• Beneficial Financial Services
• Economic, Business and Job Development
• Making, Manufacturing and Production
• Social Justice

Environmental:

• Environmental Sustainability
• Health and Well-being (non-food)
• Healthy Food
• Other Mission Categories (Business Ownership, Structures and Practices)

Beneficial State Bank has a unique business model compared to other banks. As a mission-driven bank majority-owned by the nonprofit Beneficial State Foundation, we work to maximize prosperity for our communities and our customers instead of working to maximize shareholder profits. We structure our business practices to benefit our stakeholders, not just our shareholders, so our total sponsorship budget is smaller than what you’ll find at a large, national bank. Therefore, we are limited in the number of sponsorships we can approve each year.

Impact 100 Redwood Circle

Impact 100 Redwood Circle conducts two separate grants cycles each year. Members are invited to nominate nonprofits for each grant cycle.

Impact 100 Redwood Circle Impact Grant

Our $100,000 Impact Grant is awarded in the fall, along with smaller Merit Grants awarded to the two Impact Grant finalists. These grants are designated for nonprofits focusing on the Health/Community Betterment focus area.

Focus Areas:

Operate within the Health/Community Betterment focus area. Impact 100 Redwood Circle defines this as organizations whose mission includes one or more of the following aims:

• Positively impact the physical, social, mental health, and/or well-being of adults, children, families.
• Strengthen and enhance the lives of children, teens, adults, and seniors.

Impact Grant funds may be used for core mission support, which includes but is not limited to:

• Continuing or expanding programs.
• Launching new programs.
• Staff and volunteer recruitment, retention, and development.
• Acquisition of technology, both software, and hardware.
• Capital expenditures.
• Building and diversifying revenue streams.
• Developing and implementing long-term strategic plans.
• Refining communications, marketing and outreach.
• Acquiring or improving program measurement tools and evaluation capacity.
• Collaborating with other organizations to improve services or eliminate duplication.
• General operating expenses and overhead costs.

Impact Grant Guidelines

• An organization may submit only one application each year.
• The Full Proposal Application must include measurable goals.
• Impact Grant funds must be used within a 24-month period.
  • Grantees may determine the amounts and intervals of fund disbursal and have up to three years to demonstrate the impact of the grant.
• Impact Grantees may not apply for another Impact Grant for three years but may apply thereafter.

PNC Foundation

Strengthening and enriching the lives of our neighbors in communities where we live and work.

Vision & Mission

For decades, we have provided resources to seed ideas, foster development initiatives and encourage leadership in nonprofit organizations where imagination and determination are at work enhancing people's lives everyday.

The PNC Foundation's priority is to form partnerships with community-based nonprofit organizations in order to enhance educational opportunities, with an emphasis on early childhood education, and to promote the growth of communities through economic development initiatives.

Foundation Grant

The PNC Foundation supports a variety of nonprofit organizations with a special emphasis on those that work to achieve sustainability and touch a diverse population, in particular, those that support early childhood education and/or economic development.

Education

The PNC Foundation supports educational programs for children and youth, particularly early childhood education initiatives that meet the criteria established through PNC Grow Up Great. Specifically, PNC Grow Up Great grants must:

• Support early education initiatives that benefit children from birth to age five; and
• Serve a majority of children (>50%) from low- to moderate-income families; and
• Adhere to all other standard PNC Foundation guidelines, as outlined on the PNC Foundation website, applicant eligibility quiz, as well as the Foundation policies and procedures; and
• Include one or a combination of the following:
  • direct services/programs for children in their classroom or community;
  • professional development/workforce development for early childhood educators;
  • family and/or community engagement in children’s early learning
• Additional considerations:
  • The grant focus should include math, science, reading, vocabulary development, the arts, financial education, or social/emotional development.
  • The grant recipient, or collaborative partner, should have early childhood education as an area of focus. If the organization’s focus is beyond birth to age five, the specific grant must be earmarked for birth to age five.
  • Incorporate opportunities for PNC volunteers in classroom or non-classroom-based activities.

Economic Development

Economic development organizations, including those which enhance the quality of life through neighborhood revitalization, cultural enrichment and human services are given support. Priority is given to community development initiatives that strategically promote the growth of low-and moderate-income communities and/or provide services to these communities.

• Affordable Housing
  • The PNC Foundation understands the critical need for affordable housing for low-and moderate-income individuals.
  • We are committed to providing support to nonprofit organizations that:
    • give counseling and services to help these individuals maintain their housing stock;
    • offer transitional housing units and programs; and/or
    • offer credit counseling assistance to individuals, helping them to prepare for homeownership.
• Community Development
  • Because small businesses are often critical components of community growth and help foster business development, the PNC Foundation provides support to nonprofit organizations that
    • offer technical assistance to, or loan programs for, small businesses located in low-and moderate-income areas or
    • support small businesses that employ low-and moderate-income individuals.
• Community Services
  • Support is given to social services organizations that benefit the health, education, quality of life or provide essential services for low-and moderate-income individuals and families.
  • The PNC Foundation supports job training programs and organizations that provide essential services for their families.
• Arts & Culture
  • Support is given for cultural enrichment programs benefitting the community.
• Revitalization & Stabilization of Low-and Moderate-Income Areas
  • The PNC Foundation supports nonprofit organizations that serve low-and moderate-income neighborhoods by improving living and working conditions.
  • Support is given to organizations that help stabilize communities, eliminate blight and attract and retain businesses and residents to the community.

The Rosenberg Foundation works together with our grantees, other funders and experts to dismantle the systemic barriers that stand in the way of equity, freedom and opportunity for far too many Californians.

Priority Areas

Through its grantmaking, the Rosenberg Foundation supports leadership development, policy advocacy and grassroots organizing to dismantle barriers to opportunity for low-income communities and communities of color through the following priority areas.

2022-2024 Leading Edge Fellows

Launched in 2016, the Leading Edge Fund was created to seed, incubate and accelerate bold ideas from the next generation of progressive movement leaders in California. Each fellow receives $250,000 in general support over three years; individualized technical assistance in program development, fundraising and strategic communications, executive coaching; and trainings and retreats. The 2022-2024 Leading Edge fellows are working to end and replace the incarceration and criminalization of young people of color, build economic hubs led by and for transgender people, create alternatives to police response, end child poverty, and much more. These fellows represent the next generation of changemakers with bold ideas for winning justice for Black communities and communities of color. In addition to the Rosenberg Foundation, the fund is generously supported by Hellman Foundation, Meadow Fund, Akonadi Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation and The California Endowment.

Justice & Public Safety

Criminal justice reform is one of the most urgent civil rights issues of our day. Nowhere are the barriers to equal opportunity more visible than in our fractured criminal justice system, which perpetuates an ongoing cycle of crime and discrimination that undermines entire communities. This can, and must, change.

Through its Justice and Public Safety portfolio, the Foundation uses a mix of grantmaking, communications, and direct activities aimed at advancing sentencing reform; promoting alternatives to incarceration; and reducing recidivism through reentry, including by bolstering employment opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.

In 2013, the Foundation joined with other funders, including The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations, to spearhead a powerful new campaign, Californians for Safety and Justice, which aims to shrink the prison and jail system and invest the savings in treatment and crime prevention.

The foundation also partners with a number of other funders as part of a funders’ affinity group focused on criminal justice reform: the Funders for Safety and Justice in California. FSJC includes the Open Society Foundations,Ford Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Sierra Health Foundation, Fund for Nonviolence, the Women’s Foundation of California, the van Löben Sels/Rembe Rock Foundation, Akonadi Foundation, and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

Immigrant Rights & Workers’ Rights

At the Rosenberg Foundation, we believe that California’s future relies on fully engaged and empowered immigrant communities. We have worked with our grant partners to ensure that immigrant populations are part of the civic and economic life of our state by supporting immigration reform, bolstering grassroots advocacy, enforcing voting and language rights, and strengthening the communications capacity of immigrant rights advocates.

We also are focused on building the capacity of California’s “Dream” movement to engage in immigrant related policy issues in California both for the short- as well as long-term. California has been described as the epicenter for the Dream movement with a quarter of the nation’s Dreamers (over 500,000) and a majority of its leadership living in the state. California’s Dreamers have accomplished much with limited resources, including the successful enactment in 2011 of the California Dream Act, which provides state public funding for student grants and loans. Dream youth represent the future of the immigrant rights movement in California and are a critical part of the immigrant rights advocacy infrastructure in the state. California’s Dreamers have already established themselves as visionaries; our job is to continue to support them in their pioneering work.

The Rosenberg Foundation also has long supported work at the intersection of economic justice and immigrant rights.

Supporting California’s farmworkers has been a priority of the Rosenberg Foundation since the 1950s, when its work in the area was launched by a grant to a citizen’s group near Fresno to establish seasonal clinics for the children of farmworkers. Given that California agriculture is now a $43 billion dollar industry that in turn generates at least $100 billion in related economic activity, and that the vast majority of the farmworkers in the state are immigrants, fighting for farmworkers’ civil and human rights is both an economic and moral imperative. Discrimination in labor laws, low wages, and poor working, health and and job safety conditions are ongoing issues for many of California’s farmworkers, as are broken immigration laws that fracture families and have a significant negative effect on the U.S. economy; at the Rosenberg Foundation, we regard these issues as matters of civil and human rights.

The Foundation invests in strategies that support pathways to legalization for California farmworkers who are undocumented, that strengthen labor protections for agricultural guest workers, and challenge unfair wages and unsafe, exploitative working conditions.

We also invest in efforts to improve wages and conditions for day laborers; those who work in the garment, restaurant, and car wash industries; and domestic workers. Strategies we support include labor organizing, impact litigation, and policy advocacy.

Civil Rights & Civic Engagement

As recent events around the country have demonstrated, the nation’s work in civil rights is far from finished. At the Rosenberg Foundation, we believe that strengthening civil rights advocacy in California is of paramount importance; indeed, it is at the heart of our overall aim to improve the lives of Californians in every way.

California is a minority-majority state, meaning that no single racial or ethnic group forms a majority. And yet California is home to between seven and ten million registered voters who rarely vote, the majority of whom are people of color. Increasing civic participation among underrepresented populations, particularly in communities of color and among low-income communities, is critical.

The Rosenberg Foundation is one of the founding members of the California Civic Participation Funders Collaborative, which was spearheaded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. Other funders active in the roundtable include The California Endowment, The James Irvine Foundation, the Women’s Foundation of California, the McKay Foundation, and the Kapor Center for Social Impact. The funders came together in early 2010 with the shared goal of increasing civic participation among underrepresented populations, and now is working in four counties in California to increase civic participation in communities of color and among low-income populations.

The foundation also invests in longstanding California civil rights organizations, builds the individual and collective capacity of a new generation of young leaders at the helm of these venerable civil rights institutions, and seeds innovative efforts to make voting accessible.

Background

The Foundation’s primary grantmaking strategy is place-based. We seek opportunities to make clusters of complementary grants in specific communities, supporting public and nonprofit organizations that serve essentially the same children, youth, and families.

We respond first and foremost to the capacities and vision of the community and to expressed community needs. Then we seek ways to build on the insights, resources, and achievements generated through our grantees’ efforts.

We prioritize places in Northern or Central California that are experiencing acute and widespread poverty, where people of color likely experience disparate outcomes. Our goal is to achieve more capable, responsive, and effective community organizations and institutions.

Through the sustained, concerted efforts of those organizations, we expect community residents to realize benefits including:

• The healthy development and education of children
• The economic and social advancement of their families
• The opportunity to influence the conditions that shape their lives

Funding Priorities

The Foundation’s primary grantmaking strategy is place-based. We seek opportunities to make clusters of complementary grants in specific communities, supporting public and nonprofit organizations that serve essentially the same children, youth, and families.

Families

We support programs that honor lived experiences and incorporate resident voices in the design, implementation, and governance of family-support services.

We fund programs and community-building efforts that help families build on their strengths and increase their self-efficacy, and that implement trauma-responsive practices. We also support comprehensive programs that safeguard equitable access to concrete services such as food, shelter, childcare, and safety.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Family resource centers that promote physical health and wellness, child development, and parenting;
• Organizations that build pathways for families to attain financial literacy, employment, and economic mobility;
• Community-organizing initiatives focused on emerging issues prioritized and led by residents.

Education

We believe that high-quality public schools, available to all, are essential for society to thrive.

We fund initiatives within schools and school districts to provide equitable learning for all students, particularly students of color and those living in poverty. We support engaging students in relevant, immersive learning that prepares them for college, career, and citizenship, equipping them to help solve complex challenges in their communities and the world. We also invest in organizations outside of school districts that, along with community residents, hold public schools to account and help them improve.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Efforts within schools to improve teaching and academic support, particularly for underserved students, by fostering teamwork, adaptation, and organizational learning;
• Organizing efforts among students and families to effect positive changes in their schools and expand learning opportunities;
• Programs promoting reconciliation and mental and emotional health among students and educators;
• Outdoor education and stewardship programs that link academics to life and deepen students’ understanding of the environment, climate, and community health.

Youth

We support youth development organizations that provide safe spaces for youth to explore their interests and aspirations, build confidence and resilience, and solidify a commitment to lifelong learning and community engagement.

We prioritize programs focused on the mental health and well-being of young people and supporting their agency and leadership, as well as their readiness for higher education and careers. We support organizations implementing trauma-responsive practices in their programs and services for youth.

Examples of grant-funded activities include, but are not limited to:

• Addressing the mental health and well-being of students through school-based wellness centers;
• Providing afterschool and/or summer programming that engages youth academically and in special interests such as the performing arts;
• Developing youth leadership, training them in community organizing skills, and supporting them to create solutions for their communities around issues such as educational equity, racial justice, and environmental health.

Supporting Programs

Through our active engagement in communities, we often learn about critical needs and opportunities that lie outside our main program areas.

Leadership & Organizational Health: Cowell commonly funds the direct costs of delivering services and operating programs for community residents; but we are keenly aware that the scope and quality of those services, and ultimately their effectiveness, depend on the vitality of our grantee organizations. Accordingly, grantees in the Families, Education, and Youth program areas may inquire about complementary grants through the Leadership & Organizational Health program.

In addition, Cowell supports organizations whose mission and core capability is leadership development.

Community Resources: Through our active engagement in communities, we often learn about critical needs and opportunities that lie outside our main program areas. For that purpose, we maintain a budget for responsive grants in communities where we are active. This complementary program is necessarily broad, but likely areas of focus include:

• Affordable housing construction and preservation;
• Small business and workforce development;
• Access to banking services, credit, and other supports for economic security;
• Neighborhood infrastructure such as parks, gardens, and greenways.

Across our programs, the funding guidelines incorporate four themes:

• Racial Equity
• Economic Advancement
• Community Health
  • Environmental Health and Justice
  • Mental Health
• Resident Voice and Agency

Types of Grants

Place-Based

• Grants awarded to organizations in active Cowell communities across program areas and initiatives.

Resource Capacity-Building

• Resource Capacity-Building grants from a secondary strategy that supports our primary, place-based investments.
• These grants enhance the resources, practices, and cohesiveness of the program fields in which Cowell operates, and to create access to such resources on behalf of place-based grantees

Exploratory

• Types of work that currently lie outside the program area guidelines.
• These grants are awarded while Cowell is prospecting and developing relationships in a community, before determining whether it is appropriate to fully engage there under the place-based guidelines.
• Exploratory grants may also be awarded as Cowell seeks to learn about emerging fields of work beyond the current program guidelines.

Our Program Areas

The Sills Family Foundation’s primary grants program intends to help children from low income families live up to their highest promise by concentrating on the following four areas:

Comprehensive Services to Families in Crisis- With a special focus on families impacted by incarceration

The Sills Family Foundation has a major focus on programs that support families impacted by the criminal justice system. We partner with programs that work to strengthen the parent/child bond during incarceration through facilitating transportation for prison visits, creating child-sensitive visiting areas in correctional facilities, providing parenting education classes to incarcerated parents, as well as supporting families through the re-entry period. This effort extends to addressing the inequities in the bail system, preventing juvenile detentions, and providing high quality legal services to low income populations.

In considering the rehabilitative opportunities so rarely provided to incarcerated individuals, the Foundation supports higher education and arts programming inside correctional facilities. The Foundation has begun to play a role in deepening policy makers and service providers’ capacity in this field. The Sills Family Foundation is proud to be a member of the NY Initiative for Children with Incarcerated Parents, as well as the New York Youth Justice Initiative.

Support to Underserved Communities- Through improved access to early education and reduction of neighborhood violence

Low income neighborhoods and schools experience a disproportionate amount of school suspensions, violence, arrests and damage to the community through involvement in the criminal justice system. We support programs that seek to intervene in this destructive cycle and help young people stay on the path to success.

Early education can make a world of difference in how a child goes on to succeed in school, work and life. This is especially true for children challenged by poverty, homelessness and other forms of trauma. Children who start kindergarten behind their peers may continue to face problems throughout school. Getting kids off to a good start is critical to their future.

We are committed to high-quality education experiences that help children live up to their highest potential. We want to improve chances for all children to succeed in life through access to education, early intervention and family supports such as mental health counseling and job skills classes for their parents.

Programs Supporting Immigrants, Refugees and Asylees

We believe all human beings have the right to pursue their dreams of building a better home for themselves and their families, and that newcomers to the US should have access to necessary legal, educational, and material needs.

Environmental Justice- With a focus on contaminants that harm the developing embryo, fetus and infant

Toxic chemicals are released into our environment every day. Children consume pollutants in their food, air and water, their toys, candy, even baby bottles. These hazards can cause serious health problems, ranging from asthma and cancer to brain impairment and behavioral problems. They take a greater toll on the most vulnerable: pregnant women, fetuses and children.

We want to protect families from lead, mercury and other toxic compounds. The foundation supports organizations that embrace the ideals of environmental justice and that protect against poor communities carrying a greater share of the toxic burden. We invest in programs that work to reduce pollutants in our air, water, food and homes so that the minds and bodies of our infants and children stay healthy and strong.

Arts and Culture- Arts education and other creative opportunities to support underserved populations

Arts and cultural activity can provide people of all ages important tools of self expression, can open paths to new forms of communication and can strengthen self esteem. We believe that high quality arts programming in schools, community centers and senior centers can be a powerful tool of social justice. The Foundation seeks to support culturally sensitive collaborations between teaching artists, educators and community leaders to bring the positive power of the arts to under-resourced schools and communities.

Funding Priorities

The Sills Family Foundation funds nonprofits that support early childhood education, environmental justice, arts and culture, and families in crisis, with a focus on families and communities impacted by the criminal justice justice system as well as refugees, migrants and asylees.

Funding Criteria

The organizations we invest in support families and communities to overcome obstacles created by poverty, racism and other forms of marginalization. The programs we support have passionate leaders, are community based and offer potential for systemic, sustained change, including the possibility of replication. We seek to fund organizations for whom our grantmaking capacity will make an impact.

Grant Making Budget

Most of our grants range from $10,000 to $25,000. The Foundation accepts applications for one-year grants only, with the possibility of renewal grants for extended periods. Many of our grants support general operating needs.

Reimagining a more sustainable, inclusive world

The Dylan Todd Simonds Foundation supports efforts that build environmental resiliency in communities, with a special focus on the Bay Area and Pittsburgh.

Priorities

The Foundation is interested in innovative ideas that promote social and environmental justice, inclusive economies, reduction and recycling solutions, climate change mitigation, and sustainable food systems, with a particular focus on California's Bay Area and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines. 

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

Social Justice

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

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

Environmental Justice

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

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

Economic Justice

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

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

Legal Services Program

The BFF Legal Services Program originated from a query about the role of and definition of “safety net” organizations. Following the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the founders of BFF began to explore the various different types of non-profits that were called to action to help those most impacted by the Great Recession. Alongside medical clinics, food banks and shelters, legal services representatives worked tirelessly to help their clients.  

From this origin, BFF began to explore the role of legal services both as a “safety net provider” and as a poverty alleviation tool. Based on a metric created by the Robin Hood Foundation and on impact report submitted by over a dozen different types of organizations, it became apparent to us that legal aid is, dollar for dollar, more effective than all other anti-poverty interventions. Time and time again when we read the Social Return on Investment reports (SROIs) from our grantees, we are both amazed and impressed with their outcomes.

I & R Grants

Our I & R Grants target projects and programs that are both innovative and replicable. We support these grants to allow legal services leaders to test new models that have the potential to help their individual organizations and when replicated, to help their peer organizations. 

This includes, but is not limited to, new strategy-focused projects designed to enhance the effectiveness of an organization to answer questions posed by either the organization or by the legal services sector.

Sector Supporting Grants

"": Organizations that do not generally provide direct legal services programs, but provide technical assistance and substantive back-up to the direct services programs. They provide support service to legal services offices in the following areas: training, technical assistance, research and advocacy. Examples include: 

• Support Centers
• Think Tanks
• Design Labs 
• Impact Litigation

: In an effort to support the legal services sector and ensure a strong and consistent pipeline of new legal services staff, we support grants that focus on recruitment & retention of legal services professionals. Examples of such grants include:

• Public Services Loan Forgiveness Programs
• Loan Assistance Repayment Programs
• Fellowships
• Staff Well-Being

: We fund advocacy work that supports to the legal service sector. 

Community Planning and Capacity Building (Planning) Grants 

Community Planning and Capacity Building (Planning) grants provide up to $500,000 per project to help communities plan for clean, equitable transportation solutions. These grants support early-stage planning, outreach, workforce development, and local readiness – especially for Tribal governments, rural communities, schools, and first-time applicants.

As You Sow’s toxic enforcement cases often result in settlement agreements that include monetary restitution. As You Sow ensures that the citizens of California benefit from these monies by utilizing them for investigation, research, and enforcement of environmental laws.

These monies also fund our grant program which strengthens the excellent work of numerous non-profit organizations with similar goals related to toxics reduction, environmental education, protection of communities, and enforcement.

Since 1992, As You Sow has granted out over $2.1 million to over 100 organizations doing work related to toxics reduction, environmental education, and environmental justice.

Mission

To promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies.

Vision

A safe, just, and sustainable world in which protecting the environment and human rights is central to corporate decision making.

Grant Priorities

As You Sow will consider proposals for grants ONLY in the following areas:

• Enforcement of California state consumer protection and toxic exposure laws 
• Education of California consumers about the risks of toxic exposure and consumers’ right to know what goes into products. 
• Toxics education, reduction, remediation, prevention and protection in communities in California, especially under-represented and under-served communities of California. 
• Related areas will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the proposal must have a California-based environmental or toxic enforcement component.

What is PATH?

Providing Access and Transforming Health (PATH) is a five-year, $1.85 billion initiative to build up the capacity and infrastructure of on-the-ground partners, such as community-based organizations (CBOs), public hospitals, county agencies, Medi-Cal Tribal and designees of Indian Health Programs, and others, to successfully participate in the Medi-Cal delivery system as California widely implements Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports and Justice Involved services under CalAIM.

Drawing upon the success and lessons learned from the Whole Person Care and Health Homes Pilots, PATH funding will address the gaps in local organizational capacity and infrastructure that exist statewide, enabling these local partners to scale up the services they provide to Medi-Cal beneficiaries. With resources funded by PATH—such as additional staff, billing systems, and data exchange capabilities—community partners will successfully contract with managed care organizations, bringing their wealth of expertise in community needs to the Medi-Cal delivery system. As PATH funds serve to strengthen capacity statewide, particularly among providers and CBOs that have historically been under-resourced, the initiative will help California advance health equity, address social drivers of health, and move towards an equitable, coordinated, and accessible Medi-Cal system.

Capacity and Infrastructure Transition, Expansion and Development (CITED) Program

The PATH CITED initiative provides funding to enable the transition, expansion and development of Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports capacity and infrastructure.

What is CITED?

CITED Applicants will be encouraged to coordinate applications with local organizations they contract with or intend to contract with to provide ECM and/or Community Supports services. Applicants who wish to receive CITED funding must submit an application and funding request to Public Consulting Group, DHCS’ Third-Party Administrator (TPA), indicating how they intend to use CITED funding. Public Consulting Group will support the administration and management of the CITED initiative.

What are the allowable uses for funds?

Below are select examples of activities that may be funded using CITED funding. This is meant to be illustrative and non-exhaustive.

• Increasing Provider Workforce:
  • Assessment of current organizational capabilities, infrastructure and systems, and capacity to deliver ECM/Community Supports
  • Identification of critical gaps and needs to be addressed for seamless provision of services to enrollees to ensure successful ECM/Community Supports participation
  • Hiring, recruiting, onboarding, and training staff that will have a direct role in the execution of ECM/Community Supports responsibilities (described further below)
  • Increasing capacity to deliver new services/programs above and beyond current capabilities (e.g., offering a new Community Supports not previously offered under WPC)
• Infrastructure to Support Integration into CaIAIM: 
  • Supporting health information exchange between entities responsible for providing ECM and/or Community Supports services
  • Supporting the implementation of a closed-loop referral system
  • Enhancing existing systems to support core monitoring/data reporting needs
  • Transitioning former WPC Pilot infrastructure for integration into ECM/Community Supports and other managed care contracted services
• Infrastructure to support ECM and Community Supports services:
  • Modifying existing physical infrastructure of ECM/Community Supports provider sites that are essential for an organization’s capacity to deliver ECM/Community Supports (e.g., replacing infrastructure that refrigerates fresh food)
  • Purchasing hardware or office equipment necessary to support delivery of ECM and Community Support services
• MonitorECM and or Community Support services
  • Staff time devoted to evaluating and monitoring (e.g., conducting a community health needs assessment to identify where there are gaps in capacity for one or more Community Supports)
• Outreach to under-resourced and underserved for ECM  and Community Support Services
  • Staff time devoted to development of an outreach plan
  • Funding to hire contractors or vendors to support plan development

Anthony Grassroots Prize

The Anthony Grassroots Environmental Prize was established in 1999 by environmental activist Juliette Anthony. Every year, the Prize recognizes an outstanding example of grassroots environmental activism in California with public recognition and a $1,000 cash award.

About Juliette Anthony

The Anthony Grassroots Prize was established in 1999 by environmental activist, Juliette Anthony. Ms. Anthony devoted most of her life to protecting natural habitats and promoting renewable energy – almost always as a volunteer helping to mobilize grassroots community power. She is recognized for helping to prohibit a development in the Santa Monica Mountains which successfully resulted in the acquisition of the 2000 acre Ahmanson Ranch in 2005, and the 440 acre Soka University property (the former Gillette Ranch) in early 2005 for permanent dedicated open space.

Her long and varied professional career included working as a Research Librarian at Harvard College Library, the New York Public Library on 42nd Street, the University of Virginia Library, and the UCLA Theatre Arts Library. She also served as Film & Music Librarian at the Beverly Hills and Santa Monica Libraries. But her true passion in life was the preservation of our fragile planet, and she was a politically active and passionate supporter of environmental causes and social justice. In addition to her long tenure on the Rose Foundation’s Advisory Board, over the course of her lifetime she maintained deep volunteer relationships with Heal the Bay, Coalition for Clean Air and Communities for a Better Environment, and numerous successful movements to preserve open space in California. She was a long-time renewable energy consultant and was an early advocate for solar power. In addition to her environmental work, she volunteered at the Venice Family Clinic, Lieu-Cap Shelter for Women and Children in Venice, CA and CLARE Foundation and most recently, for the REST program in San Rafael, CA.

Juliette’s commitment to the power of grassroots environmental stewardship led her to serve on the Rose Foundation’s pre-launch Advisory Board, helping catalyze the launch of the Rose Foundation in 1993. She endowed the Anthony Grassroots Prize in 1999 and for many years Juliette led the Prize’s annual review of nominations. Juliette passed away in 2022, and the Rose Foundation is proud to continue the Anthony Grassroots Prize as a living testament to Juliette’s activism: caring for other people and fighting for a more just, healthy and compassionate world.

Economic Security & Dignity Fund

To be healthy, people need the stability, confidence and aspiration gained through earning a reliable and growing income, building up a financial cushion, and owning assets. Yet many Californians face barriers to achieving enough income to meet basic needs, let alone build wealth – the single most important factor that influences health.

If you think of economic security as a house, we strive to support Californians in strengthening the floor and eliminating the ceiling. "Strengthening the floor" means focusing on reinforcing a social safety net that protects people from economic distress when faced with financial challenges. And "eliminating the ceiling" means emphasizing higher education, and access to good jobs that provide living wages, strong benefits and career paths. Eliminating the ceiling also includes entrepreneurship and growing assets – from homeownership to retirement savings.

Our Economic Security and Dignity portfolio aims to advance the economic well-being of Californians, especially those from low-income communities and communities of color.

Economic Mobility & Wealth Creation

All Californians should be able to get good-paying jobs, build businesses as entrepreneurs if they choose to, and be financially secure. We will support efforts that advance workforce development and entrepreneurship for communities of color and low-income communities.

Improving health outcomes is not just a matter of promoting good jobs and increasing income — it’s also about building assets and the confidence and cushion that wealth provides to expand opportunities.

The Economic Security and Dignity portfolio makes grants under three goal areas. To be eligible for funding, your organization’s work must fit into at least one of these goal areas:

• Economic Mobility & Wealth Creation
• Higher Education (note: this goal area is currently not accepting unsolicited applications for funding).
• Economic Safety Net

Economic Mobility & Wealth Creation

• Comprehensive workforce development efforts that focus on systems-impacted communities, with attention to formerly incarcerated men and women and provide all of the following:
  • Placement into living-wage jobs that offer robust benefits and pathways for career advancement;
  • Job retention services; and
  • Case-managed wraparound support services.
• Efforts that support and strengthen small businesses through culturally-effective advising services and access to trustworthy capital for owners and operators who are persons of color, immigrants and refugees, or low-income individuals.
• Public policy efforts that address one of the following:
  • Advance comprehensive workforce development approaches described above; or
  • Strengthen supports for small businesses.

• Workforce development efforts that focus on populations other than formerly incarcerated adults, or that emphasize resume writing, interview skills training, placement into low-wage jobs, or job training with minimal job placement or support services.
• An individual organization’s efforts to develop, build, or expand its in-house workforce or its own small business, including social enterprises.

Higher Education

This goal area has two priorities:

• pathways to access and succeed in postsecondary education for juvenile justice system-involved youth and
• advancing racial equity in medical schools to address the acute racial disparities in the physicians’ workforce in California.

More than two-thirds of youth connected to the juvenile justice system aspire to higher education. At the same time, incarcerated youth in California face many obstacles in their quest to enter and succeed in higher education. Across the state, youth in custody have no access to face-to-face, classroom-based postsecondary instruction, and receive no postsecondary outreach, engagement, or orientation activities. And the juvenile justice system’s disproportionate ensnarement of Black and Latino youth exacerbates racial inequities in the pathways into postsecondary education. As a result, college and other postsecondary education – a leading pathway to economic self-sufficiency – is out of reach for most juvenile justice system-involved youth. Our grants are shaping a field and elevating a supportive ecosystem across the state to nurture a higher education pathway for these systems-involved young people.

• College campus-based support programs and supportive housing programs that support the postsecondary educational success of our youth involved with the juvenile justice system.
• Efforts that advance access to and success in medical schools for students from communities of color that are underrepresented in medicine, with attention to pathway and other programs at schools of medicine and community-based organizations.
• Public policy efforts that:
  • Advance the postsecondary educational success of youth involved with the juvenile justice system, or

• Address barriers to access to and success in medical schools students from communities of color that are underrepresented in medicine. Leadership development efforts that support advocacy of:
  • Juvenile justice system-involved youth issues impacting their pathways to and through postsecondary education

• Programs that focus on college preparation, high school completion or the acquisition of a GED or HiSET certificate, or K-12-focused programs, including efforts addressing STEM.
• Supportive housing programs that are not tailored to our priority youth population nor oriented to advancing their postsecondary educational success.
• Health professions schools and training programs that address students broader than physicians.
• Efforts that focus on health workforce or workplace diversity and cultural competence.

Economic Safety Net

We want to make sure there is easier access to safety-net income supports. According to the Center for American Progress, a strong safety net reduces poverty, increases economic mobility, and strengthens our national economy. Furthermore, studies show that many safety-net programs offer an excellent return on investment to taxpayers. We will help expand and strengthen the safety net to support low-income Californians in both maintaining their financial stability and in building their economic progress. We also support the economic justice ecosystem of organizations in California working to improve wages, benefits, and employment practices.

Public policy and systems change efforts that:

• Address strengthening income security (e.g., earned income tax credits, child tax credits, retirement benefits, unemployment insurance, guaranteed income), including expanding eligibility (e.g., undocumented immigrants); or
• Advance economic justice (e.g., worker power, increasing the minimum/living wage, improving workforce policies, etc.).

Efforts that primarily address occupational health and workplace safety.

Our Vision & Mission

Our vision is for every resident of California to enjoy good health and experience wellness. Our mission is to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California by increasing access to health care, quality education, good jobs, healthy environments and safe neighborhoods.

Our Work

• We use our resources to advance our mission through grantmaking, investments, sharing our learning and lifting our voice.
• We fund direct services that address the urgent needs people are facing in their communities, particularly the needs of low-income individuals, people of color, youth and residents of rural areas.
• We recognize, encourage and strengthen leaders to be powerful agents of change.
• We support advocacy and civic engagement so that communities can build power and create public policies that reflect their vision, will and needs.
• We trust and invest in nonprofit organizations so that they can operate at full capacity.
• We partner with community-led organizations, philanthropic organizations, businesses, government and individuals who want to improve health and wellness for Californians.

What We Fund

Our vision is that every person in California enjoys health and wellness. That means living in a safe and healthy community. Having access to quality education and good jobs. Drinking clean water. And having access to healthy foods.

But we know that a lot gets in the way of people enjoying health and wellness. The barriers are many and they are systemic. Wellness is directly affected by our race, class, gender and disability. By our zip code. By our family history. By our immigration status and past involvement with the criminal justice system.

That’s why we partner with community organizations to remove barriers to individual and community wellness. And to put in place more equitable processes and systems that improve individual and community wellness.

Through our grantmaking program—Advancing Wellness—we support organizations that are increasing access to health care. Innovative organizations that are advocating for quality education. Organizations big and small that are fighting for good jobs with fair wages and benefits. Local organizations that are working to make our streets and neighborhoods safe.

Equity in Access Fund

All people deserve to be healthy and experience wellness. And all Californians should be able to receive the health benefits and services they need to live healthy lives. We believe that health care is a human right. While California has made significant progress in expanding quality, affordable health care coverage and access, we recognize that due to systemic racism, persistent health disparities remain for people of color. Therefore, we center racial justice in our work as we work toward high-quality universal health care that expands the ability of all Californians, especially people of color, to obtain necessary health care and related services.

Our Equity in Access portfolio champions health care coverage and access for all and defends the rights of immigrants to enjoy access to health services, coverage and other benefits. All people, regardless of immigration status, deserve access to public benefits. Our portfolio also supports the rights of women to access comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services.

We will support:

Universal coverage and access to care

All Californians should have the ability to see a medical provider when and how they need to. But there are currently many barriers in place that make it difficult for people of color and immigrants to access needed high-quality health care. And universal coverage means more than seeing a doctor once a year. It means having the access to comprehensive services for staying healthy, such as oral and behavioral health services, as well as having medical providers close by — whether in person or via telemedicine — and the means to get to them. We are one of the -few funders in the country investing in oral health care for low-income adults and seniors, despite the critical importance of oral health to overall physical well-being. Finally, people without health insurance need to know their options for getting coverage, and how to use their benefits once they’re enrolled. That’s why we invest in organizations that reach out to communities to both educate and help eligible people sign up for health insurance, help patients retain coverage from year to year, and facilitate full use of benefits.

System transformation

To realize our vision, we will have to help transform the health care system. But what does transforming the health care system require? It requires designing and implementing new models of health care that take a whole-person view while integrating the patients’ clinical and social needs. This also includes intentionally allocating resources and interventions to improve health and wellness for Black, Brown, and indigenous communities that are due justice for past systemic harm. Transforming the health care system also means improving the programs currently in place, such as making Medi-Cal and Covered California easier to access for those who need it. Transformation also requires reimagining how direct service providers collaborate and partner to better meet the needs of community residents . Government health coverage programs, community-based organizations and safety-net health care providers all need to work better together to improve health and equity for vulnerable populations.

Priority Populations

We want to overturn decades of injustice so that communities too long ignored receive both the health care and social services they need. And we want to see communities of color, immigrants, and low-income communities treated with respect and dignity by all governmental and private institutions, including health care institutions.

Because California is a border state and home to the highest number of immigrants, it is important that we pay attention to immigrants’ needs. We’re determined to champion the rights of immigrants. That means supporting organizations that are working to advance and defend immigrant rights, beating back deportation efforts, helping to counter the surge in negative narratives about immigrants, and challenging the rise in racially charged attacks and threats against immigrants.

In this portfolio, we also support the rights of women to access comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care services, which have been under intense attack during the past few years. In particular, we strive to ensure that women of color have access to the care they need.

Please note we currently are not accepting unsolicited letters of interest for the priority populations goal of this portfolio.

Mission

Our mission is to help expand artists’ access to resources by supporting organizations working to make creative expression, experimentation, public programming, and discourse accessible to all people, artists and non-artists alike. By supporting creative organizations and arts programming in diverse communities across the country, we hope to expand artistic practices of all kinds, deepen community engagement, further creative collaboration, and improve the quality of life of artists and all people.

We believe that equality, diversity, democracy, and environmental wellbeing are fundamental components of a healthy society and these tenants are what drive our work. We believe that self expression and creative collaboration not only empower people to better understand themselves, but that art is a powerful tool for representing diverse voices, experiences, cultures, and opinions.

The Foundation’s grantmaking practices focus on funding nonprofit arts organizations of all types and sizes. The Foundation is interested in organizations and programming that similarly prioritize diversity, inclusiveness, community, and freedom of speech. We’re especially interested in organizations that utilize art and programming to engage diverse, marginalized, at-risk, or underserved communities of all kinds. We strive to help secure the longevity of creative organizations, their staff, creative practices, programming, and community resources, particularly in areas where gentrification and/or Covid-19 has forced the displacement of artists, nonprofit art spaces, and other marginalized peoples.

The Wilhelm Family Foundation is a continuation of the philanthropic spirit of our founder, Donald Wilhelm, who believed that art has the power to transform humanity through individual self expression.

Grants

For this grant cycle, we will prioritize funding organizations and projects that use art to engage with issues related to the environment and/or climate change. This might manifest in any number of ways, such as activating community through programming that addresses climate issues in your area, ecology and sustainability in art projects and practice, just to name a few.

We strive to support organizations that align with our mission and values, that are community focused, and embody intersectional practices and disciplines. As such, we frequently support general operations, programming, and other broader grant types.

Generally, the Foundation’s grants are given to small (<$1.5 million annual budget) nonprofit organizations that use their staff, programming & resources to further dialog around creativity, cultural, environmental and social justice issues, towards the benefit of artists, as well as the communities in which they operate.

Impact Projects

Background & Purpose

The Impact Projects grant program intends to support collaborative projects that center artists and artistic practice in responding to issues experienced by historically and systemically under-resourced communities in California at this time, including, but not limited to, social, political, and economic inequalities. This program prioritizes local artists and forms of arts and cultural expression that are unique to, and/or historically rooted in, the specific communities to be served.

Impact Projects grants support arts organizations for collaborations between local artist(s) and community members to develop and express their own creative and artistic goals and address a community-defined need. Collaborative projects will utilize various creative practices to impact social issues affecting their communities, including but not limited to systemic marginalization, incarceration/justice systems, access to education, poverty/economic disparity, health disparities, accessibility for people with disabilities, housing insecurity, violence, food insecurity, cultural/social justice, intergenerational learning, veterans’ issues, and environmental sustainability. Previous applicants to project-based programs such as Reentry Through the Arts and Veterans in the Arts, etc. are encouraged to apply through this program. Please note that applicants focused on arts education for youth are encouraged to apply for Creative Youth Development, Arts Education Exposure, or Arts Integration Training.

Project Requirements

• Applicant organization must develop and complete a project addressing the goals of the program to be completed within the project timeline. 
  • Projects must be collaboratively developed between local artist(s) and community members to develop and express creative and artistic goals and address a community-defined need. Projects must utilize creative practices to impact social issues affecting a community.
• Project planning, implementation, and evaluation must reflect a commitment to include and represent the communities to be served.
• All aspects of the project should be free to community participants and free and/or affordable and accessible to audiences.
• Rates of compensation for individual artists and/or arts workers to be supported by this grant must be appropriate to experience and comparable to fees for other local skilled workers.
•  Individuals to be compensated by this grant may not be full-time students in a degree program directly related to any type of compensation/credit for this project.
• All CAC-funded programs, services, information, and facilities where funded activities take place, including online spaces, must be accessible for individuals with disabilities, including but not limited to individuals who are Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Deaf-Blind, have difficulty speaking, have a physical disability, visual disability, developmental disability, learning disability, mental illness, or chronic illness.

Background & Purpose

The Creative Youth Development program is rooted in the CAC’s belief that arts learning is an essential tool for healthy human development and that it should be available to all young people throughout California, including but not limited to those whose lives have been impacted or interrupted by the justice system. The CAC envisions that all of California’s young people are provided with meaningful, culturally responsive arts-learning experiences so that they can reach their full potential. All projects may occur during or outside of traditional school hours and should take place at arts and culture venues, community centers, court/school sites, juvenile halls and camps, county-operated correctional facilities, social services agencies, and other youth-oriented settings.

Creative Youth Development is a commitment to supporting young people’s stories, ideas, and dreams through creative expression and honoring their lived experience. In order to create environments that promote Creative Youth Development, these three concepts must be present:

• Racial Equity and Social Justice
• Youth Voices
• Collective Action

Beneficiaries of Creative Youth Development projects include youth from infancy to 25 years of age. Support for system-engaged, system-impacted, and/or at-promise youth are an additional priority with successful projects being tailored specifically to respond to their needs. These may be youth and young people who were dismissed from middle, high and/or continuation schools; have been subjected to racial profiling; have been arrested or are on probation; are currently incarcerated at a juvenile justice facility or attending a court-appointed educational institution; are undocumented; are unhoused and/or migratory; are refugees; have incarcerated parent(s) or guardian(s); and/or are pregnant or young parents themselves. Examples of applicable projects include but are not limited to:

• arts projects in early learning, daycare, or foster-care environments.
• projects that support the transmission of traditional arts and cultural practices.
• youth leadership, apprenticeship, and mentorship opportunities in arts, social service, or youth correctional settings.
• arts programming that supports social/emotional learning, workforce development or entrepreneurial skills.

The Foundation supports grassroots groups with a strong community base that are addressing critical issues in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties through community organizing strategies. We fund projects that mobilize affected populations to create social and economic justice. Projects should be initiated and led by economically and politically disenfranchised groups including low-income, working poor, and marginalized individuals. Empowerment of the economically and politically marginalized and inclusion of such people in an organization’s leadership structure is a requirement for funding.

Project & General Operating Support grants are offered for projects that grow social capital and enhance a community’s capacity to mobilize residents to solve problems. 

Grant Guidelines

The McCune Foundation was established in 1990 by George D. McCune and Sara Miller McCune, the founders and principal management team of SAGE Publications, Inc. Our mission is to be an agent of productive change in society by supporting the growth of social capital in communities. The Foundation supports projects and community-based organizations that are addressing critical issues in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties through community organizing strategies. We are especially interested in funding grassroots groups which seek to empower excluded populations.

Social Change

The Foundation is interested in creative grassroots projects which address the causes of a problem, rather than treating symptoms. We support organizations that see their work in the context of whole systems and causes, and exhibit solution-oriented approaches to addressing critical issues and creating social justice. (The Foundation does not fund the provision of direct services or purely educational programs.)

Empowerment

A core value for the Foundation is the empowerment of the excluded populations and inclusion of such people in an organization’s leadership structure. We support groups which are “doing with others” rather than “doing for others” – grassroots, bottom-up organizations in which the “clients” are the initiators and involved in the decision making.

Social Capital & Community Capacity

The Foundation supports grassroots organizations with a strong community base and efforts to grow social capital and enhance a community’s capacity to mobilize and solve problems. We support a focus on community capacity building rather than personal growth or development of leadership skills in individuals, except where such training is directly linked to community action and participants are committed to remaining in the community and using their skills to affect public policy. We also wish to encourage networking and coalition building within communities.

Capacity Building Grants

Capacity Building grants assist nonprofits in achieving new levels of organizational strength and effectiveness. Their purpose is to help nonprofit organizations directly serving older adults in California to strengthen internal systems; execute needed IT infrastructure updates; and improve efforts to mobilize older adults in their communities. Capacity Building grants are not intended to pay for existing client-facing programs and services, nor are they intended to provide general operating support to the organization. The goal of a successful capacity building grant is to enhance an organization’s level of financial and operational sustainability.

Capacity building support offered through this RFP is limited to the following (one project type per application and one application per organization):

Internal Operations, which may include:

• Improvements to financial management, internal controls and chart of accounts, human resources, or volunteer management;   
• Onboarding new staff, training and technical assistance on quality improvement, or facility planning;     
• Building evaluation capacity to improve outcome evaluation methods and metrics;
• Conducting organizational assessments and strategic planning, fundraising assessment and development, communications/marketing planning, contingency/disaster planning, or business planning;       
• Building strategic relationships, such as helping two or more organizations work through collaboration and strategic restructuring, or positioning for merger or affiliation;       
• Developing new sources for earned income, which may include business planning, social enterprise, contracting, startup costs for a new program, legal services, accounting, or actuarial services.

Technology Improvements, which may include:

• Enhancing IT capacity through upgrades to hardware and software, cybersecurity, networking, websites, and staff training to optimize the use of technology.

Community Mobilizing, which may include:

• Enhancing organizational ability to provide and receive information directly to/from older adults in their communities to address existing and emerging needs;
• Developing community advisory boards or hosting town hall meetings that result in actionable insights;       
• Forming or maintaining coalitions that elevate lived experiences of older adults;       
• Creating and strengthening advocacy efforts that incorporate voices of older adults;       
• Conducting community needs assessments to better understand how to serve older adults and include their perspectives.

Funding

Capacity Building grants offer up to $50,000 to support direct service organizations that serve older adults in California, helping them improve internal structures and operations.

We all want to live in safe and healthy communities. Yet too often, laws, policies and lack of investment deprive communities of the resources they need to thrive. The negative effects of this disinvestment are easily seen. But the processes, systems, and thinking behind the disinvestment are too often hidden.

As a result, communities of color disproportionately suffer from structural inequities in environmental justice, community violence, gun violence, and youth incarceration. These are just a few of the important areas that affect the health of individuals and communities.

Communities know what they need. When we listen to people in communities who have been most affected by historical neglect and racial injustice, our job is made clear.

Our Community Well-being portfolio will provide resources that support the health, safety and resilience of communities of color, especially those that have been disproportionately affected by unhealthy environments and community violence.

Violence Prevention and Healing Justice

Everyone’s safety and wellness are diminished when any part of our community experiences violence. We envision communities experiencing less gun violence, decreases in community trauma, and higher levels of safety and resilience. We will support programs, resources, and organizations that work to reduce gun violence; support interventionists and violence interrupters; reduce trauma and promote healing justice; and challenge racially charged policing tactics.

Gun violence, in particular, traumatizes entire communities and disproportionately harms people of color. As we have since 1992, we support gun violence prevention through investing in research, policy advocacy, and innovative models addressing gun violence prevention.

We approach our work informed and inspired by healing justice, recognizing that healing must be rooted in the culture and beliefs of the community, and respectful of both the individual’s and the community’s need to reconcile the harm that’s been done.

Youth Justice

The youth justice system over-criminalizes and incarcerates Black and Latino youth, causing them immense harm. We support community-based organizations led by people of color that work toward taking apart this punitive system and replacing it with a system that that prioritizes youth and community development.

To succeed, these organizations must be strong, resilient and powerful. In addition, more young women and girls of color are entering the justice system. Therefore, now more than ever, we need gender-responsive strategies to transform the youth justice system.

Community Environments

We have long been committed to investing in healthy and safe communities, because individual wellness is dependent upon communities being economically and environmentally vital, socially connected, and civically engaged.

We support communities of color to actively engage and build power over the environmental policies and conditions that affect the places in which they live, work and play – paying particular attention to issues impacting water and air, and the built environment. Given the importance of parks and green spaces to community health, we also support efforts to create well-designed parks that benefit physical and mental well-being. We support organizations to build their effectiveness and support organizing, civic engagement, and public policy advocacy efforts to drive change.

Our Vision & Mission

Our vision is for every resident of California to enjoy good health and experience wellness. Our mission is to protect and improve the health and wellness of the people of California by increasing access to health care, quality education, good jobs, healthy environments and safe neighborhoods.

Our Work

• We use our resources to advance our mission through grantmaking, investments, sharing our learning and lifting our voice.
• We fund direct services that address the urgent needs people are facing in their communities, particularly the needs of low-income individuals, people of color, youth and residents of rural areas.
• We recognize, encourage and strengthen leaders to be powerful agents of change.
• We support advocacy and civic engagement so that communities can build power and create public policies that reflect their vision, will and needs.
• We trust and invest in nonprofit organizations so that they can operate at full capacity.
• We partner with community-led organizations, philanthropic organizations, businesses, government and individuals who want to improve health and wellness for Californians.

What We Fund

Our vision is that every person in California enjoys health and wellness. That means living in a safe and healthy community. Having access to quality education and good jobs. Drinking clean water. And having access to healthy foods.

But we know that a lot gets in the way of people enjoying health and wellness. The barriers are many and they are systemic. Wellness is directly affected by our race, class, gender and disability. By our zip code. By our family history. By our immigration status and past involvement with the criminal justice system.

That’s why we partner with community organizations to remove barriers to individual and community wellness. And to put in place more equitable processes and systems that improve individual and community wellness.

Through our grantmaking program—Advancing Wellness—we support organizations that are increasing access to health care. Innovative organizations that are advocating for quality education. Organizations big and small that are fighting for good jobs with fair wages and benefits. Local organizations that are working to make our streets and neighborhoods safe.

Leading for Power & Change Fund

We have been inspired by and invested in the vision of communities of color and organizations led by people of color. In addition, the events of 2020 have made all too clear that racism and structural inequities permeate every institution and system in our nation, resulting in disproportionate illness and death for people of color.

We are energized by the Black-led, multi-racial, multi-generational protests calling for racial and social justice at a scale we haven’t seen in a generation. Because dismantling racism and anti-Blackness requires coordinated and unified multi-racial coalitions for social justice and progressive change. And it requires powerful organizations that are led by people of color.

But leaders of color face many barriers to achieving their bold visions. Historically, philanthropy does a poor job of getting funds to these leaders and their organizations, which makes organizational financial stability very challenging. A Race to Lead report found that leaders of color have smaller organizational budgets than their White peers and have a difficult time accessing and raising funds from foundations, government and individual donors. Bridgespan and Echoing Green report that funders are subject to implicit bias that shows up as mistrust toward leaders of color – mistrust of their strategies and their vision. In addition, the nonprofit sector is overly represented by White leadership even though nonprofit organizations led by people of color are more likely to understand and strive to address systemic injustices through building power and making demands for policy and structural change. Yet only seven percent of nonprofit chief executives and 18 percent of nonprofit employees are people of color. And the percentage of people of color on nonprofit boards remains at just 15 percent, a number that has not changed in nearly two decades.

To advance systemic and progressive change while improving community outcomes and health, our Leading for Power and Change portfolio seeks to amplify the voices, leadership, and power of people of color, and other people who have historically been excluded from full participation in civic society.

Equity in the Nonprofit Sector

We’ll support leadership development and capacity building that will help people of color-led organizations, and organizations with a racial justice analysis, to be stronger and more resilient. We’ll support organizations to increase their assets, and recruit and retain talented staff of color. For example, we will fund leaders to take sabbaticals while their organizations strengthen the next level of leadership.

Mobilizing Movements and Power Building ( not accepting Letter of Inquiry at thie time) 

We want to make sure that organizations have the resources to mobilize, advance health and racial equity, and hold public and private sector leaders and policymakers accountable. We’ll support integrated civic engagement, along with opportunities for people to organize, advocate and speak out for policies that affect their lives. 

Reimagining Social Justice

Initiatives and or/strategies to increase the inclusion of communities of color in fields that influence decision making in philanthropy and the sustainability and effectiveness of non-profit organizations including, finance, research and communications. 

California Access to Justice Commission

The Mission

The California Access to Justice Commission advances access to justice for all Californians by expanding resources, removing barriers, and developing innovations so everyone can effectively and efficiently resolve their civil legal issues.

All Californians deserve justice. We envision a robust civil justice system that is well-integrated and coordinated so that everyone receives effective assistance to resolve their legal issues. Everyone should be able to get prompt access to the information and assistance they need, when and where they need it, in a format and language they can use. We collaborate with some of the most important stakeholders in the state, including the courts, the bar, the public, and the other branches of government, to achieve the following goals: Create a Continuum of Service; Improve Existing Systems; Expand Representation; and Promote Public Awareness and Trust.

Legal Aid Infrastructure & Innovation Grants

For the fifth year, the State has appropriated $5,000,000 through the Judicial Council for the California Access to Justice Commission (CalATJ) to provide grants to nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal aid to indigent persons. These funds are to support infrastructure and innovation in organizations that provide legal services to create access to justice in civil matters. Applicants do not need to be IOLTA-funded to be eligible for these grants. 

Project Requirements

Project funds must be used to support the infrastructure and/or innovation needs of legal services in civil matters for indigent persons as defined by individuals living at or below 200% FPT.

• Infrastructure: Similar to capacity building, infrastructure refers to foundational elements that help a nonprofit reach new levels of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future. Infrastructure projects may include planning, governance, staffing, evaluation, financial management, legal accountability, communications, administrative functions, and technology. Infrastructure can also include leveraging relationships to access resources, exchange ideas, address shared issues, and collectively problem-solve in an effort to build capacity, both for a nonprofit and for the broader network, with the common goal of addressing pressing social concerns tied to legal issues.**
• Innovation: Innovation is not necessarily a new project. It could be an expansion project, or improvements to a unique service delivery model. Innovations in legal aid change the affordability, accessibility, or effectiveness of practices or tools used to provide high-quality legal assistance to low-income persons. This can include approaches for using technology or partnerships in legal services delivery; enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of existing technologies or partnerships so that they may be better used to increase the quality and quantity of services to clients; or replicating, adapting, or providing added value to the work of prior technology projects or partnerships. Innovation efforts can be applied to programs, products or devices, partnerships, communications, or operating processes. Innovation results in improvements to service delivery, quality of legal work, and managerial practices. Innovations often incorporate technology, but can also be reflected in partnerships, or service delivery models.***

Award Information

• Total Funding: $4,875,000
• Expected Number of Grants: 35-50
• Grants Size: $25,000 - $150,000 per project
• Anticipated Median Range: $75,000 - $125,000
• Grant Period: The grant period is 12 months

Within Judaism, there are two different but interrelated concepts or moral action and behavior – Tzedakah (sacred practice of charity) and gemilut hasadim (sacred practice of loving kindness). Jewish tradition distinguishes between them in several ways. The essential difference is already evident in the roots of the words: Tzedakah derives fromtzedek (justice, righteousness), and gemilut hasadim derives from hesed (loving kindness, grace, steadfast love.) The Hesed Foundation believes tzedakah to be a core component of social justice. According to the Talmud, the most virtuous form of giving comes through the promotion of self-sufficiency by offering employment and assisting a person in need; in short, the improvement of the human condition.

About the Hesed Foundation

The Hesed Foundation is dedicated to the improvement and enhancement of human life and the strengthening of communities. Hesed seeks to achieve these goals by supporting programs that enhance the lives and welfare of all people, particularly those in underrepresented populations and communities. Specifically we fund programs relating to youth and education, health, and community building. In addition we reserve a percentage of our annual giving for discretionary projects of interest to the board.

Serving the Arts Community

We serve as a connector between artists, arts networks, government leaders, arts advocates, arts educators, and arts education organizations.  Through grants to artists and arts organizations, arts education programs that serve more than 20,000 youth across Santa Cruz County, and community initiatives such as Open Studios, the Tannery Arts Center, and the Watsonville Center for the Arts, we help Santa Cruz County thrive.

Mission

We envision a Santa Cruz County where all artists have access to the resources they need to thrive; where a full range of creative expression is accessible to everyone; and the arts are recognized for their essential contributions to a healthy, vibrant, and representative community.

Support Grants

General operating support for Santa Cruz County nonprofit or fiscally-sponsored arts organizations of all budget sizes. Annual grants of up to $7,000 with applications accepted once per year. First-time applicants are welcome to apply.

Our Objectives

We provide funding for artists and arts organizations in Santa Cruz County to:

• support the creation and presentation of artistically excellent work
• increase the success of artists and the sustainability of arts organizations
• engage new audiences in the arts
• expand equitable access to the arts (improvement of disparities in representation and access in the arts)
• increase social impact through art (advancement of social and racial justice issues in our community)

Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation

Established in 1995, the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) is the official team charity of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Harnessing the power of the Dodger brand and a passionate fan base, LADF works to significantly impact underserved youth in some of the most challenged neighborhoods of Los Angeles. LADF leverages key partnerships to administer direct programs serving youth and communities at large and provides grants to local nonprofit organizations. LADF uses three pillars to guide its work: Sports + Recreation, Education + Literacy and Health + Wellness.

Annual Grant Program

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation's annual grants program disseminates funds three times a year to organizations who fall within its three pillars. In addition to grants, LADF activates with grantees, co-hosts grantee events, digitally showcases the work of grantees and conducts "Giving Moments" in stadium to further highlight grantees work to millions of fans.

LADF Pillars

Education

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) knows that quality education is the best indicator of future financial and social success. We use our platform to get kids excited about reading. We created a first of its kind curriculum to keep students engaged about science and math just as they hit the age where their interests and test scores tend to decline. We provide opportunities for young adults to see themselves on a solid path, whether it's college or a clear vocation.

Healthcare

The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) knows that health disparities exist along racial, class and gender lines. We invest and partner with organizations that identify these disparities and provide services that support interventions for our most vulnerable populations.

Homelessness

In Los Angeles County, for every 130 people we house, an additional 150 become homeless, further highlighting that this crisis is fueled by a broken economy. The Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) seeks to prevent homelessness from happening in the first place by providing services and resources that keep families intact and roofs over their heads. We distribute basic needs to LA’s homeless and food insecure; directly serve young people and their families living in housing facilities through sport programming and green space; and have granted nearly $100,000 to partners on the front lines.

Youth Development

62% of youth living in poverty have experienced at least one traumatic event. Through social and emotional learning the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF) provides youth with the tools they need to be better equipped in the classroom, on the field, and for whatever endeavor their future holds for them. We place a special emphasis on engaging girls in sport, because we know that by adolescence, girls' confidence drops about twice as much as boys', their perception of their academic ability declines, and participation in physical activity plummets.

About the Innovation Prize

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize seeks out innovators who are spearheading transformative early-stage projects in the fields of the environment, heritage conservation, and social justice.

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize is open to non-profit and mission-driven for-profit organizations that are tackling America’s most pressing challenges through social innovation. In 2019, we will award up to ten Prizes, each including a cash award of $150,000 over three years, plus $25,000 for project expenses, for a total award of $175,000. Awardees also receive guidance through the Fund and its resource network, providing tools and training for ascendant change agents.

For more than three generations, The J.M. Kaplan Fund has provided catalytic funding for projects in their early stages of development. Whether a pilot project, a new organization, or a nascent initiative, work supported by the Fund has involved a certain measured risk that ultimately led to large-scale, transformative results. We launched the J.M.K. Innovation Prize in 2015 to leverage this legacy of catalytic grant-making in the field of social innovation. Currently on a biennial schedule, the Prize has to date funded twenty wildly creative solutions to social and environmental challenges, ranging from high-tech efforts to restore imperiled coral reefs, to the nation’s first farm labor trust. Each awardee takes a visionary approach to a societal need, working within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas:

• The Environment: Protecting natural resources and reducing the impacts of climate change.
• Heritage Conservation: Conserving the places that communities care about most.
• Social Justice: Supporting just alternatives and reforms to the criminal justice and immigration systems.

Tailored for Early-Stage Social Entrepreneurs

We know there is a scarcity of funding for untested ideas being piloted in the social innovation field. The Prize is designed to fill this gap in innovation philanthropy, supporting ideas that other funders may deem too risky or too small. We also know that early-stage innovators need the freedom to seize opportunities when and where they arise. The Prize’s unrestricted funding offers this flexibility, letting awardees deploy resources where they are most needed, whether investing in core projects, hiring staff, or just keeping the lights on.

We know each organization must follow its own path to achieving a change-making vision. With its three-year period, the Prize gives awardees room to evolve at their own pace, with an infrastructure of support tailored to their specific needs as early-stage innovators.

An Innovation Community

Beyond the cash award, the Innovation Prize provides tools to help turn ideas into action. Over the three-year Prize term, we bring awardees together for two convenings each year. Each of these meetings, spotlighting a different awardee’s organization, offers opportunities for peer learning and mentoring from experts in organizational development, board cultivation, media coaching, leadership training, and more. From West Virginia coal country to Monterey, California, our awardees have shared powerful learning moments, embedded in one another’s work and reflecting on their role as change agents.