Search Through Social Justice Grants in Oregon 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.

Who We Are

The Creag Foundation is a private grant making foundation established in 2009 in Woodinville, Washington.

The founders of the Creag Foundation believe that meaningful change can only be achieved through hard work, creativity and passion. They also understand the practical mechanisms that allow charitable organizations to succeed and grow. As a group, Creag Foundation principals are dedicated to helping today’s most innovative programs improve the human condition in a wide variety of ways.

Our Focus

The broad purpose of the Foundation is to support the efforts of nonprofit organizations who are innovators in the field of human services. Our particular focus is on smaller organizations that are starting out or established organizations that are looking for funding to take their organization in a new direction.

What We Fund

/ What We Fund

The Creag Foundation is focused on innovation in the industry. We will consider proposals from 501(c)(3) organizations that are finding new ways to address societal issues facing the nonprofit community. Applicants must have held 501(c)(3) status for one year before submitting. If your organization has held 501(c)(3) status for over a year, and your believe that your organization has a new approach to an existing social problem or is addressing a previously unaddressed social issue, you are welcome to contact us and request that we consider your organization for a funding opportunity.

Mission

The DanPaul Foundation will use its resources to help train teachers and parents in early childhood development, protect children from abuse and neglect, stimulate children's personal social responsibilities, and offer them opportunities for enrichment and growth.

The Foundation will also encourage children to be concerned and informed about the environment and the underprivileged, particularly with regard to clean air and water, and adequate housing and nutrition for all.

Beliefs

The DanPaul Foundation believes that children should have ample opportunities for enrichment in their lives, and thus strives to provide many different ways to enrich and expand children's minds through direct programs and monetary support to organizations doing similar work.

We have provided or currently provide grants related to the following program areas:

• Workshops, Conferences, + Seminars: We strive to offer educational workshops, conferences, and seminars for parents and teachers on topics related to early childhood development.
• Student Scholarships: We aim to help students attending post-secondary education institutions by providing need-based and academic scholarships.
• Scientific Endeavors: We desire to advance scientific endeavors which seek to improve the quality of life for everyone in the world.
• Clean Air + Water: We hope to pass on knowledge and practical life skills to youth regarding their personal responsibility to the environment, teaching them about issues surrounding clean air and water.
• Child Advocacy: We believe in protecting children from abuse and neglect and particularly love to support programs that provide education and assistance to children as well as organizations advocating or caring for vulnerable children.
• Homelessness: We want to encourage young people to take a personal interest in seeing that adequate housing and proper nutrition, especially for the underprivileged and homeless, are available.
• Poverty + Neglect: We seek to help those in poverty as well as educate youth about their responsibility to consider the underprivileged and take care of those most in need of life's basic essentials like adequate housing and proper nutrition.
• Refugee Enrichment: We wish to help refugee youth by supporting programs that provide them enrichment and help them transition to life in a new country.

The DanPaul Foundation provides grants to 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit organizations as defined by the IRS. The Foundation is interested in providing funding to programs that directly serve the health, education, development, and welfare of the world's youth.

Grants range from a few hundred dollars up to $15,000 per calendar year.

Background

Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation seeks to dramatically improve the lives of underserved communities across the globe by supporting scalable, innovative, and impact-first solutions that leverage existing systems and stakeholders. Our goal is to find social entrepreneurs with dynamic products or services that have a proven ability to positively impact the lives of underserved people, and nurture those organizations at the early stages by providing capacity, capital, and community.

Our application process is designed to be open and accessible, and we accept applications year round from across our priority geographies and sectors. Borrowing from our venture capital legacy, we find exceptional entrepreneurs and provide them with: 

Capacity

• The core of DRK’s model is deep and extensive operational and technical support for each portfolio organization, both through dedicated hands-on Board service and specialist capacity-building resources for fundraising, board and organizational development, leadership, financial support, and scaling strategy,

Capital

• DRK provides up to $300,000 USD in either unrestricted grant funding or investment capital over a three-year period, and

Community

• DRK convenes our portfolio and alumni annually, facilitating connections and community. 

What We Fund

DRK Foundation funds early-stage social impact organizations solving the world’s biggest social and environmental problems using bold, scalable approaches.

What stage of growth does DRK Foundation typically fund?

Early stage: Organizations who are early stage, which we define as post-pilot and pre-scale. This typically means: 

• Your program, product or service is already being used in the market or in the field, 
• You have early indication that your model is having its intended impact on the beneficiary populations,
• Your organization is relatively young (ideally between two and five years old, although we will consider both younger and older organizations).

Venture funding: In the case of for profits, we typically support Seed to Series A organizations, and never lead rounds; we also generally but not exclusively refrain from participating in financings exceeding a $15M USD post-money valuation.  

Community Grants

State Farm is committed to helping build safer, stronger and better-educated communities.

• ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​We are committed to auto and home safety programs and activities that help people manage the risks of everyday life.
• We invest in education, economic empowerment and community development projects, programs and services that help people realize their dreams.
• We help maintain the vibrancy of our communities by assisting nonprofits that support community revitalization.

Good Neighbor Citizenship company grants focus on safety, community development and education.

Focus Areas

Safety Grants

We strive to keep our customers and communities safe. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Auto safety — improving driver, passenger, vehicle or roadway safety
• Home safety — shielding homes from fires, crime or natural disasters
• Disaster preparedness and mitigation
• Disaster recovery

Community Development

We support nonprofits that invest and develop stronger neighborhoods. That's why our funding is directed toward:

• Affordable housing — home construction and repair
• Commercial/small business development
• Job training
• Neighborhood revitalization
• Financial literacy
• Sustainable housing and transportation
• Food insecurity

Education

Our education funding is directed toward initiatives that support the following programs:

• Higher education
• K-12 academic performance
• K-12 STEM
• Pathways for college and career success

Mission

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

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

Culture Grant

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

Funding Priorities in Culture

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

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

Types of Support

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

Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Grants

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

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

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

Foundation priorities:

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

Partnerships

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

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.

About Seeding Justice

We build collective power by transforming philanthropy and funding movements, in the pursuit of justice and liberation for all communities.

Our Values

• Community: We center our communities in our work and are guided by their wisdom, knowledge, and priorities in all that we do. We see, hear, understand, and value our relationships and each other. We build power together and take collective action.
• Confidence: We embrace the power we hold to support and resource our communities, and to challenge systems of oppression.
• Justice: We are committed to healing injustice as we reimagine and transform systems in the process.
• Transformation: We reject status-quo philanthropic models that are extractive, unaccountable, and undemocratic. We commit to work over generations as we challenge and transform philanthropy, and redefine who has power within it.
• Accountability: We are committed to being responsive to our community and to being a nimble and consistent partner in the movement, grounded in relational and personal connections.

We envision a world of imagination, joy, and abundance where everyone has enough, and no one has too much; where every living being is truly free. 

We fund grassroots movements working to dismantle injustices that have harmed our communities and planet for far too long. We support emerging organizations and change makers on the frontlines fighting for social, racial gender, disability, economic, and environmental justice.

We center the wisdom and agency of our communities most impacted by injustice in order to upend broken systems that hoard and consolidate power and wealth.

We work to transform philanthropy—from top-down and extractive to justice-driven and regenerative.

About Rapid Response Grants

Our Rapid Response grants provide mission aligned organizations with quickly deployed small grants to respond to emergencies and opportunities. Currently, grants of up to $5,000 are available.Funding can be used for immediate and critical needs. For example, organizing community gatherings/meetings in response to events; unexpected challenges within the organization, or unique and timely opportunities. No part of these funds may be used to support or oppose any political party or candidate for public office. Funds must be used for charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes.

Our Mission

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

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

Grants

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

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.

Our Mission

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

The Founder

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

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

Who is Metro

The Metro Council consists of a president, elected regionwide, and six councilors who are elected by district every four years in nonpartisan races. The Metro Auditor, elected regionwide, is responsible for oversight of Metro's annual financial statements and for conducting performance audits. The council appoints a chief operating officer to carry out council policies and manage Metro operations. The chief operating officer oversees a diverse workforce of more than 1,600 employees including park rangers, economists, teachers, scientists, designers, planners, animal keepers, stagehands and cartographers. Hundreds of volunteers lend a hand at Metro's parks, cemeteries, natural areas, offices and visitor venues.

Background

The Wilsonville-Metro Community Enhancement Committee oversees local implementation of the Wilsonville-Metro Community Enhancement Program. The program is funded by a per-ton fee charged by Metro regional government on solid-waste transfer stations located in communities throughout the greater Portland region. 

The Committee in essence reviews “community enhancement” projects or programs nominated by the public and members of City boards and commissions that are first assessed by City staff, and decides which projects or programs, if any, to advance with the Community Enhancement Program funds.

The Metro Council extended effective July 1, 2015, the Metro Solid Waste Community-Enhancement Program to apply uniformly to all communities that host putrescible (biodegradable) solid-waste transfer facilities, including the Willamette Resources, Inc., (WRI) transfer facility operated by Republic Services in Wilsonville. Metro’s program started in 1988 after the Oregon Legislature allowed the assessment of fees to support communities hosting facilities that accept garbage and other waste discarded from homes and businesses. While offering value to the region as a whole, these facilities generate traffic, odors and other inconveniences to residents in adjacent host communities.

Funds collected under the Metro Community Enhancement Program are dedicated and used for “enhancing the host community of the facility from which the fees have been collected” as determined by the local government or administering committee. These funds may be used for extensive community purposes that “rehabilitate and enhance the area within the City limits.” 

FY2024-25 Community enhancement program (CEP)

CEP project nominations will be accepted from November 6, 2024 through January 10, 2025, with project selection anticipated in March 2025 after City vetting and cost-estimating. Anyone may nominate a project for consideration that could benefit the community, including organizations that may seek to undertake a sponsored project. Potential sponsors of a community enhancement project are encouraged to contact the CEP administrator in advance to review prospective fit of a project for the program. Projects, which must be located within city limits, are funded to start on or after July 1, 2025, and must be completed within one year.

CEP Project Criteria

• Improve the appearance or environmental quality of the community.
• Reduce the amount or toxicity of waste.
• Increase reuse and recycling opportunities.
• Result in rehabilitation or upgrade of real or personal property owned or operated by a nonprofit organization.
• Result in the preservation or enhancement of wildlife, riparian zones, wetlands, forest lands and marine areas, and/or improve the public awareness and the opportunities to enjoy them.
• Result in improvement to, or an increase in, recreational areas and programs.
• Result in improvement in safety.
• Benefit youth, seniors, low income persons or underserved populations
• Foster and enhance community enrichment through educational programming, arts and cultural projects.

PCEF Mini Grants

A quarterly grant opportunity offering up to $5,000 for activities that align with PCEF goals of advancing racial and social justice while addressing climate change. Mini grants can fund a wide range of activities, including grant writing support, small projects, events, and training.

Organizations can submit applications on a rolling basis for placement into the next available grant cycle. If an applicant is not selected for the first grant cycle applied for, they may list their application in the subsequent grant cycle without having to reapply. 

Social Justice Fund NW

Social Justice Fund NW is a foundation working at the frontlines of social change. We leverage the resources of our members to foster significant, long-term social justice solutions throughout  Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.

Emerging Justice Fund

In an effort to continue responding to the needs of our community, organizers, and activists SJF is so excited to launch our new grant cycle, the Emerging Justice Fund!

Emerging |  /əˈmərjənt/ | adjective – becoming apparent or prominent

The Emerging Justice Fund will move unrestricted funds to resource grassroots organizing for communities that have been and continue to be targeted by Federal, State and Local policies. Aligned with SJF’s intention to continue to move resources to groups that are most under represented in traditional grantmaking, the Emerging Justice Fund will resource organizations that are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color-led.

Funding

1-year grant of $10,000.

What is Metro?

Metro works with communities, businesses and residents in the Portland metropolitan area to chart a wise course for the future while protecting the things we love about this place.

Where is Metro?

Metro serves more than 1.7 million people in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The agency's boundary encompasses Portland, Oregon and 23 other cities – from the Columbia River in the north to the bend of the Willamette River near Wilsonville, and from the foothills of the Coast Range near Forest Grove to the banks of the Sandy River at Troutdale.

Nature in Neighborhoods Grants

Nature in Neighborhoods grants support community projects and programs across the region, from local park improvements to stream restoration to hands-on nature education for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Grant programs under Nature in Neighborhoods include:

• Nature education
• Restoration and community stewardship
• Capital
• Community choice

Grants are designed to support communities of color and other communities who have experienced barriers to accessing Metro grant funding in the past.

Community Stewardship and Restoration Grants

Metro's Nature in Neighborhoods grants provide opportunities to support and create partnerships in local communities that improve water quality, fish and wildlife habitat and connect people with nature.

Potential Projects

Funding is available for projects that:

• preserve and restore local fish and wildlife habitat
• create, support and/or deepen partnerships in local communities
• address inequities in the conservation movement
• support larger conservation initiatives
• increase people's awareness of the need for protecting and managing natural areas
• engage people in protecting and managing natural areas at the community level
• increase the expertise and capacity of organizations to lead habitat restoration and land management activities
• provide environmental resources and economic opportunities to communities of color and other historically and continually marginalized groups
• offer direct access to protected natural areas and the positive impacts of clean land, air and water to communities of color and other historically and continually marginalized groups.

Funding

Funding for the community stewardship and restoration grants funding cycle is set at $750,000. The final slate of proposals recommended for funding will include a mix of small, medium, and large grants. Small grants have a maximum award of $50,000, medium grants have a maximum award of $75,000, and large grants have a maximum award of $100,000.

Program Purpose and Goals

Community stewardship and restoration grants support and create partnerships in local communities that improve water quality, fish and wildlife habitat and connect people with nature.

All applications must clearly meet the grant program’s overall purpose. Priority will be given to applications that meet each of the grant program’s three goals.

Goal 1: Improve water quality, fish and wildlife habitat

These grants will preserve and restore fish and wildlife habitat in local communities and support larger environmental justice and conservation initiatives.

Examples of project strategies and activities:

• Increase the health of the overall urban landscape for native species and people. Address environmental justice and our region’s history of displacement.
• Promote stewardship of wildlife on urban landscapes and reduce human-wildlife conflicts.
• Reduce hazards to wildlife and humans.
• Remove invasive species and enhance native vegetation.
• Support climate change adaptation and climate resiliency initiatives.
• Improve regional habitat connectivity.
• Restore ecological processes and functions in natural areas.
• Engage and support a variety of local approaches, and ways of knowing and being.
• Focus on multiple key habitats and species

Goal 2: Community partnerships, collaboration and accountability

These grants create, support and/or deepen partnerships in local communities. Strategies for community engagement fall on a spectrum from deep, personal engagement to outreach via mass media, but should aim for transformational partnerships rather than transactional information sharing.

Examples of project strategies and activities:

• One-on-one personal connection (e.g. involve multiple community members in project design, implementation and/or outreach, community participation in hands-on restoration projects, organizing, workforce development, and mentoring).
• Outreach and/or marketing (e.g. social and mass media, group discussions, interpretive signs, mailings, project and/or site tours).
  • Collaboration with communities of color and other historically and continually marginalized groups to develop shared learning about environmental justice priorities and practices, and follow their direction to restore, experience and connect with nature and the region’s natural areas.
  • Provide information, advertising or other promotions so that residents can more easily learn where natural areas are located, how to access them, and what to do there.
• Increase the capacity of, and support for, organizations or businesses that are led by, organize with and/or employ people of color and other historically and continually marginalized communities in habitat restoration or local park and natural area land stewardship activities. Examples of capacity and support building activities include technical assistance, professional or leadership development, or stipends/compensation to participate in project design and/or implementation.
• Expanded partnerships with local and/or regional community-based organizations to support increased stewardship of local natural areas, fish and wildlife habitat.
• Intentional involvement of the community in restoration and stewardship efforts, contributing to community members’ sense of connection back to natural areas, providing opportunities to learn from and educate local users, residents and nearby school populations.
• Training on trauma informed care for natural and water resource professionals and community members who interact with people experiencing houselessness. Learn from houseless communities about their needs and desires to be in nature. Facilitate transformational, equity centered, trauma-informed approaches to address safety and provide resources for houseless communities to be in nature. 

Goal 3: Economic and environmental equity

The community stewardship and restoration grants help address inequities in the conservation movement. The grants provide outdoor, environmental, and natural resources; economic opportunities; direct access to protected natural areas; and the positive impacts of clean land, air and water to Indigenous communities, Black communities, communities of color and other historically and continually marginalized groups in greater Portland.

Examples of project strategies and activities:

• Provide social and economic benefits to Indigenous communities, Black communities, communities of color and other historically and continually marginalized communities beyond the specific project scope or original design.
• Increase the number and improve the experience of visitors, staff and programs at natural areas representing diverse racial, ethnic and cultural groups and other historically and continually marginalized groups. Provide opportunities to communities of color to learn about, guide, and have decision-making power in how agencies and communities manage and care for the land and create opportunities to care for trails, harvest seeds or plant native plants. Improve accessibility to and within natural areas for the elderly, people with disabilities and communities of color.
• Include workforce development goals for partner organizations or programs, including internships or career pathways programs. Shift power to create possibility for equity in career pathways, hiring, retention, and educational opportunities.
• Work with and shift power to Indigenous communities to protect, preserve and access culturally significant land; salmon, steelhead and lamprey habitats; and native plants.
• Include work with Black communities, Indigenous communities, and/or communities of color on anti-displacement and housing security
• Provide economic opportunities for communities of color and other marginalized communities in the construction of natural area improvements, restoration or community stewardship projects by working with COBID-certified firms and hiring and training a local workforce.

Who We Are

Based in Portland, Oregon and created in 2019 by Dr. Ron Naito, the Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation continues his legacy of healing by supporting nonprofit organizations that strengthen, protect, and transform our communities and our planet.

Our grants support organizations working all over the world to mitigate the climate crisis, reduce health disparities, and build communities that are socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. We also support Oregon-based arts and education initiatives, particularly those focused on under-resourced communities.

Our grants are trust-based. Because we respect the expertise of our nonprofit partners and understand that they know best how to spend their funds, all of our grants are unrestricted.

Current Funding Trends

• Under-represented areas:
  • If you work in these areas and are eligible within our funding priorities and restrictions, please consider applying.
    • Nonprofits that work internationally or domestically outside of Oregon, including regional and national organizations
    • Climate crisis mitigation, especially aggressive efforts to curtail or prevent new greenhouse gas emissions
    • International long-term health equity initiatives and health equity initiatives addressing aging and supporting elders
    • Systemic initiatives and advocacy/policy work in any of our funding priorities
• Over-represented areas:
  • We value these types of work and still seek applications from these categories, but applicants may find these categories slightly more competitive if current trends continue.
    • Arts initiatives
    • Oregon frontline nonprofits across all sectors
    • Frontline services, especially organizations supporting people with mental health or substance use needs and organizations supporting survivors of child abuse and domestic and sexual violence

Funding Area: Climate

We seek to fund initiatives that work aggressively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to prevent new emission sources now, both at the frontlines and through policy, markets, litigation, and legislation.

This includes (but isn’t limited to) organizations that:

• Support or lead upstream policy, advocacy, or other reform initiatives that deter new fossil fuel investments, accelerate decarbonization, and promote renewable energies, both domestically and internationally.
• Advance grassroots organizing by Indigenous or other frontline communities, or work to advance climate justice in systems or markets.
• Regranting organizations that can pool our resources with other funders’ and direct them to impactful, proven organizations.

Funding

We tend not to fund organizations with annual budgets over $20 million, although there are some exceptions. We often fund grassroots initiatives. We fund larger organizations ($10m+ budgets) only if they primarily are resource, advocacy, policy, movement-building; if they are regranting organizations; or if they work beyond the local/statewide level (regional, national, international). We also occasionally fund larger organizations working across multiple regions or countries to provide lasting frontline interventions.

We offer unrestricted grants, mostly ranging from $5,000-$40,000. We occasionally fund smaller and larger requests, and we are moving toward more multi-year grants. We try to keep a balance between organizations providing frontline services and organizations working to create and advocate for systemic solutions.

Our grants are unrestricted and can be used for general operating, program/project, capacity building, capital requests (for projects with budgets under $1m), endowment, seed funding, etc.

Who We Are

Based in Portland, Oregon and created in 2019 by Dr. Ron Naito, the Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation continues his legacy of healing by supporting nonprofit organizations that strengthen, protect, and transform our communities and our planet.

Our grants support organizations working all over the world to mitigate the climate crisis, reduce health disparities, and build communities that are socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. We also support Oregon-based arts and education initiatives, particularly those focused on under-resourced communities.

Our grants are trust-based. Because we respect the expertise of our nonprofit partners and understand that they know best how to spend their funds, all of our grants are unrestricted.

Current Funding Trends

• Under-represented areas:
  • If you work in these areas and are eligible within our funding priorities and restrictions, please consider applying.
    • Nonprofits that work internationally or domestically outside of Oregon, including regional and national organizations
    • Climate crisis mitigation, especially aggressive efforts to curtail or prevent new greenhouse gas emissions
    • International long-term health equity initiatives and health equity initiatives addressing aging and supporting elders
    • Systemic initiatives and advocacy/policy work in any of our funding priorities
• Over-represented areas:
  • We value these types of work and still seek applications from these categories, but applicants may find these categories slightly more competitive if current trends continue.
    • Arts initiatives
    • Oregon frontline nonprofits across all sectors
    • Frontline services, especially organizations supporting people with mental health or substance use needs and organizations supporting survivors of child abuse and domestic and sexual violence

Funding Area: Sustainable Communities

In Sustainable Communities, we seek to fund organizations that address pressing social issues and support equitable models of infrastructure so that communities can thrive socially, environmentally, and economically.

Sustainable Communities grants often intersect with our Climate and/or Health Equity funding areas, incorporating social justice advocacy, economic initiatives, climate adaptation, and other human rights and environmental justice initiatives that impact health outcomes, lead to healing, and increase communities’ capacity to thrive.

This includes (but isn’t limited to):

• Social justice, civil rights, and anti-hate initiatives that build power, sovereignty, community, and resources for people whose wellness and success are threatened by systemic prejudice or injustice.
• Triple-bottom-line initiatives that help historically-marginalized communities gain access to sustainable economic power and lasting health benefits.
• Environmental justice work that impacts the health and success of historically marginalized communities, and that help communities adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis.

All of these are united by healing — of prejudice and hate, of inequities, and of the many social, economic, and environmental factors that adversely impact people’s health and well-being.

Funding Areas

There is urgent need in our world for healing: healing our planet, healing our communities, and healing ourselves, in body, mind and spirit. Our grants focus on four key areas of healing. 

• Climate
• Health Equity
• Oregon Arts & Culture
• Sustainable Communities

Current Funding Trends

Under-represented areas:

• Nonprofits that work internationally or domestically outside of Oregon, including regional and national organizations
• Climate crisis mitigation, especially aggressive efforts to curtail or prevent new greenhouse gas emissions
• International long-term health equity initiatives
• Health equity initiatives addressing aging and supporting elders
• Systemic initiatives and advocacy/policy work in any of our funding priorities 
• If you work in these areas and are eligible within our funding priorities and restrictions, please consider applying.

Over-represented areas:

• Arts initiatives
• Oregon frontline nonprofits across all sectors
• Frontline services, especially organizations supporting people with mental health or substance use needs and organizations supporting survivors of child abuse and domestic and sexual violence

We value these types of work and still seek applications from these categories, but applicants may find these categories slightly more competitive if current trends continue.

Immigration Justice Grant

Social Justice Fund (SJF) is pleased to announce the Immigration Justice Grant, open to grassroots organizations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and/or Wyoming.

This year’s SJF Giving Project is focused on Immigration Justice, funding movements led by immigrants, refugees, and migrant workers most affected by an immigration system built to dehumanize the people caught in its cyclical violence. The Giving Project will make grants to support community organizing work that aims to build collective power and undo the overlapping and intersecting systems of oppression and domination, including colonialism, imperialism, anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, ableism, classism, and xenophobia. For SJF’s definition of community organizing, please click here.

This Immigration Justice Grant seeks to support organizations working to end the systemic discrimination, criminalization, detention, deportation, and harassment of immigrant, refugee, and migrant communities to build a future where borders do not dictate where and how people live, thrive, love, access joy, heal, and make community and family.

Immigration Justice work can include, but is not limited to, building capacity and knowledge for collective resistance, public advocacy and litigation, gender-based and sexual violence prevention, abolition work, equitable access to healthcare and housing, farmworkers organizing, labor organizing, and policy making at the local and statewide levels.

Funding

1-year grant of $25,000

Who is Metro

The Metro Council consists of a president, elected regionwide, and six councilors who are elected by district every four years in nonpartisan races. The Metro Auditor, elected regionwide, is responsible for oversight of Metro's annual financial statements and for conducting performance audits. The council appoints a chief operating officer to carry out council policies and manage Metro operations. The chief operating officer oversees a diverse workforce of more than 1,600 employees including park rangers, economists, teachers, scientists, designers, planners, animal keepers, stagehands and cartographers. Hundreds of volunteers lend a hand at Metro's parks, cemeteries, natural areas, offices and visitor venues.

Community Enhancement Grants: Sherwood

Across the Portland metropolitan area, Metro community enhancement grants give a boost to neighborhoods affected by garbage transfer facilities.

Since 1986, Metro has invested more than $6 million in communities across the Portland metropolitan area. Local jurisdictions and community partners help Metro to administer the grant funds in and around Forest Grove, Gresham, Portland, Oregon City, Sherwood, Troutdale and Wilsonville. These funds come from fees collected at local waste transfer stations that are reinvested back into surrounding communities.

Program Goals

The program supports projects that advance one or more of the following goals:

• Provide programs, training or services that benefit youth, seniors, low income persons, people of color, veterans or other marginalized and underserved populations
• Increase reuse, recycling and waste prevention opportunities; reduce toxicity of waste
• Improve the environmental quality of the area
• Preserve or enhance wildlife and natural areas within the target area
• Improve or increase recreation opportunities for residents in the target area
• Rehabilitate and upgrade property owned or operated by non-profits
• Improve the safety, appearance or cleanliness of neighborhoods.

Project examples

Successful grant projects include:

• Developing environmental education and job training opportunities for underserved youth
• Habitat restoration in parks and natural areas; increased programming to improve access
• Property improvements at community centers and social service hubs
• Producing community events such as festivals, cultural events and summer concert programs
• Safety, cleanup and beautification projects around communities and main street boulevards
• Supporting farmers markets and increasing access to healthy food for underserved communities.

Target areas and grant cycles

Each of the eight enhancement grant programs award funds in a different geographical target area. Grant review committees of local elected officials and residents promote, solicit, evaluate and select funded projects each cycle. 

Sherwood

The Sherwood Community Enhancement Committee awards about $90,000 each spring to projects that serve city residents. The grant program is funded by community enhancement fees collected at Pride Recycling Company.

The Community Enhancement Program (CEP) is an exciting opportunity for citizens to participate in making Sherwood a place where families and businesses thrive.

This program derives its funding from a partnership between Sherwood and Metro and is generated by a $1.00 per ton surcharge collected at the Pride Recycling Company transfer station located at 13980 SW Tualatin-Sherwood Road, in Sherwood, Oregon.

The grant program is open to non-profit groups, organizations, and City advisory committees. We encourage you to let us know your ideas for enhancing the community.

Whether you have big ideas, small ideas, or ideas somewhere in-between, you can be sure they will be considered.

Calling to Serve

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

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

Areas of Interest

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

Grant Considerations

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

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

About the Fund

The Columbia River is the lifeblood of the Pacific Northwest and has the greatest flow of any North American river draining into the Pacific. The Columbia River watershed extends from the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. Historically, the Columbia River supported one of the greatest salmon and steelhead runs on Earth, and through 1840, up to16 million salmon and steelhead returned to the Columbia River to spawn each year.

These massive salmon runs, along with other fish and wildlife populations, historically supported, and continue to sustain, rich Native American cultures and traditions across the entire Columbia River Basin. Since 2014, the Columbia River Fund, funded through settlements of legal actions as part of the Columbia Riverkeeper’s Clean Water Act enforcement program, has awarded over $1 million in grants to support community-based water quality stewardship projects along the Columbia River.

Examples of Allowable Projects and Activities

Here are some examples of the types of projects and activities that are eligible for funding. Due to limited funds, the following types of projects have been designated as priorities:

• Legal strategies, policy development, and associated public outreach and education directed towards protecting the watershed and impacted communities.
• Community organizing , public/environmental education to protect water quality and prevent degradation of the watershed.
• Water quality monitoring and testing including sediment impact analysis, especially if the project also includes an element that uses the data to promote enhanced water quality.

Community Partnership Award

The Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award recognizes outstanding nonprofit organizations in the United States that have shown exemplary leadership by facilitating partnerships with public, private or social sector leaders who are working together as equal partners, not as donors and recipients, to build a cohesive community that serves as a model for collaborating with others for the greater good.

Each year, the Mutual of America Foundation sponsors a national competition in which hundreds of organizations demonstrate the value of their partnership to the communities they serve, their ability to be replicated by others and their capacity to stimulate new approaches to addressing significant social issues.

Six organizations are selected by an independent committee to receive the Community Partnership Award.

• The Thomas J. Moran Award is given to the national award-winning program and includes $100,000 and a documentary video about the program.
• The Frances R. Hesselbein Award is given to a partnership that is addressing social challenges in more than one community, or which demonstrates the potential to be replicated in other communities. This recipient receives $75,000.
• Four other organizations are named Honorable Mention recipients for their programs, and each receives $50,000.

Since its inception in 1996, the Community Partnership Award has recognized 262 partnerships from cities and towns across America. Like so many of our clients working in the nonprofit community, Mutual of America is dedicated to having a direct, positive impact on society.

Queer Justice Momentum Giving Project Grant

SJF is pleased to announce the 2022 Queer Justice Momentum Giving Project Grant, open to queer-led grassroots organizations in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and/or Wyoming. 

What we will fund

Queer communities need our support NOW, with unrelenting attacks to reproductive justice and widespread surges in trans-antagonistic, anti-queer rhetoric, organizing, and legislation.

The 2022 Queer Justice Momentum Project will support building new and imaginative systems that help achieve a world where queer communities are protected, honored, and thriving. We hope to resource those working towards dismantling sexist, heteronormative structures and building practices and systems that protect and honor individuals and communities of different genders and sexual identities outside of the heteronormative binary. Through this grant, we hope to support organizers in working towards a world where LGBTQIA+ folks, fem(me)s, and gender non-conforming people are able to identify and express their gender and sexual orientation without fear, discrimination or harm, and have the economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities in all areas of their lives.

This grant will support groups led by LGBTQIA+ individuals, non-binary folks, and fem(me)s who are organizing against heterosexism, transmisogynoir, homophobia, cissexism, and working to build the liberation of groups who have been marginalized because of their sexual and/or gender identity in meaningful ways across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. We will prioritize funding organizations with Black, Indigenous, and/or POC leadership, and/or who conduct most of their work in rural, small town, and/or reservation communities.

• Some examples of organizing work that is eligible for this grant include: 
• Resource mobilization for LGBTQIA+ folks
• Establishing queer and nonbinary community spaces
• Reproductive justice organizing
• Leadership development programs for LGBTQIA+ individuals, nonbinary folks, and fem(me)s
• Facilitating healing and wellness
• Developing community restorative justice processes
• Civic engagement
• Organizing against gender based violence

What is a Momentum Giving Project?

The funding from this grant will be raised by an SJF Momentum Giving Project cohort. Momentum Giving Projects are designed to be responsive to the “movement moment” that is happening at the time. We recognize that our grantees are organizing — strengthening communities, training activists, building analysis, developing leaders, making change — all the time. But sometimes, a spark catches. Circumstances come together so that there’s new momentum and focused attention around a particular issue.

What is a Giving Project?

Giving Projects are a unique, participatory model of funding which provides significant financial resources to grassroots organizing for long-term progressive social change. Giving Projects bring together a diverse group of people of varied class identities who are passionate about social change and want to strengthen their skills in fundraising, grantmaking, and community building. Participants work together to deepen their understanding of social justice principles and engage in collective giving and fundraising to support grassroots organizations.

Click here to learn about Social Justice Fund’s Giving Project model.

Funding

Grant amount: Two-year grants of $40,000 ($20,000 per year).

GO Grants

Collins is a responsive grantmaker. We award and fund arts and culture, child welfare and development, education, environmental protection, health equity, and a broad range of efforts to enhance the quality of life in Oregon’s communities.

A central priority for the Foundation is to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion through our grantmaking. We support organizations at various stages in their pursuit of equity. Many successful applicants will have made efforts to learn about the root causes of social inequities, are actively thinking about how racial equity informs their work and operations, or have implemented policies and practices to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

We provide general operations grants.

Advancing Disability Justice Grants

Disability Justice

Disability Justice is a movement framework that centers queer and transgender disabled people of color. It has ten principles: intersectionality, leadership of those most impacted, anti-capitalist politic, cross-movement solidarity, recognizing wholeness, sustainability, commitment to cross-disability solidarity, interdependence, collective access and collective liberation. 

Disability Equity at NWHF

Too often racism, ableism, and the places we call home prevent us from living the life we deserve.

At Northwest Health Foundation, we are committed to ending this reality. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to lead a healthy life, however they define health. We also believe that, by advancing equity, we can improve the social, political and body/mind health of our whole region. Learn more about NWHF’s commitment to equity and our lens on disability equity.

In 2017, Northwest Health Foundation and the Collins Foundation convened the Disability Justice Leaders Collaborative (DJLC). The DJLC brought 16 disabled BIPOC together to build relationships, learn about the disability justice framework, and discuss how the voices and experiences of people with disabilities are (or aren’t) represented by decisionmakers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Members of the DJLC worked together to create a set of recommendations for supporting disability justice and addressing barriers faced by disabled leaders of color: Recommendations for Advancing Disability Justice in Oregon and SW Washington. 

These recommendations led us to launch our Advancing Disability Justice program with the Collins Foundation, which includes disability justice workshops for BIPOC-led and racial justice organizations, coaching, and Advancing Disability Justice Grants. During the 2021 grant cycle, six grants were awarded totaling $46,600.

Funding

The Advancing Disability Justice Grants will support disabled BIPOC leaders and groups in our region to build their capacity for community building and civic engagement. This can include, but is not limited to, leadership development, organizational or group capacity building around disability justice, cultural programming, movement building work, community organizing and/or policy advocacy. Funds can be used for staff time, stipends, food, gatherings, accommodations, travel, childcare, etc.

NWHF will provide one-time project grants for up to $5,000 or up to $10,000. Applicants will be asked to state their requested amount. We welcome applications with requests below $5,000 or $10,000. Grants can be for new or existing projects and can support short-term, long-term or one-time projects.

• Grants up to $5,000 could be a good match for new or shorter term projects, such as hosting a one-time event or gathering for community members, planning for a larger project, a project for a targeted geographic area, or a short-term need. There are four grants at $5,000 to award for this cycle.
• Grants up to $10,000 could be a good match for longer term or larger scale projects, maybe to implement or accelerate a plan, or to reach out to more communities or regions. Examples could include a multi-day conference or training for larger community or statewide groups, or implementing disability justice goals for a program or organization. There are two grants at $10,000 to award for this cycle. 

Accessibility Costs 

NWHF has set aside additional funds to support accessibility costs above and beyond your grant award. While these additional funds are limited, we hope to allocate these funds to the awarded projects based on the information included in your application and budget. 

For example, this might include:

• live captioning for an event,
• microphone and speakers,
• an accessible meeting space, and so on.

Funding Criteria and Decision Making  

Projects should be in alignment with the following priorities:

• Projects should be led by and focus on disabled, neurodivergent and d/Deaf Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).
• Projects should focus on building capacity or work related to community building, civic engagement, community organizing, cultural work, leadership development, movement building or policy advocacy by disabled BIPOC.
  • Building capacity can mean learning, adapting and strengthening the skills, knowledge and tools of people and groups in order to create and achieve their goals. This might include (but not be limited to) training, leadership development, and building alliances across communities.
  • Civic engagement projects are those that work toward making a difference in the civic life of one’s community and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. Civic engagement improves the quality of life in a community through both political and non-political processes.
• Project values should align with the Disability Justice Principles. From Sins Invalid: longer descriptions and short descriptions.

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

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

Our selection criteria include:

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