NOTE: The Community Fund application has two parts. Part one determines basic eligibility, and part two requests additional information on your organization and community. Upon submission of the part one application, the Honnold Foundation is committed to providing you with a response within one month. Eligible applicants will be invited to complete the second part of the application. Competitive applicants should anticipate some discussion and additional materials requests from the HF team during this review period.

Awards will be announced on a rolling basis. From Basic Eligibility submission to award announcement, successful applicants should expect a three-month turnaround.

Community Fund

Supporting solar energy for nonprofits with BIPOC leadership in the most polluted regions in the United States.

The Honnold Foundation promotes solar energy for a more equitable world. We believe that solar energy access improves lives and reduces environmental impact, and we’re proud to fund organizations all over the world who are making their communities a brighter place.

The Honnold Foundation’s Community Fund supports solar PV installations for community-based nonprofits with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) leadership in the most polluted places in the United States. By supporting solar for a wide range of nonprofits whose work addresses local needs, the Community Fund reduces carbon footprints and lowers power bills, allowing organizations to spend more of their budget on the essential services they provide to their communities.

Community Fund grant recipients will receive funding for the installation of a solar PV system on or near their building. While the Honnold Foundation is not a solar installer, our partner Amicus Solar Cooperative will be supporting grantees through the installation process via their nationwide membership of values-driven solar companies.

Regions include the cities listed and their surrounding suburbs and townships. Please use your best judgment when determining if your organization falls within a region. 

• Houston, Texas
• Chicago, Illinois
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Shreveport - Bossier City, Louisiana
• Detroit, Michigan
• Dallas - Fort Worth, Texas
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Washington, D.C
• Baltimore, Maryland
• New York City, New York
• Newark, New Jersey

What If my city isn't in an eligible area?

The Honnold Foundation understands that pollution and environmental injustice transcend borders. Therefore, we welcome applications from BIPOC-led organizations located in areas not listed above, whose communities’ health is being negatively impacted by pollution. If you believe this to be true for your organization, please complete the application along with a short explanation of eligibility. We welcome applications from organizations based in U.S. states and territories.

Mission

The mission of the Black United Fund of Oregon is to assist in the social and economic development of Oregon's underserved communities and to contribute to a broader understanding of ethnic and culturally diverse groups. 

Opportunities for Support

BUF offers unrestricted general operating grants to organizations whose work aligns with BUF’s mission and giving priorities. BUF’s annual grantmaking cycle opens each year in the late fall with applications generally due in January for a spring decision.

Two Grant Funding Tracks

Standalone Grants

Similar to previous grant cycles, BUF will be offering one-time monetary awards to several selected nonprofit organizations.

For the upcoming fiscal year (FY22), BUF will award approximately 6 to 9 nonprofits with grants ranging from $500 to $2,500, with the average gift being $1,500.

Organizations with 501(c)3 status are eligible to apply and selections will be made based on an organization’s alignment with BUF’s mission, impact on BIPOC communities, and more.

Nonprofit Leadership Program

Three selected organizations will be awarded a $8,000 grant along with enrollment in our Nonprofit Leadership Program. The program is an approximate one year commitment. Participating organizations are required to meet on a monthly basis with independent learning conducted between meetings. This program is designed to accelerate the growth, stability and success of Oregon’s BIPOC- and women-led grassroots nonprofits.

• Months 1-3: Organizational Basics: Governance, board development, operating and program budgets, financial management, policies and procedures, etc.
• Months 4-6: Programs and Services: Outreach, program planning, evaluation, partnerships, etc.
• Months 7-9: Fund Development: Identifying and vetting funders and donors, grant readiness, sources of support by type, etc.

The program’s core curriculum will be supplemented with one-on-one support from a variety of local subject matter experts (HR, strategic planning, fund development, etc.). Participants will also receive access to BUF’s conference room and resource library as well as reduced cost access to additional supports. This program prioritizes support for BIPOC- and/or women-led organizations. All participating organizations must already have established 501(c)(3) status. Only three qualifying nonprofit organizations will be selected for the upcoming cohort. It is requested that an organization's Executive Director, a board member, and a volunteer all participate (or a second board member if no paid staff).  Learn more

Grant Priorities

Priority for both tracks of grant support will be given to organizations whose mission and values align with BUF’s. The Black United Fund of Oregon’s mission is to assist in the social and economic development of BIPOC communities.

Funding Focus

Funding focus areas include prioritizing organizations that: 

• Offer services to BIPOC business owners and community members.
• Support BIPOC youth in achieving their career, college, and postsecondary aspirations.
• Celebrate and showcase Oregon’s diversity.
• Proactively address systems change to counter Oregon’s history of exclusionary and discriminatory policies towards ethnic and culturally diverse group.  

Mission

The mission of the Black United Fund of Oregon is to assist in the social and economic development of Oregon's underserved communities and to contribute to a broader understanding of ethnic and culturally diverse groups.  

Standalone Grants

Similar to previous grant cycles, the Black United Fund of Oregon will be offering one-time monetary awards to several selected nonprofit organizations. For this fiscal year, BUF-OR will award approximately 10 nonprofits with grants ranging from $2,500 to $5,000.

BUF-OR Grant focus areas

• Celebrate and showcase Oregon’s diversity.
• Offer services to BIPOC business owners and community members.
• Proactively address systems change.
• Support BIPOC youth in achieving their career, college, and postsecondary aspirations.

Mission

ArtsFund supports the arts through leadership, advocacy, and grantmaking in order to build a healthy, equitable, and creative Washington.

Values

• We believe that arts and culture are a tool for social change.
• We believe in arts and culture as an economic driver that creates jobs and revitalizes communities through its interconnectedness with the entire Washington economy.
• We believe in promoting equity by centering those most impacted by systemic oppression, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.
• We believe that communities benefit when youth and families are engaged in the arts.
• We believe that strong data, both quantitative and qualitative, can drive meaningful advocacy and change narratives.
• We believe that the arts bring people together with different experiences and that convening is essential for healthy communities.

Community Accelerator Grant

Funded by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Community Accelerator Grant program will provide unrestricted grants for cultural nonprofit organizations across Washington state.

Funding will provide essential capital to Washington’s cultural organizations, including fiscally sponsored and tribal organizations, whose primary mission is to produce or support arts and cultural activities.

Awards will be unrestricted, allowing recipient organizations to utilize funding in ways that they determine and prioritize for highest impact.

The Community Accelerator Grant will invest in a stronger, more inclusive and thriving arts and cultural sector for Washington State by allowing organizations to self-determine how best to utilize their funding. The funds are intended to boost arts organizations’ ability to invest in their missions and essential roles serving communities across the state.

Community Grants - American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation Grant Program

The American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, Inc builds on our long-standing commitment and support of communities we serve by offering unrestricted, general operating grants to eligible non-profit 501(c)(3) partners.

Our approach to grantmaking is evolving. We are committed to using trust-based values to create meaningful, impactful relationships and reduce the inherent power imbalances of the traditional funding model. Like many of our community partners, we are also committed to learning, listening, and changing through collaboration and trust.

The Dreams Foundation grant funding priorities are Academic Achievement and Education, Healthy Youth Development, Economic Opportunity, and Community Resiliency (formerly Basic Needs). These priorities align with our organizational efforts to invest in and improve the communities where we live and serve.

Grant Priorities

Academic Achievement and Education

Programs and services that advance educational equity in learning and academic achievement through access to high quality education. Our grant making focus includes wrap-around educational programming from birth through college with an emphasis on the following:

• Early Childhood Education
• Academic Support and achievement
• STEAM
• Reading and literacy

Healthy Youth Development

Programs and services that support the ongoing needs of young people from birth through 25 including:

• Social-emotional learning
• Mental and behavioral health
• Reducing mental health stigma and discrimination

Economic Opportunity

Programs and services that increase employment access and opportunity, including:

• Job training
• Financial literacy
• Workforce and career readiness
• Reading and literacy

Additionally, within this grant priority, we also have an emphasis on organizations and programming that offer educational or workforce opportunities for incarcerated or previously incarcerated individuals.

Community Resiliency

Formerly our Basic Needs giving priority, these are programs and services that remove barriers to short and/or long-term needs of individuals and families. Specific areas of grantmaking include:

• Food Security through foodbanks and pantries, community gardens, and sustainable food sources
• Housing via emergency shelter, and transitional/long term stable housing
• Transportation and Daycare to pursue education and/or maintain employment

Communities of Focus

Within our grant priorities, the Foundation places an emphasis on supporting organizations that work with individuals and communities that include:

• Economically disadvantaged
• Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)
• Youth (birth through 25) and young families

Who We Are

The Legal Foundation of Washington is a nonprofit organization created in 1984 at the direction of the Washington Supreme Court to distribute IOLTA funds to legal aid organizations across the state. LFW has more than 35 years of experience raising, managing, and distributing funds to achieve equal civil justice for low-income people.

We envision a society where poverty and race are not impediments, and seek to ensure access to civil legal aid for all people in Washington and to improve equity in the civil justice system. Our work contributes to breaking cycles of poverty and ensuring equal opportunity.

We serve tens of thousands of low-income people each year by investing in civil legal aid organizations across Washington. We bring expertise about our state civil legal aid system to ensure thoughtful grantmaking. We receive support from public and private partners who are committed to equal justice and system reform. We responsibly steward and strategically distribute these funds throughout the state.

Race Equity Grants

LFW believes that creating fair access to civil justice requires undoing systemic racial oppression.

Our Race Equity Grants provide multiyear funding to advance racial justice in civil legal aid and build power in communities most impacted by structural racism and oppression. We use a participatory grantmaking model designed to center the voices of communities most impacted by grantmaking decisions. An advisory panel of community leaders who have lived experience with the legal aid system, poverty, and racism review grant applications and prioritize the projects that will be most impactful.

The goals of the Race Equity Grant Fund are to:

• invest in communities most impacted by structural racism and oppression;
• support community- and client-centered approaches to civil legal aid;
• increase civil justice for communities of color;
• build and support anti-racist organizations and leadership;
• center those most impacted in the decision making process.

Since the Race Equity Grant program’s inception, two-thirds of awards went to BIPOC-led organizations and half were first-time grantees with LFW. The program also reflects LFW’s statewide reach: 41% percent of grantees work statewide; 33% focus on Central and Eastern WA; 19% percent serve the Puget Sound region, and 7% cover other areas in WA.

Our Core Principles:

• Relevance: We continually seek information regarding significant opportunities in our region and in our focus areas to ensure that we are responding to current needs and opportunities.
• Community Engagement: We seek to foster community engagement in protecting wildlife and habitat and in engaging youth skills to build directly on community needs and strengths.
• Focus on Place: Grounded in the Northwest, we fund in urban, rural and tribal communities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington where people work to improve the places that they live.
• Expand Opportunity: We give special consideration in our grant making to benefit and expand opportunities for underserved populations in our region.

Wildlife and Habitat Programs: Promoting Biodiversity in a Changing Climate

Conservation efforts that utilize the impacts of climate change when selecting areas for protection.

Engaging a community of citizens, scientists, and conservationists in educating the public about biodiversity and climate change.

Restoring important lands for biodiversity, focal species, and landscape connectivity. Including but not limited to:

• Assessments to identify species and communities at risk, including strategies to work toward ecosystem resilience.
• Identification of barriers to migration and mitigation measures to enhance landscape connectivity.
• Adaptive restoration strategies based on predicted species range expansion and contraction.
• Promoting the biodiversity of the marine and freshwater environments.

Guidelines for Wildlife and Habitat Programs

As development pressures increase, the stewardship of vital ecosystems is critical for protecting wildlife populations and habitat. The effort must be based on solid conservation biology, recognizing the resilience, complexity and interdependence of all life. Conservation of critical habitat and species requires comprehensive strategies and collaboration among partners working in the region, recognizing the limitation of funds available. Stewardship is the shared responsibility of empowered citizens, engaged scientists, collaborating foundations, informed business and property owners, and an accountable government. Healthy and diverse wildlife populations and habitat must be preserved through sound government policies and a range of creative conservation approaches. The principle of sustainability requires that environment, economics and equity are considered together to protect the quality of life at every level.

Our Current Priorities

For those requesting support for youth programs, the Foundation will continue to focus on rural BIPOC organizations and allowing organizations to use awarded funds for general operating support.

Recognizing the critical role of BIPOC organizations, the Charlotte Martin Foundation continues to make it a priority to partner with organizations doing progressive work specifically in the areas of youth education and climate change, with a special emphasis on serving communities of color. Three years ago, we created a fellowship designed around researching BIPOC led organizations within our 5-state region that align with our priorities. We recognize that private funding is inequitably given to white-led organizations and we want to show our commitment to redistributing resources to non-dominant, BIPOC organizations.

Increasing Opportunities for BIPOC:

Increasing racial equity and diversity for youth ages 6-18.

BIPOC led nonprofit organizations with diverse leadership and staff are the focus of our grant-making. Organizations based in rural communities are also a priority for our foundation.

Programs that create opportunities in areas of education, cultural expression and athletics. Including but not limited to:

• Increase access to and the creation of diverse cultural experiences.
• Improve school-based and out-of-school learning opportunities in areas such as science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) and other areas.
• Increase early college awareness and access to post-secondary education.
• Increase access to sports and diversify sports programs.

Guidelines for Youth Programs

Our program funding for youth ages 6-18 falls into three areas: Athletics, Culture and Education. Grants for youth programs must fall within one of these three program areas.

Youth Athletics

Athletics include a wide range of individual and team sports, with an emphasis on the value of sports for lifelong participation. School-sponsored intramural and after school sports programs have been greatly reduced, and middle-school aged youth have been most affected. After school athletics can be the incentive that gets kids involved in programs that also have educational and cultural components. Demand is increasing for athletics programs and facilities in rural areas and inner cities. More girls are getting involved in sports, requiring additional programs and space. Coaches are key to a positive experience for young people, and good coaching requires training.

Youth Culture

Culture includes art, music, dance, literature, theater, ethnic and regional heritage. Positive experiences in culture are essential in educating the whole person and should be an integral part of the lives of youth. Young people can use cultural experiences as creative resources to build self-esteem, promote personal growth, and preserve traditions. Arts and culture programs in the schools are being reduced or eliminated, and many communities, both urban and rural, have limited access to cultural resources.

Youth Education

All young people should have the opportunity to fulfill their potential. Education, in and out of school, happens best when youth direct their learning and engage in compelling problem-solving and critical thinking. Educators need support to play a vital role in assisting youth to investigate their passions and explore new interests. Rural schools often have less access to resources and curricula than urban schools. Both public and private schools need support.

NOTE: NWHF encourages all interested organizations to speak with our team before submitting an application. You must register by creating a user account. It can take up to two business days to activate new user accounts. If you register the day before the application is due, you may miss your submission deadline.

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.