NOTE: In recognition of shelter in place ordinances among our communities, our requirements for the 2020 Sponsorship Program have changed. It is important that we continue supporting changemakers while we collectively observe social distancing. 

Overview

Thanks for your interest in Beneficial State Foundation. We are a unique foundation in that our primary role is to protect and support the triple bottom line missions of Beneficial State Bank. We help ensure that the banks meet the goals of generating prosperity for people and the planet, and avoids extractive practices while being financially sound.

Beneficial State Bank is helping to build human and environmental prosperity primarily by providing fair and honest loans and financial services to businesses and nonprofits that are striving to be a force for good. We at the foundation support this work in the ways described here.

Sponsorships

We fund and manage the sponsorships of Beneficial State Bank. From day one, Beneficial State Bank has been committed to supporting our community above and beyond its lending by providing sponsorships to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations each year — before the bank has made any profits. Historically we have provided the equivalent of 10% or more of Beneficial State Bank’s profits. That’s ten times the U.S. average corporate giving of less than 1% (0.76%).

Sponsorships

We will continue to help the bank provide sponsorship 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)

We choose to make small sponsorships available to many organizations; most of our sponsorships since 2013 were less than $1,000.

NOTE: Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis and must be received at least 60 days before your gathering.

Our Mission

Group Health Foundation will shape and accelerate efforts to improve health equity and advance community aspirations for a vibrant, healthy future in Washington.

Sponsorship Requests

Events and gatherings are important opportunities for people to come together, and we aim for organizations and leaders working for equity and racial justice to do just that through sponsorships.

We are most likely to support organizations whose leadership reflects the communities they serve. Sponsorships are one way we get to know more about the work of organizations, how they are connected to their communities, and their efforts to bring people together for change.

Deciding Factors for Sponsorships

We are most likely to support organizations whose leadership reflects the communities they serve because we believe the people most affected by racial and social inequities should be at the center of solutions.

Throughout our work, we support organizations led by and serving Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; immigrants and refugees; the queer and disability communities; and people who identify with more than one of these groups.

For sponsorships, we consider the following:

Race/Ethnicity: We evaluate how your event reflects the communities you serve — including your organization’s leadership, the event design, and more—giving preference to culturally specific, multiracial, and cross-racial organizations and events.

Disability/Ability: We prioritize disability-led organizations and those organizing for disabled people to be fully included because we recognize that people with disabilities frequently experience inequities. We also ask applicants to share how a sponsored event will be accessible to all people.

Socioeconomics: We prioritize sponsorships for organizations based in communities experiencing poverty that are led by individuals living with low incomes.

Organization size: We encourage small and mid-size nonprofits to apply and prioritize support for events where sponsorships might have the biggest effect.

Geography: We prioritize areas where philanthropic funding is less common, and our support can go further, recognizing that the bulk of philanthropic funding is concentrated in Western Washington.

We also welcome applications from organizations serving communities along our state’s borders and from tribes for whom Washington is part of their traditional territory.

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are not limited to the examples here, and we welcome your ideas for the events you are hosting that will benefit your organization and community and advance equity and racial justice. We support in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. 

Celebrations and Similar Events

that bring people together based on culture, community, and/or personal identities to build connections and foster collective action.

Staff and Leadership Retreats

with agendas focused on learning and action planning related to systems change or equity efforts.

Professional Development

to equip your staff and/or volunteers with knowledge and skills that deepen their understanding of equity and justice work, further your mission, or serve your community.

Strategic Planning Sessions

that allow your organization to think big-picture and identify key strategies to move your work forward.

Open Houses

that welcome community members and other organizations to tour your space, learn about your work, and connect with your organization and one another.

Fundraisers

to support and strengthen your organization’s long-term agenda.

The Gathering Collaborative

$25 Million Total in Grants to Address Racism Is A Public Health Crisis

King County declared racism as a public health crisis in 2020, recognizing that governments need to acknowledge and respond by undoing the centuries of harms of systemic racism in our society and equitably invest in dismantling racism and protecting the health and well-being of Black, Indigenous and People of Color so that all communities thrive.

Envisioned jointly by community members and King County in August 2021 and launched in March 2022, The Gathering Collaborative is a group of trusted community members who are involved to uplift Black and Indigenous people and their communities – those who are most directly harmed by racism. The members largely reflect these communities and have lived experience in these communities that they serve, with Executive Dow Constantine, Abigail Echo-Hawk and Dr. Ben Danielson, serving as co-chairs. 

The Gathering Collaborative is an iterative co-creation effort between King County government and the community. The Gathering Collaborative community members will collaborate with King County to equitably distribute $25 million that starts to undo the harms of racism compounded by the pandemic, influence the County’s budget cycle and process, and establish a longer-term, multi-generational vision for King County to become an anti-racist government. 

Focus Populations

The focus of this effort and the related investments is to start to undo the harms on the following populations who, based on extensive research and data nationally and in King County, most negatively experience the generational, current, and longstanding impacts of racism, making it a public health crisis:

• Black Americans who are the descendants of enslaved Africans and continue to experience the ongoing and deep impacts of systemic racism in all of its facets. 
• Indigenous Peoples directly impacted by settler colonialism within the US borders which have created the systems of institutional and structural racism perpetuated by the United States government and ongoing settler colonialism of the United States. It includes American Indians/Alaska Natives/Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, American Samoa, and Pacific Islander communities. 

Grant Priorities

Together, The Gathering Collaborative and King County aim to invest in a wide range of services, programs, operations, community advocacy efforts, and physical infrastructure designed and delivered through community-based service providers and businesses that move the needle on the established grantmaking priorities. 

• Health and Wellness
  • Increase investments in and improve wraparound services to provide family and community-based approach to mental and physical health focused on the whole community, and the whole person
  • Invest in and increase culturally rooted, community-rooted mental health providers, services, and/or entities
  • Invest in and improve Black and Indigenous healthcare and wellness overall
  • Increase resources / funds for Healthy Aging support by increasing and creating multigenerational spaces, activities, use of arts toward social justice, health literacy services, and education around medical language (an umbrella of services)
  • Increase investments in efforts that center and advance Black and Indigenous joy, play, wellness, mental health, and resilience
  • Increase and improve access to culturally appropriate, reflective, and rooted services for reproductive, women's rights
  • Improve support for family caregivers that strengthen networks of care
  • Improve and increase youth safety
  • Invest in environmental justice and recognize that it is interconnected to climate change based on where Black and Indigenous communities live, work, play, and pray
  • Invest in resources that improve health of Black and Indigenous birthing people and after birth for the birther and baby
  • Acknowledge and repair harm done to Black and Indigenous women
  • Acknowledge and address various types of system violence that disproportionally affect Black and Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S people as victims of sexual assault  
• Economic Stability and Strengthening
  • Increase support and utilization of banks, businesses, educational entities, philanthropy whose work are led by and that serve Black and Indigenous communities
  • Increase investments in entrepreneurship opportunities for Black and Indigenous women
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Support new and developing entrepreneurship in Black and Indigenous communities
  • Provide a social safety net to be able to support people in meeting their material needs 
• Housing
  • Ensure housing resources are equitably distributed particularly to Black and Indigenous homeless community members
  • Create conditions and places to prioritize housing stability of Black and Indigenous families and individuals and prevent them from going into homelessness in the first place
  • Relieve financial burden of elders in Black and Indigenous communities who are experiencing gentrification pressures and help keep our elders in the homes that they are in
  • Acknowledge and repair harm done to Black and Indigenous women 
• Education
  • Increase Black and Indigenous representation and leadership in decision-making roles across various healthcare professions and systems through workforce development
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Increase access to Black and Indigenous-rooted education opportunities for STEM for Black and Indigenous families and their children
  • Acknowledge and address various impacts of racism in schools on Black and Indigenous young people
  • Invest in and/or increase access to mentors, field trips, afterschool snacks and activities, etc.
  • Support new and developing entrepreneurship in Black and Indigenous communities
  • Improve, increase access to and investment in arts and culture for our Black and Indigenous youth 
• Power and Capacity  Building
  • Increase Black and Indigenous representation and leadership in decision-making roles across various healthcare professions and systems through workforce development
  • Reduce the burden on community of receiving funding, including reporting requirements
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Increase tracking and transparency of how funding is being directed (revisit if done toward our health and wellness)
  • Invest in and increase community defined, built, and owned culturally rooted data gathering and research
  • Grow regional advocacy and power to continue this work
  • Improve, increase access to and investment in arts and culture for our Black and Indigenous youth 

Funding

• Total Available Funding for this grant category: $3,312,500
• Minimum award:$25,000 
• Maximum award: $125,000    

The Gathering Collaborative

$25 Million Total in Grants to Address Racism Is A Public Health Crisis

King County declared racism as a public health crisis in 2020, recognizing that governments need to acknowledge and respond by undoing the centuries of harms of systemic racism in our society and equitably invest in dismantling racism and protecting the health and well-being of Black, Indigenous and People of Color so that all communities thrive.

Envisioned jointly by community members and King County in August 2021 and launched in March 2022, The Gathering Collaborative is a group of trusted community members who are involved to uplift Black and Indigenous people and their communities – those who are most directly harmed by racism. The members largely reflect these communities and have lived experience in these communities that they serve, with Executive Dow Constantine, Abigail Echo-Hawk and Dr. Ben Danielson, serving as co-chairs. 

The Gathering Collaborative is an iterative co-creation effort between King County government and the community. The Gathering Collaborative community members will collaborate with King County to equitably distribute $25 million that starts to undo the harms of racism compounded by the pandemic, influence the County’s budget cycle and process, and establish a longer-term, multi-generational vision for King County to become an anti-racist government. 

Focus Populations

The focus of this effort and the related investments is to start to undo the harms on the following populations who, based on extensive research and data nationally and in King County, most negatively experience the generational, current, and longstanding impacts of racism, making it a public health crisis:

• Black Americans who are the descendants of enslaved Africans and continue to experience the ongoing and deep impacts of systemic racism in all of its facets. 
• Indigenous Peoples directly impacted by settler colonialism within the US borders which have created the systems of institutional and structural racism perpetuated by the United States government and ongoing settler colonialism of the United States. It includes American Indians/Alaska Natives/Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, American Samoa, and Pacific Islander communities. 

Grant Priorities

Together, The Gathering Collaborative and King County aim to invest in a wide range of services, programs, operations, community advocacy efforts, and physical infrastructure designed and delivered through community-based service providers and businesses that move the needle on the established grantmaking priorities. 

• Health and Wellness
  • Increase investments in and improve wraparound services to provide family and community-based approach to mental and physical health focused on the whole community, and the whole person
  • Invest in and increase culturally rooted, community-rooted mental health providers, services, and/or entities
  • Invest in and improve Black and Indigenous healthcare and wellness overall
  • Increase resources / funds for Healthy Aging support by increasing and creating multigenerational spaces, activities, use of arts toward social justice, health literacy services, and education around medical language (an umbrella of services)
  • Increase investments in efforts that center and advance Black and Indigenous joy, play, wellness, mental health, and resilience
  • Increase and improve access to culturally appropriate, reflective, and rooted services for reproductive, women's rights
  • Improve support for family caregivers that strengthen networks of care
  • Improve and increase youth safety
  • Invest in environmental justice and recognize that it is interconnected to climate change based on where Black and Indigenous communities live, work, play, and pray
  • Invest in resources that improve health of Black and Indigenous birthing people and after birth for the birther and baby
  • Acknowledge and repair harm done to Black and Indigenous women
  • Acknowledge and address various types of system violence that disproportionally affect Black and Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S people as victims of sexual assault  
• Economic Stability and Strengthening
  • Increase support and utilization of banks, businesses, educational entities, philanthropy whose work are led by and that serve Black and Indigenous communities
  • Increase investments in entrepreneurship opportunities for Black and Indigenous women
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Support new and developing entrepreneurship in Black and Indigenous communities
  • Provide a social safety net to be able to support people in meeting their material needs 
• Housing
  • Ensure housing resources are equitably distributed particularly to Black and Indigenous homeless community members
  • Create conditions and places to prioritize housing stability of Black and Indigenous families and individuals and prevent them from going into homelessness in the first place
  • Relieve financial burden of elders in Black and Indigenous communities who are experiencing gentrification pressures and help keep our elders in the homes that they are in
  • Acknowledge and repair harm done to Black and Indigenous women 
• Education
  • Increase Black and Indigenous representation and leadership in decision-making roles across various healthcare professions and systems through workforce development
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Increase access to Black and Indigenous-rooted education opportunities for STEM for Black and Indigenous families and their children
  • Acknowledge and address various impacts of racism in schools on Black and Indigenous young people
  • Invest in and/or increase access to mentors, field trips, afterschool snacks and activities, etc.
  • Support new and developing entrepreneurship in Black and Indigenous communities
  • Improve, increase access to and investment in arts and culture for our Black and Indigenous youth 
• Power and Capacity  Building
  • Increase Black and Indigenous representation and leadership in decision-making roles across various healthcare professions and systems through workforce development
  • Reduce the burden on community of receiving funding, including reporting requirements
  • Help youth get better education and allow them to build leadership and cognitive skills
  • Increase tracking and transparency of how funding is being directed (revisit if done toward our health and wellness)
  • Invest in and increase community defined, built, and owned culturally rooted data gathering and research
  • Grow regional advocacy and power to continue this work
  • Improve, increase access to and investment in arts and culture for our Black and Indigenous youth 

Funding

• Total available funding for this category: $9,563,000
• Minimum award: $100,000 
• Maximum award: up to 50% of the highest total annual revenue during 2019-2022 OR $550,000 -- whichever amount is lower. 

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

NOTE: BECU member nominations are accepted through the Letter of Inquiry deadline, above. Nonprofit supplemental applications are due by the full proposal deadline.

Nominate a Nonprofit

Not all heroes wear capes. Some work to end hunger, others push for social equity and justice, and others transform lives through mentorship, education or the arts. Heroism takes many forms, and we're counting on you to help us identify the heroes among us.

The People Helping People Awards is an annual, member-driven program that recognizes members and nonprofits that help others. Each winner receives up to $50K in grant funds. This year, through our Black Community Development Project (BCDP), a five-year, $5 million commitment to Black communities and racial equity, we're giving up to $150K in additional funding to Black-led nonprofits nominated by BECU members.

So look around you for heroes who deserve recognition, and nominate a nonprofit for a BECU People Helping People Award today.

Giving Areas and Subcategories

Advancing Education (Pre K Through College) 

Access to education, mentoring, educational materials and programming, classroom/school and PTSA funding for educational programs/materials/experiences

Arts And Culture 

Equitable access to art experiences, underrepresented art and cultural organizations, cultural programs

Creating Economic Opportunity 

Living-wage jobs, small and startup businesses, job quality for low-wage workers

Preserving Health And Promoting Wellness 

Access to healthcare, illness prevention/cure, mental health, patient support, disabilities, veteran advocacy

Preserving Or Restoring The Environment 

Conservation, stewardship, sustainability

Providing For Basic Human Needs 

Affordable housing, homelessness, senior advocacy, infant and child advocacy, food/diaper/clothing banks

Strengthening Local Communities 

Neighborhoods, public safety, search and rescue, outdoor spaces, rotary/chambers of commerce.

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.

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).

NOTE: Funding will be available through the 3 proposed deadlines or until the money is used. 

Community Care Fund

Community care keeps us alive and plants seeds for queer and trans futures.  

Community care is the antidote for isolation, exploitation, and oppression. We create the joy, rest, pleasure, and healing we need to sustain and transform ourselves. For queer and trans people, there are infinite possibilities for how we protect and care for each other—and this fund supports our collective efforts to practice that care.  

For us, community care is any effort to respond to community threats, harms, needs, hopes, and healing. Whether it’s mutual aid, safety planning, opportunities for healing, or any number of practices—we want to help support whatever “community care” means to you.  

Guidelines

For this grant, the definition of ‘community care’ is broad; ‘community care’ is any collective efforts to protect and care for queer and trans communities.

This funding will be unrestricted (unless you want it to be restricted) .

We define “community care” as any effort to respond to community threats, harms, needs, hopes, and healing. We welcome your own definitions and practices of community care. Examples of community care include, but are not limited to:    

• Mutual aid and financial relief 
• Community organizing, policy advocacy, political education and mobilization
• Gifts cards & stipends for community members  
• Access to housing, transportation & health care i.e. rent support, mental health, gender affirming care & abortion access 
• Opportunities for rest, grieving, healing, play, pleasure, and joy  
• Bringing community together though virtual and in person events  
• Protecting people from violence, criminalization, incarceration, detention, and deportation e.g. bail and legal fees    
• Leadership and professional development, for topics ranging from herbalism to accounting  
• Language access and justice i.e. captioning, interpretation and translation  
• Food access and justice 
• Land access and justice 
• Conflict resolution, accountability and efforts to address trauma and harm 
• Safety planning 
• Disaster and crisis preparation and response  
• Administrative and technological support for events, programs, and organizations (e.g. hardware, software & licensing) 

Grant Priorities

We prioritize funding queer, trans, and gender diverse organizations for and by Black, Brown, Indigenous and other Racialized Peoples (BBIRP).

We prioritize funding BBIRP-led LGBTQIA2S+ organizations that practice the following social justice values. We don’t expect organizations to practice all of these values, and we hope to learn more about what’s important to you:

• Racial justice
• Anti-colorism
• Gender Justice
• Feminism
• Disability Justice
• Reproductive Justice
• Fat Liberation
• Prison Abolition
• Transformative Justice
• Economic Justice and anti-capitalism
• Healing Justice
• Climate & Environmental Justice
• Housing Justice
• Immigration Justice
• Anti-imperialism and anti-militarism
• Decolonization
• Anti-ageism

We prioritize BBIRP-led LGBTQIA2S+ organizations for and by the following people. We don’t expect organizations to have every identity present, we are excited to learn more about your communities:

• People living with HIV/AIDS
• People discriminated by colorism
• Queer people
• Trans people
• Non-binary, Two-Spirit, and Gender Expansive People
• Women and people discriminated by misogyny and patriarchy
• People with disabilities
• People targeted by sizeism and fatphobia
• People who are targeted by law enforcement, incarcerated, and criminalized
• People whose livelihoods are criminalized e.g. sex work
• People exploited and harmed by capitalism
• People harmed by climate change and disasters
• People harmed by pollution, resource extraction, and land appropriation
• People experiencing houselessness and housing instability
• Immigrants
• Refugees
• People exploited and harmed by militarism, imperialism, and nationalism
• People exploited and harmed by colonization
• Youth
• Elders