Funding is more than a resource; it's a lifeline for spaces where healing, resistance, and transformation take root. And finding financial resources to support your movement work can be a disheartening task, with opportunities being hard to find or listed as “invite only” with unnecessarily complicated applications. In our work, we come across funding opportunities regularly. Openly sharing funding and learning opportunities can be a small and meaningful step towards dismantling systems that prioritize competition over community.
Below is a curated list of national funders offering both rapid response and long-term funding to initiatives run by and for Black folks, Indigenous folks, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and artists, plus some favorite spaces to learn about related topics. If you come across similar opportunities, please feel free to share them with us to post here.
National Funders
Rolling basis. Preference for Northeast US. Preference for finite & specific proposals.
General common application for frontline social justice groups, multiple opportunities available.
Grant cycle opens every October. Past grants $5k or less.
Unrestricted grants to arts organizations, preferencing marginalized identity groups. Grantees selected in Spring based on (anonymous) nominations.
Holding a Sister Initiative — Resourcing & uplifting trans girls and gender-expansive youth of color, and creating space for cis & trans girls of color to build solidarity.
TJFP provides funding for grassroots, trans-led groups organizing and fighting for trans justice in U.S. and U.S. Territories. Preference for BIPOC-led orgs.
The Kataly Foundation moves resources to support the economic, political, and cultural power of Black and Indigenous communities.
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice funds local and global movements that shift power to LGBTQI+ people and orgs. They announce when they’re open for new grant applications in their newsletter.
Grantmaking to advance community power, wellbeing, and self-determination of young BIPOC folks most directly impacted by & best positioned to end gender oppression.
Opportunity grants from Urgent Action Fund offer up to $8k for advocacy work led by/for women, trans, and nonbinary people.
Grants focused on liberation of women, girls, and LGBTQI people. They fund direct service orgs with a vision for transformation. Proposals are by-invitation only. Read more here.
Tikkun Olam’s funding priorities include women’s health, gender justice, and reproductive rights.
Bread & Roses is a home for channeling money to movements for real change in the Philadelphia region. Bread & Roses organizes donors at all levels & supports justice movements through fundraising, grantmaking, capacity building, and convening.
Arcus grants for LGBTQ social justice tend towards long-term, general operating support. Apply by invitation only.
International Trans Fund grants range from $10k - $50k to resource trans movements across the world to organize, build community, resist violence and create new possibilities for our futures.
Funds women-led social justice & community-focused projects. $7500 max.
Resourcing trans-led organizing to support a future where transgender people live with freedom, safety, and self-determination. Grants can be used for org development, plus general & operational support.
Supports community-led efforts to increase engagement in prevention and care, address stigma, and build trust in HIV care among communities most disproportionately impacted by HIV. General operating or project funds.
Alternate ROOTS supports Southern artists and organizers working at the intersection of art, community, and activism.
Out in the South provides flexible, unrestricted grants to organizations working on LGBTQ rights and racial justice in the Southern US.
QMF prioritizes grants to organizations with budgets under $300,000 that are: LGBTQ, BIPOC-led, grassroots, community-led, new/emergent, and/or rural organizations doing work in the Southeastern US.
Funding focus on LGBTQ+ Equality efforts in the US Southeast, including direct service, advocacy, community organizing, and capacity building (coaching, board development, racial equity, fundraising, etc). More here.
Diverse City Fund supports DC-based efforts led by communities of color to organize against oppression of all kinds to create systemic change.
Rapid Response Funders
Grants $10-30k, rolling basis. Funds “groups that bring people of color together for cultural and mental liberation, the individual and intra-communal level work that prepares people to resist.”
Rapid response grants fund direct action movement-building and trans-led orgs creating access to financial resources. FAQ here.
Fast funding to grassroots orgs led by women of color, trans people, and low-income women in critical but unexpected fights for reproductive and social justice.
Security grants from Urgent Action Fund offer up to $8k in service of the safety and security of activists. Focus on women, trans, and non-binary leadership and rights-based activism.
A rolling, monthly rapid response and emergent organizing grant for movement and frontline communities responding to urgent / unanticipated crises or opportunities to build power.
Emergent Fund and the Transgender Law Center are partnering to move resources to trans-led organizing, healing, and power-building efforts. Grant period is 12 months; on average $10,000. Apply here.
Block and Build provides flexible resources to frontline orgs in the Southeast as they face rising authoritarian threats. Small monthly grants of $500 – $3,000.
The Democracy Protection Network coordinates crisis-response and resilience-building services for orgs and individuals working to protect American democracy. Apply here.
Coordination services and strategic support for pro-democracy and grassroots orgs and individuals facing threats due to their civic-related work. Apply here.
The Black Trans Travel Fund provides ground transportation to Black trans women. As resources allow, BTTF also covers costs associated with TSA Pre-Check, passport fees, and flights.
Learning Spaces
A Bookkeeping Cooperative hosts public workshops to help strengthen your organizational finance skills in a way that’s aligned with your values.
CompassPoint creates participatory, democratic learning spaces on leadership coaching, communication, and financial fundamentals, with a focus on BIPOC leaders.
Seeking support for building people power in the digital age? Social justice leader strategizing a new digital campaign? Check out the trainings and workshops hosted by Social Movement Technologies.
Social Impact Commons has built a strong base of shared practice, advocacy, direct services, and a compelling vision for fiscal sponsorship rooted in intentional community and collective stewardship.
The Windcall Residency is a nine-month experience that includes residential retreats in support of organizers’ renewal, and which allow space to explore practices that lead to long-term sustainability in the movement.
Solidarity Is generates tools, trainings, and narratives to facilitate transformative solidarity practices for movement building organizations and activists who are invested in meaningful social change.
Alliance for Justice offers trainings and webinars to build the strength of progressive movements, while harnessing the collective power of nonprofits to transform our state and federal courts.
Spring Up hosts liberatory learning spaces through online classes at bluelight academy of the liberatory arts, print materials and curriculum, retreats, and coaching.
Join Schulman Consulting for the only weekly conversation focused on the needs, challenges and goals of fiscal sponsors. Register here.
Blue Light Academy offers ongoing webinars and courses on community care, transformative justice, and organizational accountability, through Spring Up Collective.
AORTA offers trainings on liberatory praxis, including an annual Organizational Equity Learning Cohort, aiming to catalyze and sustain movements composed of skilled, democratic, & principled people and organizations.
The Management Center offers trainings, coaching, & resources to help social change leaders build equitable, sustainable, and results-driven organizations.
Through the Embodiment Institute, the Practice Ground is a community space for those of us committed to transform ourselves and to transform systems toward justice and liberation, toward the ability to feel & be felt.
RadComms ties political opportunity to collective action for social justice communicators. RadComms is a community of practice for activists, organizers, and other change-makers working to build narrative power for social justice.
Have a recommendation or you’d like your org/opportunity added to the list? Let's connect below!