Deadline: 1-Nov-23
If you are a Black-led, Black-focused community organization that has a track record of working to activate, educate, and motivate Black men to shape the futures all year round, apply for the Black Organizing Innovations Project today!
The Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund are offering grants for Black voter organizing innovations. These grants are intended to supercharge innovative or experimental ideas for how best to engage Black voters to participate civically, and to stay engaged in the political process. Grants are intended for innovative or experimental strategies that engage and activate of Black men in advance of the 2024 elections. Programs must be run, managed, and evaluated by Black led, Black focused organizations that have a track record of engagement and activation of Black community members.
The Black Futures Lab and the Black to the Future Action Fund work to make Black communities powerful in politics, so that they can be powerful in the rest of the lives. The challenges facing Black communities are complex – and their solutions require innovation, experimentation, and independent Black political power. The work supports Black communities with the tools they need to be powerful – including capacity building support for Black led, Black focused community based organizations. In partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Black Futures Lab is investing resources into organizing innovations that are geared towards supercharging Black organizing in advance of the 2024 election cycle.
They know that Black men are engaged, Black men are participating, and there is more that they can learn about what keeps Black men involved, and what prevents Black men from being involved.
The questions driving this innovations program are:
- What are the most effective strategies for engaging Black men in civic life, including elections?
- Where else can Black men be engaged, beyond the barbershop conversations? Where else are Black men being engaged effectively?
- What are the messages that resonate with Black men and encourage them to participate, that don’t rely on the defects or deficiencies of the communities?
- What are the issues most important to Black men and what do Black men need and want to see in order to participate and participate often?
Funding Information
- Grant Amount: up to $250,000
Desired Activities
- They will accept proposals that accomplish the following:
- Activate a minimum of 2500 Black men. Robust proposals submitted will engage upwards of 5000 Black men.
- Educate a minimum of 2500 Black men on the issues impacting their communities, and encourage them to take action.
- Use creative and innovative ways to accomplish the motivation, education or activation of Black men around local and state policy
- Use creative and innovative ways to accomplish the motivation, education or activation of Black men leading up to the 2024 elections.
- Have a robust evaluation and documentation plan to show the impact of the innovation
- Are focused in the priority states: California, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Wisconsin. Proposals outside of these states will be considered, but proposals in the target states will be prioritized.
- Have a logic or a hypothesis behind the innovation – this is not a grant for generalized community events, or general operations of the organization – they are looking for an experiment or an innovation that you want to try and don’t currently have the flexible resources for.
- Have a track record of success – they are interested in organizations that have established relationships and a track record with Black men
Desired Outcomes
- A minimum of 2500 Black men engaged
- An innovation in Black male voter organizing that can be documented, tested and potentially replicated
- Increased learning about what works: what are the most successful, effective, innovative ways to engage Black male voters and increase and sustain their participation in civic life?
- An ability to show receipts – they require accurate, robust documentation of your work and its impact.
Eligibility Criteria
- These grants are available to:
- Black led, Black focused community organizations. At this time, they are unable to fund volunteer networks or collectives that are not 501(c)3 designated or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3. They are also unable to fund individuals.
- They encourage partnerships and collaborations – they are stronger together than they are alone! If you partner with one or more organizations, those partners must also meet the same criteria. they cannot fund individuals or entities that are not 501(c)3 designated at this time. Whichever entity submits the grant is responsible for distribution of resources and collecting accurate documentation from all partners. BFL will not be responsible for any sub-grants or re-grants through partnerships and collaborations established by the grantee.
- They love proposals that have a strong evaluation component – how will you know if the experiment is working or not working?
For more information, visit Black Futures Lab.