Deadline: 13-May-2024
The Crossroads Fund is offering grants to support community organizations working on issues of racial, social and economic justice in the Chicago area.
The Crossroads Fund re-affirms their commitment to supporting grassroots groups working to reduce the harm of these failures and are working to mobilize resources to communities in Chicago.
To continue the legacy of responding quickly and centering the leadership of people who are most directly impacted, including people of color, women, the LGBT community, they are encouraging current grantees to apply for the Critical Response Fund. Given the political moment, the fund will provide organizations with funding to protect, empower and support community members in this time of crisis. In addition, they seek to support work that radically reimagines community care, expands their notion of what is possible, and orients toward building the world they need.
Funding Information
- Applicants may request between $3,000 – $10,000.
Priority is given to organizations that are:
- Collaborative or working in alliance with other progressive groups as a way to build multiple strategies for bringing social change
- Risk-taking by doing work that may be controversial, marginalized, and/or new and emerging
- Strategic and working with a long-term vision which clearly links to current plans
- Achieving concrete success which has positively impacted the community
- Raise money from multiple sources throughout the community, such as foundations, businesses, individuals, special events, and income generating projects.
Types of Work Supported for all Grants
- Crossroads supports many different forms of social change organizing, such as (but not limited to):
- Direct Action Organizing
- Public Policy Advocacy
- Art & Cultural work that is community-based and linked to activism
- Economic Development
- International Solidarity
- Action Research as an organizing strategy to identify, document and analyze information, in partnership with a community group
Eligibility Criteria
- All applicants must meet the following criteria to be considered for funding:
- Working for Social Change: Crossroads Fund supports organizations working to examine and challenge the underlying causes of injustice affecting their communities. They seek to change the conditions, institutions, and policies that create and maintain inequality and oppression.
- Cross-Issue Organizing: The grantees work with an understanding of the connectedness among the various people and issues that make up the whole community.
- Grassroots Leadership: They support groups that involve the people who are directly affected by an issue at all levels of the organization – in planning, organizing and leading, and working to continue building leadership within the grassroots community.
- Solid Plan: They fund groups whose work is driven by the following:
- a clear purpose with well-planned goals, objectives, activities and a tool to measure outcomes and impact
- a timeline and budget that reflects the proposed objectives and activities
- a realistic fundraising plan.
- Work in the Chicago Metropolitan Area: Crossroads Fund supports organizations rooted in communities in the Chicago metropolitan area. Counties include: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will, along with Lake County, Indiana.
- Budget: Groups with previous year annual expenses under $500,000.
Criteria
- Organization Status
- Crossroads Fund supports groups that have:
- 501(c)3 status
- 501(c)4 and co-operatives
- Fiscal sponsor for those without tax-exempt status
- Organizational bank account
Ineligible
- Crossroads Fund does not fund:
- Organizations involved in electoral campaigns
- Contribute substantially to support lobbying at the federal, state, or local levels
- Support private or individual interests, in contrast to public interests
- Direct service work/social services (Food, Clothing, Shelter, Self-Help/Empowerment Programs, School Supplies, etc.)
- Scholarships, fellowships, or grants to individuals
For more information, visit Crossroads Fund.