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Mobilize Power Fund (United States)

Deadline: 3-Oct-23

Applications are now open for the Mobilize Power Fund that resources gender justice organizations to adapt or pivot their work when met with unanticipated, time-sensitive opportunities or threats to their movement building work and organizing conditions.

Through the Mobilize Power Fund, they resource time-sensitive projects including community organizing and mobilization, healing justice work, conflict resolution, community accountability, transformative and restorative justice work, direct action, and more. This fund does not resource general operating support, ongoing or regularly planned programming, or recurring events. That being said, Third Wave Fund has other grantmaking programs that provide long-term general operating and capacity building support.

They launched the Mobilize Power Fund because powerful movements need the ability to respond to and heal from immediate threats and opportunities with flexible and responsive funding. Mobilize Power Fund’s first iteration was to support organizers against HB2, the transphobic “Bathroom Bill” proposed in North Carolina in 2016.

Funding Information
  • ​Grants can be made for up to $10,000 USD. Larger grants may be made on a case-by-case basis. Partnership or coalitions of two or more groups can request up to $20,000 USD.
Eligible Activities
  • The fund covers unanticipated and time-sensitive community organizing or direct action, Participatory Action Research, healing justice work, conflict mediation/resolution, legal or bail fees, marches or rallies, leadership training & skills building, mutual aid, unanticipated legislative or ballot initiative campaigns.
Ineligible Activities
  • This fund does not cover budget shortfalls, ongoing, regularly scheduled programs, start-up or seed costs, general operating costs, fundraising, previously planned or long-term campaigns (they define long-term as programming extending beyond 6 months), projects led by individuals, charity, or groups or projects based outside of the United States and US territories.
Who is this Fund for?
  • ​​The Mobilize Power Fund prioritizes organizations that are led by young women of color (transgender and cisgender), and trans, queer, gender non-conforming and intersex young people of color under 35, led by and for communities directly impacted by the issues they focus on, have an intersectional gender justice lens, and have a total organizational budget under $500k​. Groups do not need 501c3 of fiscal sponsor status to apply.
Eligibility Criteria
  • There are five main areas of criteria your organization must meet:
    • BIPOC Youth Leadership
      • Young women of color (transgender and cisgender), and trans, queer, gender non-conforming and intersex young people of color under 35 are in leadership and decision-making roles. There is by and for leadership of communities directly-impacted by the issues you are responding to. This criteria is for both your group / organization AND the specific work you are applying for.
    • Gender Justice
      • Your political analysis shows how the issue(s) you’re responding to are connected to patriarchy, transphobia, homophobia, gender inequity, or gender-based violence. This criteria is for both your group / organization AND the specific work you are applying for.
    • Rapid Response
      • Your proposal is a time-sensitive response to an immediate and unanticipated movement building threat or opportunity that requires your group to significantly pivot from your ongoing and regularly planned work.
    • Community Power Building
      • The strategies and activities in your proposal strengthen the organizing and movement building power of your communities. In addition, these strategies and activities directly lead to the overall goals of your proposal. ‍
    • Organizational Need
      • Organizations must have a budget under $500,000 to be eligible to receive a Mobilize Power Fund grant. In addition, they prioritize groups and organizations based in areas with limited access to philanthropic resources and who do not have access to 501c3 status or fiscal sponsorship.
  • They only fund within the United States and U.S territories, including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

For more information, visit Third Wave Fund.

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