Deadline: 30 December 2019
The Peace Development Fund (PDF) is currently accepting applications for its 2020 Community Organizing Grants program.
The Peace Development Fund makes grants to community based organizations working for social justice. The PDF is committed to supporting organizations and projects that recognize that peace will never be sustained unless it is based on justice and an appreciation of both the diversity and unity of the human family.
Funding Priorities
- Organizing to Shift Power:
- Groups that are creating a power base that can hold leaders accountable to the people who are affected by their decisions.
- Groups that let their membership or constituents take the lead in collective action-planning and decision-making.
- Groups whose leadership comes directly from the people who are most affected by the issues they are organizing around.
- Working to Build a Movement:
- Groups that organize in the local community, but make connections between local issues and a broader need for systemic change.
- Groups that provide a space for members to develop their political analyses at the same time as taking action for change.
- Groups that break down barriers within the progressive movement, by building strategic alliances between groups of different cultural or class backgrounds, or different issue areas.
- Groups that explore the root causes of injustice and have a long-term vision for the kind of social change they are working towards.
- Dismantling Oppression:
- Groups and projects that are proactively engaged in a process of dismantling oppression, confronting privilege and challenging institutional structures that perpetuate oppression (both internal and external to the organization).
- Groups that are proactively making connections between the different forms of oppression (racism, heterosexism, sexism, ageism, classism, ableism, etc.), and its connections with injustice.
- Creating New Structures:
- Groups that have organizational structures that allow power to flow “from the bottom up,” or are exploring a new way of organizing.
- Efforts to create new, community-based systems and structures (economic, political, cultural, religious, etc.) that are liberating, democratic and environmentally sustainable, and that promote healthy, sustainable communities.
- Other Funding Priorities:
- New or emerging organizations; efforts that have difficulty securing funds from other sources; organizing across national borders (Cross Border); climate change organizing at the local policy level; groups that have a genesis in Occupy, MeToo or Movement for Black Lives; collaborative peace and social justice initiatives led by women or youth; or issues that are not yet recognized by progressive funders.
Grant Information
The grant range lies from $2,500-$10,000 with an average of up to $5,000.
Eligibility Criteria
Programs with a primary geographic focus within the United States, U.S. Territories, Mexico and Haiti. If an organization is U.S.-based but works mostly outside of these areas, it should consider filling out an LOI for a Donor Advised Fund grant, which are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Ineligibility
- Organizations not directly engaged in community organizing.
- Social services that are not linked to a clear organizing strategy.
- Individuals, or organizations with strong leadership from only one individual.
- Conferences, trainings and other one-time events.
- Audio-visual productions and distribution – TV, radio, publications, films, etc. (PDF does fund media work or audio-visual production as part of the general expenses of groups engaged in grassroots organizing).
- Research that is not directly linked to an organizing strategy (PDF does fund research as part of the general expenses of groups engaged in grassroots organizing).
- Academic institutions and scholarships.
- Other grantmaking organizations (unless they are your fiscal sponsor).
- Organizations with budgets larger than $250,000.
- Lobbying activities.
For more information, visit https://www.peacedevelopmentfund.org/grants-and-programs/community-organizing-grants-program/