Deadline: 30-Apr-21
Do you know of a grassroots organization that has fresh ideas to ensure your communities, your families, your CIVIL RIGHTS are protected and preserved for Hawai’i’s future generations? If yes, then direct them to the 2021 Regular Grants Program.
Hawai’i People’s Fund is now accepting applications for the 2021 Regular Grants Program from grassroots organizations working towards a safe, secure Hawai’i.
Categories
The broad categories of work that Hawai‘i People’s Fund supports include:
- Action Research
- Arts & Cultural Activism
- Cross-Issue Organizing
- Human and Civil Rights
- Environmental Justice
- Economic Justice
- Grassroots Leadership
- Political Organizing
- Peace and International Solidarity
- Movement Building
- Youth Organizing
- Public Policy Advocacy
- Workers’ Rights
- Indigenous Rights
- Reproductive Justice.
Funding Information
- Regular Grant awards may range up to $10,000.
- Please do not create a budget to match the maximum, but rather, develop your budget according to your project and/or organizational needs.
- Regular grant funding is limited to one grant award in a 12-month period.
- Hawai‘i People’s Fund should not be considered a long-term funding source.
Funding Criteria
- They Fund Clear Strategies for Action: Strong proposals will reflect all or many of the following:
- Organizing, mobilization, education, direct action, and/or advocacy
- Challenging and working to change systems and institutions that create, accommodate and perpetuate social inequalities and injustices
- Addressing the root causes of injustice
- Working to eliminate barriers to full participation in society (i.e. racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, ageism)
- Collaboration with other groups
- Opportunities for public participation and community involvement
- Developing community leaders
- Realistic goals
- Clear plans for achieving and evaluating efforts
- Accountability to constituency
- Considered fundraising plan
- Realistic budget.
Eligible Funding
- They Fund Commitment to Inclusion and Leadership- The applicant group reflects the full diversity of its community and involves its core constituencies at all levels of leadership and decision-making, instead of reproducing the dominant culture. They prioritize efforts led by an organized community.
- They Fund Social Change Organizations- A social change organization:
- Is explicit regarding issues of equity
- Focuses on communities affected by inequity
- Ensures that its constituents are involved in setting the agenda
- Has clear structures, processes, and mechanisms for accountability to communities being organized/served
- Recognizes unequal dynamics of racial and economic power
- Holds those responsible for maintaining inequities accountable
- Works to make change at the roots and interconnections of systems, institutions and people
- Offers bold paradigm shifts and alternatives that replace current structures of inequity and disproportionate power
- Works collaboratively in building a collective movement.
Funding Restrictions
Hawai’i People’s Fund does NOT fund:
- Activities that promote specific political candidates for public office
- Major Capital Expenditures
- For-Profit Business Ventures
- Government Agencies (Local, State, Federal)
- Scholarships
- Individual projects (e.g. graduate research, fellowships, etc.)
- Organizations with strong leadership from only one individual
- Reimbursements
- Work outside of Hawai‘i
- Endowments
- One-time events that are neither part of or linked to ongoing social change organizing strategies
- Previously funded groups with outstanding grant reports
- Social service organizations without a strong social change component
- Groups with an organizational budget over $250,000 or significant access to mainstream funding.
Note– Organizations with budgets of more than $250,000 may apply if they have a discrete social justice project with a budget of less than this amount that:
- needs seed money for a new activity or,
- is unlikely to meet the guidelines of other funding sources because of its goals or strategies.
Eligibility Criteria
- If a group’s mission is eligible for funding, you do not need to be approved by the IRS as 501c3.
- However, if there is no financial account in the name of your organization, a fiscal sponsor is required.
- A fiscal sponsor is an organization with 501c(3) status, a designation with the IRS allowing that entity to receive tax-deductible donations.
- A fiscal sponsor will partner with you to receive and distribute your grant funding.
- Note that most fiscal sponsors will charge a percentage for this service and will offer varying levels of support. Please keep in mind that they do NOT fund individuals.
For more information, visit https://www.hawaiipeoplesfund.org/