Deadline: 27-Jan-23
Mercy For Animals is looking for four individuals who are passionate about the mission of The People’s Fund and eager to grow their experience in grant writing and fundraising. If you can see yourself co-creating their grantmaking process at Mercy For Animals, consider applying to be part of the grant committee!
The People’s Fund is a critical component of Mercy For Animals’ work to advance their strategic priority of building people power to drive change and to embody their core value equity. They envision a movement that is diverse, inclusive, collaborative, and equitably resourced.
Objectives
- Fund work that advances their mission to end industrial animal agriculture by creating a just and sustainable food system.
- Build people power to accelerate change.
- Address racial inequity in funding and inequitable access to nonfinancial resources for mission-aligned advocates and organizations.
- Foster community and collaboration in their movement.
Core Values
- Equity: They believe all advocates, regardless of racial identity, deserve equitable access to the resources they need to achieve impact for animals, their communities, and the planet.
- Trust: They strive to base their decisions on trust and nurture relationships with grantees.
- Learning: They remain open to learning as they go, embrace feedback, and continually improve their process.
Funding Information
- $5,000 total, including $625 paid monthly
Why Is The People’s Fund Needed?
- Racial inequity in funding is a major problem in the nonprofit sector, and their movement is not immune.
- This inequity prevents ambitious and strategic advocates and organizations from scaling their work, innovating, and achieving impact for animals, communities, and the planet. It also stifles community and collaboration in their movement.
Types of Work They Fund
- Community building, organizing, and resilience building
- Education and public-awareness raising
- Corporate and government advocacy and engagement
What They Do Not Fund?
- Work that does not align with their mission, vision, or core values
- Work that involves animal products or any form of animal agriculture
- Direct food relief and animal care or rescue programs not aimed at systemic change
- For-profit projects or businesses
Location: Any U.S. state or territory (remote)
Eligibility Criteria
- Alignment with Mercy For Animals’ mission to end industrial animal agriculture by constructing a just and sustainable food system
- Alignment with Mercy For Animals’ vision of a world where animals are respected, protected, and free
- Racial equity as a core foundation of the work and a lens through which the grantee operates
- Location in a U.S. state or territory, including the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and American Samoa
- Status as a 501(c)3 nonprofit or fiscal sponsorship from a 501(c)3 nonprofit (Note: They may be able to connect prospective grantees to organizations that can serve as a fiscal sponsor.)
- Work engaged in one or more of the following:
- Organizing and mobilizing activists and communities in pursuit of policy or corporate change
- Increasing public awareness of the harms of industrial animal agriculture and benefits of plant-based food and food systems, such as by writing or producing videos about farmed animal welfare, factory farming, and related issues or hosting youth education programs
- Building activist networks and training activists
- Holding conferences or events focused on learning, networking, or connection building to support and strengthen activists
- Building activist resilience and preventing burnout
- Promoting plant-based food accessibility, such as by encouraging restaurants to add vegan options
- Using technology to advance animal advocacy, such as by developing an app or online program to help people adopt a vegan lifestyle
- Conducting research that advances the transition from animal agriculture to plant-based food systems
- Improving racial equity in the farmed animal or vegan advocacy movement
- Pursuing other initiatives to advance protections for farmed animals and build a just and sustainable food system through an antiracist lens
- Willingness to provide a brief progress update approximately 10 months after the original funding date as requested by Mercy For Animals
- Willingness to allow Mercy For Animals to publicly acknowledge the grantee and promote the grantee’s work though their social media channels, blogs, newsletters, and other means
- No involvement in work that promotes, serves, or advocates consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, or any other animal products or promotes animal agriculture, even if that work is not part of the proposal to Mercy For Animals
- Work that is strictly for charitable purposes and not designed to generate profit—and reinvestment in a nonprofit effort of any profit generated
For more information, visit Mercy For Animals.