Social Justice Community Foundations, Rapid Response Funds, and Intermediaries
Social justice philanthropy focuses on the root causes of social, racial, economic, and environmental injustices. It strives to include the people who are impacted by those injustices as decision-makers. Social justice philanthropy aims to make the field of philanthropy more accessible and diverse. In social justice philanthropy, foundations are accountable, transparent, and responsive in their grantmaking. Donors and foundations act as allies to social justice movements by contributing not only monetary resources but also time, knowledge, skills, and access. Social justice philanthropy is sometimes called social change, social movement, and community-based philanthropy.*
National or International Public Foundations and Intermediaries
The foundations on this list fund community organizing led by people most impacted by systems of oppression.
- Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
- Borealis Philanthropy
- Circle for Justice Innovations
- Common Counsel Foundation
- FRIDA Young Feminist Fund
- Global Greengrants Fund
- Grassroots International
- Groundswell Fund
- Ms. Foundation for Women
- Pillars Fund
- Proteus Fund
- Resist
- Third Wave Fund
- Thousand Currents
Local and Regional Social Justice Community Foundations
This list includes many of the member funds from the former Funding Exchange, which closed in 2018.
- Appalachian Community Fund (Central Appalachia)
- Bread and Roses Community Fund (Philadelphia)
- Chinook Fund (Colorado)
- Crossroads Fund (Chicago, IL)
- Cypress Fund (Carolinas)
- Diverse City Fund (Washington, D.C.)
- Forward Community Investments (Wisconsin)
- Fund for Santa Barbara
- Fund for Southern Communities (Georgia and the Carolinas)
- Hawaii People’s Fund
- Haymarket People’s Fund (New England)
- Headwaters Foundation for Justice (Minnesota)
- Liberty Hill Foundation (Los Angeles)
- North Star Fund (New York)
- Seeding Justice (Oregon)
- Social Justice Fund NW (Washington)
- Three Rivers Community Fund (Southwest, PA)
Rapid Response Funds
The following is a list of rapid response funds that fund social justice organizing in the event of an acute crisis, unexpected political opportunity, or sudden upheavals such as the COVID-19 Pandemic and the 2020 Uprising.
- Borealis Philanthropy’s Fund for Trans Generations
- Emergent Fund
- Groundswell Fund’s Rapid Response Fund
- North Star Fund’s Rapid Response Grants
- Open Technology Fund’s Rapid Response Fund
- San Francisco Foundation’s Rapid Response Fund for Movement Building
- Third Wave Fund’s Mobilize Power Fund Urgent Action for Women’s Human Rights