NoVo Foundation: The Life Story Grants
The NoVo Foundation is seeking to fund system-focused strategies that help close on-ramps into commercial sexual exploitation while building many more exit ramps. The Life Story Grants will support system-focused work that addresses those in sexual exploitation today and those at-risk, answering short-term needs while building long-term wellbeing. The Life Story Grants approach is grounded in two influences: the people and communities who are disproportionately impacted by the sex trade but are largely invisible; and critical life moments where a different path becomes possible. Grantmaking priorities include approaches that:
- Imagine and create new possibilities where the lives of girls and women in exploitation intersect with key social systems, closing on-ramps into to the sex trade and opening exit ramps; for example: 1) Dedicated capacity to address a particular system or agency’s response to survivors of commercial sexual exploitation; 2) A pilot program within a system to address the needs of survivors; or 3) A collaboration between systems and community based providers to develop specialized responses.
- Support approaches in six specific contexts or moments of system interaction in the U.S.: Housing, Medical Needs, Law Enforcement, Trauma and Mental Health, Immigration, and Systems Impacting Youth. Projects must focus on one or more of these six contexts to be eligible for funding.
- Arise from any of these starting points: 1) New collaborations among partners who have a strategy to address a particular moment/moments; 2) Existing work that is addressing one or more moments of change and opportunity in a survivor’s life; 3) A new idea from an existing organization.
- Demonstrate a specific focus and understanding of how the following communities are impacted by the sex trade, where they are present in the context of the project or approach: girls and women of color, Indigenous girls and women, immigrant girls and women, adult women and mothers, and trans girls and women.
- Are led or heavily informed by those with lived experience of the sex trade.
- Demonstrate a commitment to responding to trauma for all individuals involved in the project. For examples and information about such strategies, visit National Child Traumatic Stress Network or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
- Hold potential for: 1) Replication in other contexts or communities; and 2) Case study and/or promising practices research to contribute to solutions-based literature in collaboration with the individuals, organizations, and communities involved.
- Project leaders and teams should have institutional support to be included in a learning community, alongside other NoVo grantee partners, focused on closing on-ramps to and opening exit ramps away from commercial sexual exploitation.
Amount: Grants range from $100,000-$600,000. Projects may be on a one- or two-year timespan, but most grants will support reaching project goals over the next three years. Projects may include a planning phase, particularly if new emerging collaborations/alliances are key to the project objectives. Organizations must demonstrate a strong likelihood of partnership for any new alliances and collaborations.
Eligibility: Nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations (or any initiatives/groups/collaborations with a registered non-profit 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor), tax-exempt tribal governments or tribally-chartered institutions, and current NoVo grantee partners.
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