The Peace Development Fund (PDF) is committed to supporting organizations and projects that recognize that peace will never be sustained unless it is based on justice. PDF seeks organizations that will have a significant impact in their geographic and social justice focus area, or are working on issues that are not yet recognized by progressive funders. PDF’s four pillars of grantmaking are:

• Organizing to Shift Power—Groups that are creating a powerbase 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 you 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 for.
• 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 alternative organizational structures that allow power to flow “from the bottom up”; Efforts to create new, community-based alternative systems and structures (economic, political, cultural, religious, etc.) that are liberating, democratic, and environmentally sustainable and which promote healthy, sustainable communities.

The most competitive applications will deeply embody all four of these pillars.

Amount: Average grant amount is $5,000.

Eligibility: Community-based organizations located in the United States, Haiti, and Mexico, with budgets less than $250,000.

Link: https://www.peacedevelopmentfund.org/grants-and-programs/community-organizing-grants-program/