Peace Development Fund: Community Organizing Grants

The Peace Development Fund (PDF) makes grants to community based organizations working for social justice. PDF believes that the change in values needed to establish a more just and peaceful world can come about only if it is strongly rooted in local communities that value the importance of building movements to create systemic social change. These are communities that view everyone, especially young people, as a vital force in the transformation of society. PDF recognizes young people’s ability to reshape our society, not only politically, but also spiritually and culturally.

The Peace Development Fund is committed to supporting organizations and projects that recognize that peace will never be sustained unless it is based on justice and an appreciation of both the diversity and unity of the human family. It understands peace to be a consequence of equitable relationships—with human beings and with the natural environment.

Funding Priorities:

Organizing to Shift Power

• Groups that are creating a power base 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.

Other Funding Priorities:

• New or emerging organizations; efforts that have difficulty securing funds from other sources; community organizations working on climate change issues at the local policy level; groups that have a genesis in Occupy or Movement for Black Lives; collaborative peace initiatives led by women; or issues that are not yet recognized by progressive funders

Eligibility: It is not necessary to have tax-exempt status to apply for a grant. However, all funds provided by the Peace Development Fund must be used only to support activities that further the exempt purposes and activities of PDF. Organizations must have a budget lower than $250,000 to apply.

Amount: Awards range from $2,500-$10,000 and average $5,000.

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

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