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Image courtesy of ACORN®
FUNDING CRITERIA

The Foundation funds:
• Organizing efforts that develop and strengthen local leaders, promote community education, and connect community interests to avenues of civic engagement and political power

• Efforts that develop, move, and communicate public policy that benefits and enfranchises target communities

• Efforts that develop, build, and strengthen permanent coalitions that expand the base working toward progressive change (movement building)

• Efforts that develop, build, and strengthen ad hoc coalitions that can respond quickly and effectively to opportune political events (campaigns)

• All organizations are highly encouraged to:
·   Actively include their constituents in their structure and direction
·   Locate, train, and support organizational and community leaders to diversify and strengthen civil society
·   Continuously measure their performance and their internal and external capacity, and can thus adjust and improve as needed and desirable


The majority of our funding goes to a core set of community organizing groups, located mostly in California. These groups receive general operating support grants and are offered a comprehensive set of capacity building resources to use if they so choose. We are committed to funding these core organizations over the long term, with an annual grant review and renewal process for each group. Because this strategy leaves little funding available for new grants, we do not take unsolicited proposals and are no longer accepting letters of inquiry.
 

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