Funding Opportunities

Good Green is dedicated to fighting back against the War on Drugs and its devastating impact on Black and Brown communities in the United States. The Good Green Giving Grant Program provides support to nonprofit organizations working in underserved communities to create opportunity and change in three key areas: The Education category focuses on organizations that offer education and career training for individuals and communities directly impacted by the War on Drugs. The Employment category focuses on ensuring that employment opportunities in the cannabis industry are accessible to the communities most impacted by discriminatory cannabis laws and providing a path towards career opportunities for individuals directly affected by the War on Drugs. The Expungement category focuses on advocating for clemency towards all non-violent cannabis offenders nationwide and offering resources and criminal justice services to help those granted clemency expunge their records. Five grants of at least $60,000 will be provided in 2021. The application deadline is August 18, 2021. Application forms and requirements are available on the Good Green website.

The Opportunity Grant Program, an initiative of the American Bar Endowment (ABE), supports new, boots-on-the-ground, innovative projects that serve the immediate and critical legal needs of the public and are of importance to the legal profession and its concerns for access to justice. This program's funding focus areas include the following: 1) increasing access to justice, especially for vulnerable and underserved populations, using innovations to legal services delivery, capacity building, and pro bono service delivery; 2) improvement of the justice system, including ensuring equal justice and the elimination of bias; and 3) increasing public understanding of legal rights and responsibilities so people can recognize legal problems and know how to address them. ABE is particularly interested in supporting projects that have a direct effect on the needs of individuals and communities. National organizations that apply should carefully draw the connection between their proposed work and its impact on local communities. Grants typically range up to $25,000. Nonprofit organizations throughout the U.S. and its territories are eligible to apply. Optional letters of intent are due August 18, 2021; the deadline for full proposals is October 1, 2021. Visit the ABE website to learn more about the Opportunity Grant Program.

The Strategic Opportunities Support Rapid Response Fund (SOS Fund) of CJI is a funding mechanism that issues micro-grants (up to $5,000) to eligible organizations addressing critically urgent strategic organizing and advocacy calls to action and meeting emergency needs in their communities. SOS Fund also enables organizations to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities for organizing and advocacy that may be otherwise prohibitive due to small funding gaps. Qualifying organizations are led by and serve formerly incarcerated people and the families of those directly impacted, with an organizational budget under $750,000. The application deadline is December 17. To learn more and start an application, visit their website.

The mission of the Wallace Foundation is to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people, and in the arts for everyone. The Foundation is launching a five-year, $53 million initiative to help arts organizations of color leverage their experience and histories of community orientation to increase their resilience, while sustaining their relevance. The Foundation is seeking to form an initial cohort of ten to 12 organizations who are 1) interested in or planning to make strategic changes using community-oriented approaches; 2) committed to contributing to the research base on the history and current practices of arts organizations of color; and 3) interested in and well-suited to learn from other arts organizations of color. Each grantee in the first cohort will receive five years of funding totaling approximately $2 million to $3 million to develop and pursue efforts to foster strategic change through approaches that leverage their community orientation. Eligible organizations must have been in operation for at least ten years, have an annual budget between $500,000 and $5 million, and focus primarily on engaging the public with the arts. The deadline for expressions of interest is August 13, 2021. Visit the Foundation’s website to learn more about this initiative.