Direct Action Visionary Grants

The APF Direct Action Visionary Grants aim to fund innovative psychological interventions addressing community needs related to prejudice, bias, and intolerance. By supporting projects that prioritize marginalized populations, the grants encourage evidence-based initiatives that tackle issues like racism, homophobia, and misogyny. APF is dedicated to fostering mental health and well-being through direct action, ensuring that communities receive the care and resources necessary to combat stigma and promote social justice.

The APF Direct Action Visionary Grants seek to fund innovative interventions, based on psychological knowledge, that directly address pressing needs of communities.
Research is critical to advancing the field of psychology, but communities also need care right now. APF is uniquely positioned to accomplish both. Through APF Direct Action Visionary Grants, we are particularly interested in supporting communities and populations dealing with prejudice, bias, intolerance, and all forms of bigotry including racism, antisemitism, homophobia, and misogyny.
Projects should support APF’s four Visionary Priorities:

• Serve Marginalized CommunitiesEnd Prejudice & StigmaPrevent ViolenceExplore Mind-Body Health Connections
• Examples of Types of Projects

Below are examples of the types of projects this grant aims to support. APF encourages innovative projects that utilize evidence-based psychological principles in new and impactful ways to reach those in need. These examples are meant to be informative, not limiting.
Evaluation of the implementation of an evidence-based intervention in a specific community.Translation of psychological knowledge into a form that can be easily distributed to and understood by a community in need. (e.g. development of a fact sheet on recognizing risks of suicide among LGBTQIA+ youth; translating an evidence-based resource into another language)Bridging the gap to bring an evidence-based intervention to a community in need. (e.g. funding for a community outreach program)
Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

Eligibility

APF encourages applicants from diverse backgrounds with respect to age, race, color, religion, creed, nationality, ability, sexual orientation, gender, and geography.Projects must:be an evidence-based psychological intervention or resourcehave demonstrated competence and capacity to execute the proposed workAdditional eligibility information:Project applicants may be individuals or organizations and are not required to be psychologists or mental health professionals.However, an expert in the relevant evidence-based foundation used for the project must be centrally involved throughout the funding timeline.Projects are not limited to clinical or academic settings.

Ineligibility

The Foundation will not fund the following types of projects:
Facility renovations or acquisitionsProof of concept of an intervention or resource for a community in needClinical trials to develop clinical applications and evidence-based guidelines for a community in need.Pilot studies will not be accepted unless the intervention is currently being implemented in a real-world setting.