Freedom in Practice Grants Program

The Freedom in Practice Grants Program, managed by the Rising Tide Foundation, promotes individual empowerment through market-driven solutions. It seeks innovative projects that enhance self-determination, teach freedom effectively, and address government intervention challenges. Funding is available for projects lasting up to five years, with a focus on creating sustainable networks for those previously excluded from economic opportunities. The foundation prioritizes initiatives that align with its core beliefs of freedom and prosperity for all.

NOTE: As potential breakthrough ideas can occur every day, we accept LOIs from highly qualified and dedicated institutions all year round. Full grant applications are accepted by invitation only.
Funding Focus
Markets enhance individual flourishing by coordinating diverse interests through voluntary and peaceful exchange. The greatest advancements in human history result from such interactions between individuals who are free to act, exchange, and create value for themselves and others, not from the use of force or top-down planning of the state.
Instead, prosperity is when society respects the dignity of each person and his or her right to act as a moral agent. We seek to unleash this potential by supporting projects that open networks of productivity and exchange to the previously excluded. They must seek and be given empowerment, not paternalistic protection as the key to prosperity.
Personal freedom and the free market economy, as ideals, are continuously threatened by the power of big-government and big-business, intervening to enhance “social justice”, “equity “, or “efficiency” in markets. But these efforts end up leading to the kind of crony capitalism that is so prevalent today – a system that claims to help everyone but benefits only the few at the expense of the many; it is a system that manages rather than solves poverty.
Our philanthropic strategy is to support projects that articulate and promote these core beliefs, projects that eliminate the obstacles which impede creative individuals, projects that give a “hand up,” rather than just a “hand-out”.
Specifically, we seek to find projects that:
Develop private sector solutions to societal problemsOffer solutions to the problems created by government and crony capitalist interventions. Projects that offer strategies for making such interventions unnecessary and unattractive going forwardDesign and implement programs that enhance individuals’ capacities for self-determination, individual choice, and peaceful, voluntary cooperation in societyDiscover methods to teach freedom in more effective ways or to new, untapped audiences
Focus Areas
Individual EmpowermentDoes the project enhance individuals’ capacities for self-determination and peaceful, voluntary cooperation?Teaching FreedomDoes the project discover methods to teach freedom in more effective ways or to new, untapped audiences?Private Sector SolutionsDoes the project develop private sector solutions to societal problems?Systems ChangeDoes the project offer solutions to the problems created by government & crony capitalist interventions?
Funding
Projects can last up to 5 years. Project activation is expected within 6 months after funding notification and direct beneficiary impact must be achieved within 3 years. One-time funding is preferred. Second-time funding is considered under exceptional circumstances. Funding amount is assessed based on the project’s needs. We do not provide maximum or average award amounts as they tend to vary from project to project.

Ineligibility

We are unable to support the following funding requests:Unrestricted donationsDirect grants to individualsPolitical campaigns or legislative lobbying effortsProjects that exclusively serve religious purposesBuilding projects or renovations, including construction materials and labor costsPayment of debts, living costs, travel bursaries, or personal needsOrganizations that are not tax-exemptProjects that do not fit our programmatic strategyOrganizations that do not share our set of values and principles