Frontline Justice Fund Grant

Overview

About Tides

Tides is a partner for justice in the social sector, working closely with doers and donors to build the power of historically excluded groups who face systemic barriers. We provide fiscal sponsorship, donor-advised funds, impact investing, and a variety of grantmaking solutions to advance social justice and equity.

About the Frontline Justice Fund

The Frontline Justice Fund is a Tides Foundation environmental grantmaking initiative that equips communities impacted by climate and environmental hazards with the critical resources they need to take on big polluters in the courtroom and beyond

Our Impact

We stand with community leaders working for environmental and climate justice by helping to sustain their environmental litigation and advocacy efforts through grantmaking.

Funding Priorities

Tides’ Frontline Justice Fund uses environmental grantmaking to support communities who are engaged in environmental litigation and/or regulatory advocacy to secure their communities’ health for generations to come.

Pursuing Legal Action

Our grants power long-term support systems specifically for groups engaged in, or that anticipate engaging in, protracted environmental litigation, or regulatory actions to advance climate and environmental justice.

Impacted Communities

Tides prioritizes environmental grantmaking efforts that center groups representing communities that have faced systemic barriers to power and other impacted communities on the frontlines of environmental injustice.

Frontline Leaders

The communities most impacted by environmental harms are also the most closely familiar with the solutions needed to put a stop to them. Tides’ Frontline Justice Fund prioritizes communities where resources will have a direct impact on the frontlines and have broader implications in the fight for environmental justice and power building.

Non-Legal Costs

Tides remain nimble, funding those who require rapid-response or multiyear funding to cover legal fees and non-legal costs that come with mounting and sustaining successful environmental litigation or regulatory advocacy campaigns, including organizing, communications, technical expertise, and capacity building.

Grant Award Range

Eligible organizations will be able to receive 12-month or 24-month grant awards with a range of $25,000 to $150,000.

Eligibility

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Application Details

Tides Foundation has announced the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Frontline
Justice Fund’s Fall 2024 grantmaking cycle. Applicants will be able to view the RFP on
the Frontline Justice Fund and JustFund websites beginning September 5, 2024.
For the Fall 2024 grantmaking cycle, the Frontline Justice Fund will grant up to $2M and
anticipate grant amounts will fall in the range of $25K-$150K. To streamline our
grantmaking processes and make it less burdensome for grant seekers, proposals should
be submitted through the JustFund common proposal format. Grantees must first create a
JustFund user account to respond to the RFP.
By directing funding to frontline communities who are using legal and regulatory advocacy
to address environmental degradation and injustice, we aim to create durable and
impactful systemic change so that all can thrive.
Please help us spread the word by sharing this announcement with your networks. For
further information about the Frontline Justice Fund, please visit the Frontline Justice Fund
website where you can also view our 2023 Annual Report.
• Proposals must be received by 09/26/2024 09:00 PM Eastern
• Decisions expected to be announced no later than 11/27/2024
For questions about how to submit your proposal, please refer to JustFund’ s Help Center
or contact grants@justfund.us. On September 19th, JustFund will host a webinar training
for new applicants at 1pm Pacific/4pm Eastern. Please register here.
If you have any questions about the Frontline Justice Fund, the RFP, or need additional
support with your submission, please contact Tides at fjf@tides.org.
Link to the Frontline Justice Fund’s RFP on the JustFund portal can be found here.

Tides Foundation
Frontline Justice Fund
Fall 2024 RFP
About
About Tides
We believe that a just and equitable future can exist only when communities who have
been historically denied power have the social, political, and economic power they need
to create it.
To make that a reality, we work in deep partnership with doers and donors to center the
leadership of changemakers from these communities, connecting them to services, capacity
building, and resources to amplify their impact.
Our values influence all that we do, from cultivating deep partnerships with movement
leaders and helping donors shift resources to advancing the crucial work of justice and
equity.
Everything we do at Tides is in service of helping leaders on the ground move us all toward
a just and equitable future. We partner with individuals and organizations committed to
shifting the social sector toward more equitable norms and practices, and provide equity-
focused services ranging from operational support and grantmaking to donor advised funds
and more.

About The Frontline Justice Fund
The Frontline Justice Fund is a Tides Foundation environmental grantmaking initiative that
equips communities impacted by climate and environmental hazards with the critical
resources they need to take on big polluters in the courtroom and beyond.
The Frontline Justice Fund is a Tides Foundation grantmaking initiative launched in 2022
focused directly on supporting frontline community groups who are fighting for
environmental and climate justice through legal and regulatory advocacy. FJF bolsters these
groups by ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed and thrive beyond the
courtroom. Using a participatory grantmaking model and governed by an Independent
Advisory Committee of environmental justice leaders, FJF acknowledges the personal risk
and financial toll of prolonged legal battles undertaken by community groups fighting
entrenched perpetrators of the climate crisis. The Frontline Justice Fund is designed to
protect, repair, and prepare communities to confront environmental and climate legal battles
in the short and long term by providing access to rapid response or multiyear funding to
cover non-legal costs associated with mounting and sustaining successful advocacy
campaigns.
Launched in 2022, the Tides Foundation Frontline Justice Fund (FJF) provides grants to
groups representing communities who are living with and fighting against toxic pollution, the
fallout from climate disasters, and the looming threat of new and expanding oil pipelines,
mines, petrochemical plants, and other dangerous and destructive projects. In concert with
public mobilization, leveraging the power of the law with highly impacted community-based
plaintiffs is by far the most compelling pathway in advancing equitable environmental
protections and safeguards. By directing funding to under-resourced communities that are
using legal advocacy to address environmental degradation and injustice, we can help to
secure the rights of people and nature and create durable and impactful systemic change so
that all can thrive.
For additional information:
Website
2023 Annual Report

What We Fund:
Groups must be actively engaged, or will be actively engaged within the next twelve months,
in community-based legal, regulatory, and/or legislative advocacy to advance environmental
and climate justice at the local level, specifically to confront existing or proposed extractive
industry infrastructure, remediation, and reduction of legacy pollution, and/or fostering the
growth of community-supported clean energy and energy efficiency solutions. Please do not
apply for funding if your group does not meet this primary eligibility criteria.
Groups must be from under-resourced communities most impacted by environmental harm
and injustice, and from chronically under-funded regions that face systemic barriers to
resources and opportunities, especially the Southeast, Gulf South/TX, Great Lakes/Midwest,
the Southwest, Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley. While groups from states and territories
of the United States are able to apply, the majority of funding in this grantmaking cycle will be
allocated to these regions. Groups must represent communities where resources will have a
direct impact on the frontlines from communities most impacted by environmental harm, with
broader implications in the fight for environmental and climate justice. Please do not apply for
funding if your group does not meet this primary eligibility criteria.
Grassroots and frontline groups must have an organizational and/or climate program or
project budget of less than or close to $2 million. Please do not apply for funding if your
group does not meet this primary eligibility criteria.
Groups may be actively organizing, or plan to be actively organizing within the next twelve
months, community-led efforts against recent Supreme Court rulings and its impact on lower
court decisions that attack clean air, water, land, and public health, including Chevron
deference that will result in dire consequences for public health, safety, and the environment
by rolling back long-standing precedents and regulations.
All grantmaking will be made to frontline, community-based groups only. Please do not apply
for funding if you are frontline-serving organization.

What We Do Not Fund:
Organizations and programs operating outside of the states and territories of the United
States.
Projects inconsistent with a legitimate charitable purpose and applicable law, including any
political campaign intervention or impermissible private benefit.
Projects inconsistent with Tides vision, mission, and approach, our organizational values, and
FJF’s funding priorities.
Frontline-serving organizations including nonprofit public interest legal service organizations
and for-profit law firms.
Groups that currently have an open grant with FJF are not eligible to apply for this cycle of
grantmaking, unless your grant term will end in 2024. If your grant term ends in 2024, your
group is eligible to apply.
Types of applicants eligible to apply for this grant cycle include:
• 501(c)(3) or a Fiscally Sponsored Project of a 501(c)(3)Federally Recognized Tribe
• 501(c)(4) or a Fiscally Sponsored Project of a 501(c)(4) for nonpartisan, charitable activities
• For-profit for charitable activities
Grant Award Range
The Frontline Justice Fund seeks to provide up to $2 million in total funding during the Fall
2024 Grant Cycle.
Eligible organizations will be able to receive 12-month or 24-month grant awards with a range
of $25,000 to $150,000.
Key Dates
Deadline to apply: 09/26/2024 06:00 PM, PDT
Decisions Expected to be Announced: 11/26/2024

Application
Before you get started, learn more about how the JustFund Common Application™ works.
Please ensure that all fields in your profile are up to date. As part of your application, your
profile information will also be submitted and dated at time of submission.
Application Specific Questions
What legal or regulatory actions are currently underway or planned by your organization within
the next twelve months? The primary purpose of the Frontline Justice Fund is to support the
litigation, regulatory engagement, advocacy, and/or legislative education efforts of community-
based, frontline organizations to fight existing or proposed projects that threaten their health,
safety, and well-being. All funding from this cycle will be granted directly to theses
organizations. We are not able to fund proposals that support these organizations with their
services. *
Where are your actions and advocacy taking place (state, community, municipality, agency, etc)
and who is leading and involved in these efforts (coalition, neighborhood group, etc)?*
Is your group, program, or project actively engaged in or planning to organize community-led
efforts against recent Supreme Court rulings and its impact on lower court decisions that attack
clean air, water, land, and public health, including Chevron deference that will result in dire
consequences for public health, safety, and the environment by rolling back long-standing
precedents and regulations? If yes, please describe. *
Application Specific Attachments
Organizational Budget. Please attach budgets for 2024 and 2025 if available. If you
are a project or program as part of a larger organization, please attach your annual
project/program budget.
Proposed Grant Budget. Please include the total amount of the funding request with
narrative details and associated line items that reflect the grant proposal. This should

include an itemized budget for the grant amount you are requesting and how you
anticipate using FJF funding. Estimated amounts are permitted. If you are requesting
multi-year support, beyond a one-year grant, include the proposed duration of
funding (2 years max) associated with expenditures.
List of current funders. Please include information about current funding gaps or
urgent needs, if relevant.
Contact Information
Name: Valentina Acosta
Email: f@tides.org
Website: https://www.tides.org/funds-initiatives/frontline-justice-fund/
How To Apply
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