WCGMF - Equity Grants For Community Groups- Funding Level- Up to $85,000

_NOTE: For New Applicants:_ _Step 1. Complete the Letter of Inquiry (LOI)._ _Step 2. Program staff will reach out to the groups with potential alignment to schedule a brief conversation._ _For Current Equity Grantee Partners:_ _Step 1. Complete the Equity Grant Application, which will be sent by the Grants Manager._

Background

The Memorial Fund supports the Transformation of Key Systems by providing grants to groups who are Building Community Power and Disrupting Institutional Inequity – including those doing advocacy or community organizing work; or affecting change from within educational institutions.

Equity Grants For Community Groups

The Memorial Fund supports the Transformation of Key Systems by providing grants to groups Building Community Power and Disrupting Institutional Inequity.

Given the current sociopolitical climate and the demands of those working in these spaces, the Memorial Fund is primarily focused on supporting our current grantee partners in the most meaningful ways possible at this time.

Building Community Power

Groups working to increase the power of communities of color living in poverty (i.e. youth, residents, students, parents) by equipping community members with the tools necessary for engaging in individual and collective, bottom-up, social change efforts.

Disrupting Institutional Inequity

Groups developing and advocating for practices, policies, and structures that promote equity in education (at the school, district, or state level) and in related intersectional issues.

Transforming Key Systems

Efforts to Build Community Power and Disrupt Institutional Inequity culminate in Transforming Key Systems.

Key Issue Areas

To advance educational equity in Connecticut, we prioritize efforts that promote:

• Anti-racist and inclusive curricula
• School climate (discipline, over-policing, exclusionary language practice, etc.)
• Equitable school financing
• Teacher Diversification
• Criminal Justice
• Economic Justice
• Health Equity
• Housing Equity
• Immigration Justice

Community Organizing

• building leadership and collective power – the ability to decide and act – among community youth, residents, students, and parents working together for social and systemic change.

Infrastructure Support

• building capacity for community organizers

State and Local Advocacy

• addressing key issues, especially when done in partnership with organizing and grassroots groups.

Grassroots Social Change

• leading social change grounded in and responsive to their community.

Funding Range

up to $85,000- Those groups with medium alignment are eligible for this range.

Groups that center their work on education, or are viewed as filling one of the following roles will receive awards on the higher end of the range:

Collective Action Leaders

• build relationships and lead coalitions by convening groups to create networks, strategize, and build public will.

Field Builders

• provide key leadership in a field or area of strategic interest and are often uniquely positioned to advance change.

Infrastructure Supporters

• build the infrastructure needed to support groups who are building community power or advancing educational equity.

Innovators

• pioneer strategies or practices to advance equity that can serve as models for others.

Criteria

The criteria listed here represent maximal alignment with the mission of the Memorial Fund (no group will have all characteristics) and are what we use to evaluate applications and determine funding levels.

_Community Effort Characteristics_

• Building Community Power
  • Provide support, skills, and training for grassroots groups to lead social change
  • Build solidarity and trust among communities most affected
  • Focus efforts on communities of color (youth, parents, residents) in high poverty neighborhoods
• Community Organizing
  • Intentional about shifting inequitable power dynamics
  • Take direction from and operate with accountability to group members
  • Consistently develop group members to become leaders, and leaders to become organizers
  • Actively build a membership base
• Disrupting Institutional Inequities
  • Engage in state and local advocacy
  • Provide training and expertise for community engagement in advocacy efforts
  • Raise public awareness on key issues (see Key Issues above)
  • Design and implement advocacy campaigns
  • Have established relationships with local and state lawmakers
  • Cross-group collective action, including partnering with community-based grantee partners to advance shared advocacy goals

_Organizational Characteristics_

• Leadership
  • Leadership that is reflective of the population served
  • Efforts led by person(s) with lived experience in the community being served
• Culture
  • Co-create and advance an anti-racist organizational culture
  • Use a racial equity lens in your work
• Capacity
  • Clear goals, strategies, and activities
  • Established process to mark progress
  • Demonstrable progress toward goals
  • Clear understanding of existing organizational capacity, as well as what needs to be built to carry out desired work
  • Strong mission and values alignment between the group and the proposed work
• Partnership
  • Strong partnerships with other community organizations, including current grantee partners

Please see FAQs for additional guidelines.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

Ineligibility

• The Memorial Fund Typically Does Not Support
  • Work that is not based in Connecticut
  • Efforts narrowly focused on helping individuals navigate oppressive systems, without engaging in changing such systems.
  • Private foundations, Type III supporting organizations, or other organizations that require expenditure responsibility by the Foundation
  • Sponsorships and Fundraising Events
  • Extracurricular activities and academic enrichment or assistance programs
• The Memorial Fund Does Not Support
  • Lobbying
  • Organizations that discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, race, ethnicity, or disabilities.
  • Specific religious activities or organizations that require adherence to a religion or belief
  • Endowments or capital campaigns
  • Direct grants to individuals
  • Scholarship programs
  • Direct grants to State or Municipal Governments or School Districts