The Giving Project
The 2025 Giving Project for Community Organizing
The 2025 Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing is a participatory grantmaking program that provides unrestricted, general operating support to community organizing groups advancing justice (economic, environmental, racial, and social) and tribal sovereignty in Maine, unceded Wabanaki Territory.
Grantmaking decisions will be made by our Giving Project cohort, a cross-class, multi-racial, multi-generational group of 20 donor-organizers who convene regularly over 6 months for engaged learning and training to collectively mobilize resources and evaluate applications.
Interested organizations are encouraged to read the Funding Opportunity Announcement for eligibility requirements, award terms, and application instructions. Grant awards will be announced in March of 2025.
*Applications are open for the 2025 Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing. The application deadline has been extended to Monday, November 18th at 12pm EST.
Purpose
We believe in self-resourcing, community-led movements to build power.
The purpose of the Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing is to resource social change movements and organizing efforts by shifting money to community organizing groups advancing social, economic, environmental, and racial justice & tribal sovereignty in Maine, unceded Wabanaki Territory.
We focus on community organizing because we believe that lasting change comes from the bottom up, affecting not just political and economic systems but also the culture of communities. Community organizing involves the most people, allowing for the greatest diversity and number of perspectives to be expressed. Community organizing is the exercise of democracy in action.
We need to build our skills and infrastructure to fund our own movements.
Through the Giving Project, a cross-class, multi-racial, multi-generational cohort of community members convene regularly over six months for engaged learning and training to collectively mobilize resources to support community organizing. These donor-organizers will raise funds through their networks for the Giving Project Fund and then make the grant award decisions. Maine Initiatives is convening its inaugural Giving Project cohort in September 2024 and will announce Giving Project Fund grantees in March 2025.
The national Giving Project Network includes the Bread and Roses Community Fund in Philadelphia, the Chinook Fund in Denver, the Crossroads Fund in Chicago, Hawaii People’s Fund in Honolulu, Headwaters Foundation for Justice in Minneapolis, the North Star Fund in New York City, Social Justice Fund Northwest in Seattle, and Transforming Power Fund in Detroit.
Grant Amount & Funding Levels
The 2025 Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing provides 1 year of unrestricted, general operating support of up to $20,000 to at least 5 community organizing groups. Grant awards will be disbursed in March 2025.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the 2025 Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing, applicant organizations must:
- Use community organizing as a core strategy to advance equity and justice;
- Have annual operating expenses for the most recently completed fiscal year, including administrative and programming expenses, of under $1,000,000; and
- Are a Maine-based organization or group or a coalition/alliance of groups, working exclusively or primarily in Maine communities (we do not fund individual or for profit entities).
- If your organization is a nonprofit with a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS, you may apply.
- If your organization is fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, you may apply.
- If your group is - or is sponsored by - a Wabanaki Tribal government you may apply without additional IRS designation.
Funding Priorities: In response to the continuing impact of structural racism and colonization, the Giving Project Fund prioritizes funding for community organizing groups focused on Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty, and more generally, frontline groups led-by and -serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Groups organizing in the LGBTQ+, working class, rural, and other historically targeted and marginalized communities are encouraged to apply
How to Apply
Applications for the 2025 Giving Project Fund for Community Organizing closed Monday, November 18th at 12pm EST.
Any questions? Reach out to frankie@maineinitiatives.org for more information.