About the Solidarity Program
Our Solidarity program supports racial equity movement building in our region.
To achieve lasting, community-level change, “movement building” groups go beyond providing direct services and individual relief and instead seek to alter or completely reimagine broken systems.
The most effective drivers of this change are the social movements led by those most affected by racial inequities. Rather than charity, regenerative philanthropy calls for greater solidarity with Black and ALAANA (African, Latine, Asian, Arab, and Native American) members of our community – those who deeply know the solutions needed for a more just, equitable, and sustainable future that benefits us all.
What is Movement Building?
Movement building is “the effort of social change agents to engage power holders and the broader society in addressing a systemic problem or injustice while promoting an alternative vision or solution” (Julie Quiroz-Martinez).
Through our work, we’ve identified three (3), often overlapping approaches to movement building: Responsive, Proactive, and Transformative. Read more about each approach.
Capacity Building Offerings
The Community Foundation is committed to providing a variety of resources that support systems change and transformative justice. In addition to our capacity building support, the Solidarity program curates and sponsors year-round movement strengthening and co-learning opportunities – workshops, speakers, book and film events – for our Solidarity grantee partners and the broader community.
Below are some of the movement reads fueling our minds and spirits.
Convenings
For us, solidarity and communal care includes holding restorative space to pause and reflect with our grantee partners. Annual summits, retreats, listening sessions, and other convenings help fortify the Solidarity program’s growing community of practice and build stronger connections across our diverse and mostly rural, 3100 square-mile region. These intentional gatherings are opportunities to gain clarity and insight and imagine new possibilities together.
Solidarity Grants
The Solidarity program offers three (3) Community Endowment Fund grant opportunities — Renewal, Reimagine, and Reshaping Futures — designed to help build, strengthen, and sustain our local movement infrastructure. Each Solidarity grant is informed by learnings from our 2023-2024 pilot year, our grant-making history, and the collective wisdom and expressed needs of movement groups and thinkers from across our region and beyond.
Depending on the grant, support might include but isn’t limited to:
- General operations, research and development, program experimentation and piloting;
- Strategic planning and restructuring, training, coalition building, and increased frontline/grassroots support;
- Advocacy, legal, and direct action campaigns and mobilization;
- Sabbatical support, conflict resolution/mediation, and other collective healing, joyful resistance, and reparative work;
- Narrative change storytelling and creative expression; and
- Popular education and community organizing.
Click the boxes below for details about each grant.
Grant and Fiscal Sponsorship Policies
Before deciding to apply, be sure to read our general policies for Community Endowment Fund grants. For an explanation about fiscal sponsorship, or to review our policy, visit our fiscal sponsorships page.
Have a Question or Idea? Get in Touch
Visit our Frequently Asked Questions page and please reach out if you don’t see the answer you need.
Have an idea but not yet ready to start an application? Share your idea using the online form below and a member of our team will be in touch!