Who gets funded?
- Our goal is to increase the capacity of organizations and movements collectively working towards social change that challenge the dominant, oppressive structures in our political, social, and economic system.
- The money will be directed towards collective, constituency-led, grassroots initiatives or organizations that face difficulty raising funds needed for their work.
- While we recognize how important it is to counter the criminalization of dissent, applications for legal defence costs will not be eligible for funding.
- We also do not provide core funding for any organization funded by a government agency, nor by extractive industries or energy corporations.
Growing Change grants will go to organizations and projects led by Black and/or Indigenous communities/organizers.
The fund prioritizes the following things:
- groups that are led by the communities they are organizing; specifically, folks who are most directly affected by oppression.
- work that seeks to confront the root causes of oppression and not merely find temporary solutions to the conditions that it creates.
- work that actively confronts power imbalances in meaningful ways and seeks to build up the power of oppressed communities.
- work that serves to enhance the infrastructure of organizations in ways that will better allow them to continue to do their work on a long-term basis.
- work that cannot get adequate funding from other sources.
- work taking place within Ontario; though, given our commitment to decolonize our work, Groundswell funding is not bound by colonial borders and is open to groups and projects in other places.
Groundswell does not provide funding to any organization that receives funding from government organizations, nor organizations funded by extractive industries or energy corporations. We may consider projects for funding housed by such organizations.
Only Black and/or Indigenous-led projects, communities, and organizations will be considered for these grants.
We know your time is valuable. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to see if their work clearly falls under Groundswell’s mandate before applying.