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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. We are not currently accepting new applications.

SYSTEMS CHANGE LENS

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.

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

We also support efforts directed at the following adjacent systems:

  • Criminal Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Health Equity
  • Housing Equity
  • Immigration Justice

Types of Work

  • 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.

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

Those groups with the highest alignment with our mission and criteria are eligible for up to $135,000. Those groups with medium alignment are eligible for up to $85,000. Those groups with low alignment are eligible for up to $45,000.

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.

We are not accepting new applications at this time.

Beyond the grant award, are there any other supports the Memorial Fund offers Equity Grantee Partners?

The Memorial Fund offers support to grantee partners in a variety of ways. The Fund hosts convenings around areas of interest identified by our partners and supports conference attendance at key mission-focused conferences. We also offer communications support through The Narrative Project.

We also provide additional funding through our technical assistance program that can support training and skill building; coaching; organizational development; and healing and wellness. Learn more here.

How does the Memorial Fund expect grantee partners to measure progress?

We are interested in learning about how grantee partners are making meaning of their progress or sometimes lack thereof. While we are not interested in prescribing what groups should measure or define success for them, we do think it is important that groups have a process for measuring their own work.

Does the Memorial Fund have an abolitionist framework guiding its decisions?

While we do not have an abolitionist framework guiding our work we recognize the alignment that many abolitionist efforts have with our notion of Disrupting Institutional Inequity and Transforming Key Systems. We understand that much of the work we support takes a critical view of current systems and while reforms may be sufficient in some cases, we realize that institutional systems must be fully reimagined to eliminate inequity.

Can a group’s funding amount change over time?

We prioritize and trust that groups will continue to be guided by their mission and not our criteria. That being said, we recognize that over time some groups’ work will evolve to become more or less aligned with our criteria. Funding amounts are reconsidered at renewal based on where groups are in the work at that time.

What if I do not see my group’s work reflected in the criteria?

While we do not expect any group to be compatible with all of the criteria, if you feel you are stretching to fit many of the criteria, you may consider whether the Memorial Fund resources are compatible with your group’s efforts.