We can shape a more just southwest Washington with our collective power.
About the Social Justice and Resiliency Fund
In a time of heightened uncertainty, a swift response makes all the difference. This is one of many lessons we’ve learned after a year of navigating an array of unimaginable hardships amidst a pandemic. When the Community Foundation launched the SW Washington COVID Response Fund in 2020, we committed to supporting local nonprofit relief efforts working on the frontlines with economically vulnerable families and delivered more than $8.5 million in rapid-response grants. As our region begins to shift from relief to recovery, we recognize that our region’s most marginalized communities are too often left out of larger economic gains, especially in the wake of crises. This past year further highlighted this reality and the need for equitable and sustainable solutions. From this and invaluable feedback from the community, our Social Justice and Resiliency Fund was born.
The Social Justice and Resiliency Fund provides rapid-response funding to organizations that address emerging challenges that continue to impact historically marginalized and underserved communities in Clark, Cowlitz, and Skamania counties. These grants focus on:
- Operating support for organizations led by Black, Indigenous, or People of Color, culturally specific organizations and coalitions seeking to reimagine the systems they work in.
- Investments in organizations focused on systemic change, policy and advocacy efforts; and/or
- Capacity-building support to organizations to invest in equity work and address the disparities within their organization and/or programming.
Building trust begins with extending trust.
Communities know best what they need to thrive. We learned from our COVID Response Fund that flexible, unrestricted funding leads to meaningful impact and we are continuing this trust-based approach through the Social Justice and Resiliency Fund. This emerging fund provides support in the form of two types of unrestricted grants:
Proactive Grants – Awarded based on outreach and ongoing conversations with our Program Staff; and
Responsive Grants – Awarded based on a simple and brief application process through our website.
The Social Justice and Resiliency Fund provides nonprofits with the sustained support needed to address systemic issues facing our community. This work will ensure that when the next crisis hits—be it financial, environmental, or health-related—our region will have a more robust and reflective coalition of community-based organizations poised to respond quickly and equitably. Our community organizations demonstrate steadfast resiliency in the face of turbulent times and we are committed to supporting their capacity to continue meaningful work in southwest Washington.