Giving Project grants provide general operating support to organizations across Minnesota that are led by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who use a community organizing approach to advance equity and justice. Mutual aid projects that mobilize people to meet survival needs and build shared understanding about the root causes of those unmet needs are encouraged to apply.

In an effort to refine and strengthen the political analysis of the Giving Project, Headwaters has selected a theme for the 2024-25 Giving Project Grant. The 2024-25 Giving Project Grant specifically seeks to support organizations whose work advances gender justice in Minnesota.

Areas of interest for the 2024-25 Giving Project Grant include but are not limited to: reproductive justice; bodily autonomy; queer and trans justice; gender equity; healthcare equity and access; anti-gender-based violence; and leadership development for gender-oppressed folks of color.

While the work will differ, all Giving Project grantee partners will share the following characteristics:

Use community organizing as a core strategy to advance equity and justice in Minnesota, with a clear commitment to gender justice.
Be substantively led by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) most directly impacted by the issues the organization is working on.
Their staff and board reflect a commitment to BIPOC leadership.
Their leadership is reflective of and accountable to their community.
They continually build leadership from within their own membership, base, and/or community.
They bring people together to build collective power that they wouldn’t have individually. Power is defined as “the capacity of a group of people to decide what they want and to act in an organized way to get it.” (Class Action, Building Bridges Across the Class Divide).
They use that collective power to create meaningful institutional, cultural, and/or structural change.
They work to understand and address the root causes of oppression, not just the symptoms.
They use an intersectional, cross-issue, collective liberation approach that makes connections between race, class, and gender.
They see their organization as part of the larger movement for social change, and work towards strengthening that movement.
They have limited access to mainstream funding sources.

Grants to Minnesota Nonprofits for Youth Organizing Projects

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