De Colores RRF is looking to impact positive, dynamic-shifting opportunities, rather than provide emergency response for humanitarian crises or technical assistance. It is designed to make funds available for quick, short-term delivery to hot spots of opportunity for organizing in marginalized urban and rural communities.

What we found:

Organizing to Shift Power: 

• Groups that are creating a power base that can hold leaders accountable to the people who are affected by their decisions. 

• Groups that let their membership or constituents take the lead in collective action-planning and decision-making. 

• Groups whose leadership comes directly from the people who are most affected by the issues you are organizing around. 

Working to Build a Movement: 

• Groups that organize in the local community, but make connections between local issues and a broader need for systemic change. 

• Groups that provide a space for members to develop their political analyses at the same time as taking action for change. 

• Groups that break down barriers within the progressive movement, by building strategic alliances between groups of different cultural or class backgrounds or different issue areas. 

• Groups that explore the root causes of injustice and have a long-term vision for the kind of social change they are working for. 

Dismantling Oppression: 

• Groups and projects that are proactively engaged in a process of dismantling oppression, confronting privilege and challenging institutional structures that perpetuate oppression (both internal and external to the organization). 

• Groups that are proactively making connections between the different forms of oppression (racism, heterosexism, sexism, ageism, classism, ableism, etc.), and its connections with injustice. 

Creating New Structures: 

• Groups that have alternative organizational structures that allow power to flow “from the bottom up.” 

• Efforts to create new, community-based alternative systems and structures (economic, political, cultural, religious, etc.) that are liberating, democratic, and environmentally sustainable and which promote healthy, sustainable communities

Additional Criteria for grants from the fund include:

• Organizing in U.S. grassroots communities, with a focus on communities of color, poor and working-class;

• Opportunities for strategic intervention (i.e. Ferguson and Baltimore moments);

• Opportunities to impact new and strategic shifts (i.e. Occupy); and

• Opportunities to amplify the effects of in-the-moment issues (i.e. Hurricane Maria or #MeToo). The event or situation you are responding to was unanticipated and requires urgent action that is well thought out with clear goals and desired outcomes.

How it works:

• Proposals are accepted all year, and reviewed regularly.

• Groups will be notified within one to three weeks and checks will be mailed the following week.

• Grants are in the $500 to $1,000 range.

• Applications are accepted from coalitions, organizations and non-501(c)(3) groups, but not to fund individual efforts.

• We will prioritize organizations with budgets under $250,000 with limited access to philanthropic resources.

• Project budget should be less than $5,000.

We do not fund:

• We do not fund programs with a primary geographic focus outside of the United States,U.S. Territories, Mexico and Haiti.

• Organizations with budgets larger than $250,000. 

• Organizations not directly engaged in community organizing, 

• Social services that are not linked to a clear organizing strategy. 

• Individuals or organizations with strong leadership from only one individual.

• Conferences, trainings, and other one-time events. 

• Audio-visual productions and distribution - TV, radio, publications, films, etc. (PDF doesfund media work as part of the general expenses of groups engaged in grassroots organizing). 

• Research that is not directly linked to an organizing strategy (PDF doesfund research as part of the general expenses of groups engaged in grassroots organizing).

• Academic institutions and scholarships. 

• Other grantmaking organizations (unless they are your fiscal sponsor). 

• Lobbying activities