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Social Justice Fund

If you want to apply for a Social Justice Fund grant, please read this entire page carefully!

Due to administrative challenges, until further notice, the Muste Institute is only funding organizations and projects that are based in the United States.

IMPORTANT! Our application process is temporarily disabled while we change cycles. Check back in late November, 2023.

The maximum grant award is $10,000. Occasionally we will consider requests for multiple-year funding.

Our Social Justice Fund makes grants for grassroots activist projects in the US, giving priority to those with small budgets and little access to more mainstream funding sources. We are especially interested in funding efforts to:

  • end the violence of borders and the criminalization of immigrants, shut down CBP and ICE
  • abolish prisons and dismantle and redefine systems of policing and criminal justice
  • confront institutionalized violence against racial, ethnic, gender-based, and LGBTQ communities
  • put an end to economic exploitation, class stratification, systemic poverty
  • stop the war machine, end state sponsored terrorism, expose the dangers of nuclear power

SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND APPLICANT CRITERIA:

Please do not apply for funding if you do not meet the criteria below. 

We seek proposals:

  • For Projects Support: Projects expense budgets under $50,000 and organizational budgets of under 500,000 annually
  • For General Operation Support: organizational budgets of $500,000 or less annually
  • from groups with limited access to more mainstream funding sources
  • from groups which have not received Social Justice Fund grants in at least two years
  • from groups with or without 501(c)3 status or a fiscal sponsor: the Social Justice Fund only requires a fiscal sponsor if the group receiving the grant does not have its own bank account. If you cannot receive a grant check made out to the name of your organization, you will need a fiscal sponsor. We cannot issue checks to individuals.

Although we value the work, we do NOT consider grant proposals for the following:

  • individual efforts or scholarships
  • schools or universities academic or research projects
  • organizations with regular access to government, corporate or mainstream charitable funding
  • art, theater, film or video projects that are not directly tied to activism or organizing
  • sectarian religious purposes
  • economic development projects
  • capital campaigns or expenses
  • direct social services
  • legal defense or litigation
  • lobbying or electoral campaigns
  • projects geared toward participants personal improvement or business success
  • conflict resolution or violence reduction projects, unless they directly promote activism
  • projects that will have already taken place by the time the grant is received

The Social Justice Fund's priority is to support:

  • direct grassroots activism and organizing
  • groups with diverse, representative and democratic leadership structures
  • groups that need additional support to carry out a project or build capacity