People playing drums at a protest

Funds

Community Organizing Fund

Community organizing builds the people power and base necessary for effective movement for social change. The Community Organizing Fund supports grassroots organizations rooted in and led by directly impacted communities in the East Bay, who are effectively building collective power towards racial, economic, and social justice. Contributions to the fund will support  base-building organizations in addressing a range of critical issues including, but not limited to: immigrant rights, liberation from mass incarceration, housing justice and tenants rights, education equity, workers rights, and environmental and climate justice.

Movement Infrastructure Fund

Movement infrastructure organizations are leading the way in supporting the power-building ecosystem throughout the East Bay. The Movement Infrastructure Fund supports groups that lead coalition and networking space for and with base building organizations, and are able to bring together multiple constituencies towards aligned systems change campaigns. Contributions to the fund will go to organizations leading civic engagement, shared governance, and integrated voter engagement work in the region.

Funder Coalitions

Funders have a responsibility to serve as movement-building and fundraising partners to core grantees partners through donor and funder organizing. We support and participate in multiple funder and practitioner spaces to expand investment in the East Bay’s power-building ecosystem.

Bay Area Regional Power-Building Funders Table: A collaborative of six Bay Area funders committed to strengthening the region’s movement infrastructure. Projects include engaging in shared learning around our power-building frameworks, fundraising for grantee-led infrastructure support projects, and developing a shared analysis of the ecosystem’s needs, strengths, and opportunities. Participants: The California Endowment, San Francisco Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, East Bay Community Foundation, Akonadi Foundation, California Donor Table, Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, and Y&H Soda Foundation.

Youth Power Fund (YPF): Launched in 2019, this fund is anchored by Northern California Grantmakers and Youth Organize California. The Youth Power Fund supports up to 30 organizations per year with general operating funding that is decided and driven by a youth participant grantmaking committee in collaboration with funder leaders. Given the limited representation of youth organizing power-building groups in our current core grantees list, supporting YPF is one of the key ways EBCF is making an impact on BIPOC-led youth organizing in the region. Participants: EBCF is one of 12 foundations supporting YPF including Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, The California Endowment, San Francisco Foundation, Crankstart Foundation, Gerbode Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Walter and Elise Haas Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, Stupski Foundation, and S.H. Cowell Foundation.  

Fund 4 an Inclusive California: A statewide collaborative of multiple funders throughout the region anchored by the Common Counsel Foundation. Referred to simply as “Fund 4 [for]”, this collaborative has been ongoing since 2019 and is one of the key collaborative funder spaces regarding housing and tenants’ rights. Fund 4 utilizes a community advisory board of grantee partners in key decision making, has a rapid response fund, and brings together grantee partners in the housing space annually. Several of our current core grantees are also grantees of this fund.

PIVOT (Powerful Innovations for Voter Organizing and Transformation): PIVOT is an initiative co-led and co-governed by California’s leading power-building organizations and funders. PIVOT seeks to strengthen California’s multiracial democracy around a transformative agenda that addresses structural racism by: 1) Increasing alignment and strategic relationships between organizers and funders; 2) Building medium to long-term power-building infrastructure; and 3) Growing resources for power-building organizations committed to multiracial organizing.

Related Staff

Featured News

$1.15 Million Granted to Community Organizing, Power Building, Movement Building Organizations

These grants to social movement organizations underscore the importance of philanthropic support for these strategies for making long-term change.

Read More

Building People Power in the East Bay

Grantee partners of the Community Organizing, Power Building, and Movement Building program strategy shared common concerns and goals at a recent convening.

Read More

Oakland: The Home of Latinx-led Power Building

Learn the local history and impact of the community leaders behind some of the largest Latinx-led nonprofits in Oakland.

Read More

Get Involved Today

Meet Our Team Become A Partner Subscribe Make A Donation
x