Our Grants
Grantmaking focused on structural change
Common Counsel Foundation and our partners focus resources on dynamic and effective approaches to community organizing and movement building that translates into expanded community power and capacity to advance policy change and other forms of structural change.
Our Nonprofit Partnerships
Common Counsel Foundation partners with nonprofits and community leaders that are accountable to their people. Seventy-five percent of our nonprofit partners are majority people of color, with 50% led by people of color and people with direct connection to their work.
In giving, especially in times of crisis, how we do it matters. General operating support accounts for 80% of our grants, with the remaining 20% of grants going to support capacity building or programs. This practice of trusting the expertise of community leaders, being directed by their vision and on-the-ground experiences is at the heart of our work and how we show up.
Fund for an Inclusive California
The Fund for an Inclusive California is a collaborative funding initiative co-designed with grassroots leaders to advance racial and economic equity by building the power of communities of color to achieve housing justice.
Anchored in a power-building framework, we focus on investing in the leadership of communities directly affected by unjust and racist housing policies, so that they may harness their individual and collective power to ensure that all people regardless of income have a safe, healthy, affordable, and stable place to call home.
Community Ownership for Community Power Fund
A bold philanthropic initiative that brings together community power building organizations and the expansive funder ecosystem to address inequitable funding system for community ownership of real estate, land, and housing in California.
Through the COCP Fund, we will grow the capacity of community ownership groups to acquire, govern, and maintain their own community spaces as well spearhead the creation of an integrated capital acquisition fund of at least $100 million, the state’s first to be governed directly by communities.
Still We Rise Fund
As conditions rapidly change in the current political environment, the Still We Rise Fund’s goals are to facilitate, scale and accelerate the delivery of responsive funding to a diverse range of membership-led, community-based organizations that are organizing in vulnerable communities across the country (e.g. immigrant, Black, Arab and Muslim, Native-American, women, working-class, LGBTQ people, and environmental justice communities). Deadlines are on a monthly cycle.
What makes Still We Rise unique:
- Small and Emerging Organizations: Priority grantmaking will go to organizations with annual budgets under $3M
- Community-Informed Grantmaking: Grassroots leaders inform the grantmaking process, priorities, and decisions
- Responsive, Flexible Funding: Grant awards can be quickly deployed to support ongoing and planned efforts, with grants reviewed and deployed on a weekly basis
- Streamlined Proposal/Reporting Requirements: Minimal proposal and reporting process to maximize the impact of funding dollars
The Still We Rise Fund is currently not accepting applications.
Partner stories
