The Humboldt Area Foundation and Wild Rivers Community Foundation (HAF+WRCF) is thrilled to announce Just Futures grants, a new funding opportunity to be launched in Spring 2025 that will support the general operating expenses of organizations led by and/or serving communities impacted by systemic racialized marginalization.
The grant program represents a step toward deepening HAF+WRCF’s commitment to racial and economic equity and justice. Grants will focus on supporting organizations that serve diverse communities in numerous ways, from supporting systems change, to creating cultural spaces for groups that would otherwise be without. “The inequity this grant seeks to address is the under-investment in BIPOC-led and serving organizations” says Rachel Montgomery, HAF+WRCF Program Officer. “If you look at where philanthropic investment goes, you’ll see that organizations led or serving people of color often face financial hurdles greater than those led by white individuals.”
According to a 2023 whitepaper (PDF) by the Bridgespan Group, a management consultant for nonprofits, Black-led nonprofit organizations have 76 percent less unrestricted assets (e.g. assets available for things like salaries, office supplies, and rent, versus restricted assets dedicated to funding specific programs). Similarly, the Stanford Social Innovation Review reports that endowments held by BIPOC-led nonprofits are nearly four-times smaller on average than those of white-led organizations.
“Unrestricted operational grants can be a transformational type of resourcing that elevates local expertise and supports grantees’ knowledge of how to best use resources in their organization’s work.
Meredith Knowles, Director of Grantmaking
“We believe that the Just Futures grant round is an important continuation of HAF+WRCF’s commitment to support a thriving, just, and equitable region where families can thrive” says Craig Woods, Department Director for Programs and Community Partnerships. “We recognize the important opportunity philanthropy has in moving resources towards organizations that have historically been excluded from equitable access to funding and our responsibility to empower and invest in community-led efforts to address outcome gaps, reduce vulnerabilities, celebrate equity, and address systemic issues that affect us all.”
Just Futures grants will be general operating support grants—unrestricted funds that support an organization’s overall mission, rather than specific projects or programs. Organizations can use the funds where they are most needed, including to sustain day-to-day operations. “Unrestricted operational grants can be a transformational type of resourcing that elevates local expertise and supports grantees’ knowledge of how to best use resources in their organization’s work. We are honored to launch the Just Futures grants as one way to celebrate and amplify support for racially diverse leadership in our region” says Meredith Knowles, Director of Grantmaking.
Each Just Futures grant will be a minimum of $25,000, with approximately eight grants to be made in the first year. Non-profit organizations, public benefit organizations, grassroots groups working with a qualified fiscal sponsor, and other organizations and groups working on charitable projects meeting the eligibility criteria within HAF+WRCF’s four-county service area are eligible to apply. The service region includes Curry, Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties, and the lands of the 18 Indigenous Nations, Peoples and Communities who have occupied this region since time immemorial. Organizations working toward community and power building, belonging, systems change, solidarity, and/or racial justice are encouraged to apply.
The application process is expected to open by March 2025, with final grant announcements made by late spring 2025. Applications will be reviewed by a diverse committee of community members who bring a range of perspectives, including lived experiences with racial inequity. Further details and information on how to apply will be announced soon. For more information, please email grants@hafoundation.org or dial 707-442-2993.
The Just Futures grant round is a component of the Foundation’s robust toolkit of services which includes capacity building, advocacy and policy work, impact investing, and more. The Foundation runs over twenty-five grant rounds annually with a wide range of eligibility requirements; please visit hafoundation.org to view opportunities.
About HAF+WRCF:
For five decades, the Humboldt Area Foundation—joined by the Wild Rivers Community Foundation in 2004—has proudly served the counties of Humboldt, Trinity and Del Norte in California, Curry County in Southern Oregon, and the unceded lands of many Indigenous peoples. Today, the Foundation acts as a single entity with a generational vision and decade-long goals of supporting “Racial Equity, Thriving Youth and Families, Healthy Ecosystems and Environments, and a Just Economy and Economic Development.” Since 1972, the Foundation has awarded more than $117 million in grants and scholarships from hundreds of charitable funds established by generous individuals, families and businesses in our community. In 2023-24, HAF+WRCF awarded over $8 million through 2,166 grants. The Foundation also provided countless hours of technical assistance, advocacy and convening throughout the region.
For more information about HAF+WRCF, visit hafoundation.org or call (707) 442-2993.