2026 Rural Organizing Momentum Giving Project

Social Justice Fund Northwest (SJF) is thrilled to announce our 2026 Momentum Giving Project will focus on Rural Organizing – funding community organizing happening in small towns, reservation communities, and outside of urban and metropolitan areas – across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. The project will be fully virtual and run from September 2026 through January 2027.

Rural organizers are cultivating strong community networks in the face of huge hurdles: far-right state governments, white supremacist strongholds, underfunded infrastructure, food apartheids, massive wealth disparities, and constantly rising costs of living, including rent. Though 20% of people in the U.S. live in rural areas, they receive only 7% of philanthropic dollars (source).

As a result, we are prioritizing moving money to rural movement work which this Momentum Giving Project embodies.

Momentum Giving Projects are open to people who have participated in a previous SJF Giving Project. These projects are shorter than regular Giving Projects, focus on a justice issue selected by the SJF community, and are designed to quickly raise and move money into communities where it’s most needed.

Watch the Informational Session recording here

Apply to join the Rural Organizing Momentum Giving Project:
Application for BIPOC folks
Application for white folks

We leverage our alumni’s skills by jumping into donor organizing right away, and we can move more quickly because we know their political education base has been cultivated by their previous Giving Project experience. A Momentum Giving Project is an opportunity for alumni to deepen their skills and build community with other alumni.

SJF is aware that rural and small-town communities can look different from state to state, so we begin our definition of “rural” in U.S. Census data. SJF uses this map to help determine whether a grantee/project is in a rural or urban area.

After consultation with rural organizers in our granting region, we consider any location in gray or purple on the map to be rural for our grant evaluation and priority assignment. In addition, grant applicants can always offer additional information in their application on why their work should be contextualized as rural.

For examples of Rural Organizing work SJF has funded, take a look at past grantees:

• Rural Organizing (2022)
• Rural and Small Town Organizing (2019)
• Rural Justice (2016)

The deadline to apply is Thursday, August 6, 2026. If you have any questions please email us at [email protected].