This 2019 Civic Engagement and Strengthening Democracy Grant process took place from July to October. It was the first panel of its kind for a full-length grant since starting Giving Projects, because unlike a Giving Project, the grant committee was not responsible for fundraising. Each committee member was also a member of SJF and engaged in political education, reviewed all  grant applications, and collectively made the granting decisions. The Civic Engagement Grant Committee was proud to award seven one-year grants of $15,000.

The organizations we are funding are doing incredible work to connect civic engagement activities with community organizing across the Northwest. We can’t wait to see these grantees build a more just society, through the upcoming elections and census and beyond. Special thanks to the Satterberg Foundation for this investment.

We are excited for you to learn about our seven grantees in the list below.

2019 Civic Engagement Grantees

Adelante Mujeres | Forest Grove, OR
Adelante Mujeres’ mission is to provide education and empowerment opportunities to Latinx women and their families to ensure full participation and active leadership in the community. Building a more just society by empowering Latina women to lead. Creando una sociedad justa a través del empoderamiento de la mujer Latina para liderar.

Adelante Mujeres’ Solidarity and Civic Leadership Project will support communities of color in Washington County, OR to organize and become civically engaged leaders on policies and/or practices that impact their community. Specifically, this will be done through educational training, workshops, and mentorship on the policies and procedures of county governance with a focus on the policies that impact the immigrant and communities of color populations.

Causa Oregon | Salem, OR
Causa is Oregon’s Latino immigrant rights organization. Our mission is to improve the lives of Latino immigrants and their families through civic engagement, policy advocacy, leadership development, and coalition building. This grant will support our civic engagement work that aims to engage Latinos and immigrants in issue based electoral and legislative advocacy and prepare for and strategize around 2020 Census field based efforts.

Community to Community | Bellingham, WA
Community to Community Development (C2C) is a place based, women-led grassroots organization working for a just society and healthy communities. We are committed to systemic change and to creating strategic alliances that strengthen local and global movements towards social, economic and environmental justice. This grant will support C2C to continue and expand our Latinx civic engagement project that we executed in 2018 in the context of the initiative 1631 campaign. C2C’s project focuses on innovative outreach and engagement of our Latinx immigrant constituents in electoral politics beyond the vote, including everything from canvassing for chosen issues and candidates to advocacy at the State legislature for farmworker rights and climate justice and running for local office. There is a special focus on millennials and we will expand to include those ineligible to vote.

Momentum Alliance | Portland, OR
Momentum Alliance is a youth-led nonprofit, whose mission is to inspire young people to realize their power individually and collectively and to support youth most impacted by injustices to be social justice leaders.Their anti-displacement housing and transportation justice cohort for and by youth of color will provide free and paid opportunities for youth to build relationships, develop analysis and strategies, and take collective action to ensure that low-income communities of color in Portland Metro have access to stable, affordable, and meaningful housing, transportation, education, employment, and community.

Montana Women Vote | Missoula, MT
Montana Women Vote is a statewide coalition that organizes with and alongside low-income women as informed voters, policy advocates, and community leaders. We believe that civic action, policy change, and leadership development can together shift the balance of power and improve the lives of women and families experiencing poverty. In the next year, MWV will build power by engaging our community around defensive and proactive economic justice policy efforts, sharing critical analysis through our Women’s Policy Leadership Institute, and expanding our base through voter registration and education work.

Mother Africa | Kent, WA
Mother Africa a black-led, women-led, immigrant-led organization located outside of our region’s urban hubs of Seattle and Tacoma. This grant is to continue our Civic Engagement program which began in 2014, engaging our communities in city planning activities and providing their feedback for the Kent Comprehensive Plan for 2020. In this program we have provided training on testifying at City Council meetings, held workshops with a wide range of stakeholders for our community to provide their inputs, and partnered with KC elections in 2018 to education our communities on voting rights and the types of initiatives on the ballot in various elections, thus empowering our communities to engage with voting in the US for the first time.

Native Youth Leadership Alliance | Ferndale, WA
NYLA is led by young Native leaders and elders, and serves as bridge generations to activate and support youth through training and leadership development focused on youth-led, elder-advised community organizing. NYLA’s growth for the next two years includes launching work on civic education, further developing our Advanced Leadership Society members, continuing our policy-development work with Tribal communities, and strengthening our internal capacity as we continue to improve our programming. This grant will help register traditionally disenfranchised peoples to vote, identify and engage leaders as spokespeople to talk about civic engagement participation, and create materials for online and on-the-ground civic/voter engagement.