Please read this section thoroughly to help you prepare for submitting an application.

Giving Project grant application instructions

Before digging into our application, please check if your organization meets our eligibility criteria, then review our types of funding to identify which grant cycle/s best fit your organization. For detailed information about our grantmaking process, criteria, and timelines, click here.

Our application is best completed through our online grant portal. If you cannot submit an application online for any reason, we will accept applications by email or post mail. The online grant portal makes it easy to complete all three components of our application: 1) organizational cover sheet 2) narrative responses to our application questions 3) required financial and organizational documents.

Be prepared to include the following in your application:

Organizational Cover Sheet:

  • Organization’s contact information
  • Budget size
  • Organization’s mission statement
  • Summary of grant proposal request

Narrative Questions:

  • Organizational background: Mission, history, and major accomplishments
  • A descriptions of your leadership and community organizing strategies
  • Organization goals and objectives, and a plan for how they will be realized
  • Timeline of activities
  • Examples of collaboration & collaboration references
  • Examples of racial justice and anti-oppression analysis and racial justice references

Note: SJF welcomes applications from people with all levels of English fluency and formal education; therefore, grammatical and spelling errors will not negatively impact scores.

Required Attachments:

  1. IRS 501(c)(3) or Fiscal Sponsorship letter (if neither incorporated nor sponsored, talk to SJF staff before applying)
  2. Diversity Chart
  3. Roster of your Board of Directors or Leadership Body
  4. Budget and Financial Information
  5. Additional Funding Sources

For detailed instructions for each attachment, see below.

Note: Your entire application (narrative and all attachments) will be shared with all Giving Project members – volunteers from the community who will read and decide on the applications for this grant cycle. In addition, if SJF makes a grant to your organization, your narrative or portions thereof might be shared with the general public to illustrate the type of work we fund. If we share any portion of your narrative, we will always give credit to your organization.

Giving Project grant collaboration and racial justice references

Racial Justice Questions (Questions 7 & 8 on the application)

Social Justice Fund NW prioritizes groups working on racial justice and gives special consideration to groups that are led by people of color. If your organization is majority white led, you will be asked to list at least one organization led by people of color (which we define as over 51% or more of their leadership body are people of color) that we can contact as a reference for your racial justice work in your application. If your organization is majority people of color led, leave the reference question blank. You will be asked to include the organization’s name, contact person, phone number and email. We check your Racial Justice reference, so please do not skip this part of the application.  If you don’t have a reference that meets our criteria you must contact the Grant Manager for that grant cycle to discuss the circumstances before submitting an application.

Tips for your Racial Justice Reference:

  • Please make sure you have asked permission to list an organization as a racial justice reference before submitting their contact information.
  • Your racial justice reference cannot be a representative from your organization or a member of your Board of Directors or leadership body.
  • Please do not list a group for which you are the fiscal sponsor to be your Racial Justice reference.
  • It is not enough for a group to have an individual person of color in leadership, the organization’s leadership body needs to be 51% or more people of color.
  • We usually contact references about 2 weeks ahead of the site visit selection meeting (See Giving Project Grant Timeline).
  • If there is no organization in your area that is led by majority people of color, please talk to SJF staff before applying.

Collaboration Questions (Questions 9 & 10 on the application)

Social Justice Fund prioritizes groups that see themselves as part of a larger movement for social change, and work towards strengthening that movement through collaboration. In your application you will be asked to provide names and contact information for two people who are familiar with your organization’s role in collaborations so we can contact them for more information.

Tips for Collaboration References:

  • Please make sure you have asked permission to list an organization as a collaboration reference before submitting their contact information.
  • References are strongest when they connected to the collaborations you describe in your application.

We recommend including at least one local collaboration reference

Giving Project grant application attachments
  • Fiscal Status Documentation (submit one of the following). If you are…
    • A 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organization: Submit your IRS 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4) letter, or Federally Recognized American Indian Tribal status letter
    • Fiscally sponsored: Submit a letter from your fiscal agent verifying your fiscal sponsorship status and include the IRS 501c3 letter for your fiscal agent
    • Not a 501(c)(3) and not fiscally sponsored: If you are not a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) or fiscally sponsored, submit Attachment A with your application. Social Justice Fund NW is able to make a limited number of grants to organizations that do not have501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) status but you must speak with an SJF staff member before applying so we can review the process with you.
  • Roster of all current members of your Board of Directors or leadership body as defined by your organization. (Please include names and email contact.)
  • Financial Information about the organization (You may use your own format for the financial attachments unless otherwise stated. But please submit all of the following attachments as PDFs.)
    • Annual Statement: The most recent completed Fiscal Year Statement of actual income and expenses. Please do not send your annual report, tax returns, or entire audited financial statement
    • Organizational Budget: A statement of the projected income and expenses for the current fiscal year. You may upload in your own format or use our Budget template.

NOTE: If submitting budgets in your own format, please include a breakdown of income which includes, at minimum, the following categories: Membership income (if any), Individual contributions (may include fundraising events; if so, please indicate), and Grants.

  • Balance sheet: A financial statement of your current assets, liabilities, and cash on hand to give us a snapshot of your financial status at the current moment.
  • *Optional* Project budget: A statement of projected income and expenses for the specific project you are requesting funds to support. This is in additional to your organizational budget, not a replacement. Project Budget is required only if you are requesting project-specific funds. Note that SJF grants are almost always general operating funds.

If your organization does not have any of the above financial documents, please upload a document that includes a short explanation of why you do not have said document(s) and to the best of your ability explain the financial activities and position of your organization in a narrative form.

  • Funding Sources (Please submit using this Funding Sources template.)
    • Include all funding sources, whether or not they will be directed to the work described in this proposal.
    • List a funding source as “pending” if you have submitted an application, but it has not been accepted or denied.
    • Do not neglect the final two columns of this form. Indicate whether or not the listed funding source will support general operating funds and/or the same work described in this proposal.
  • Organizational Diversity Chart (Download Diversity template)

The Diversity Chart is a critical piece of our application. Please fill out this form to the best of your ability. Note that “Leadership Body” refers to the group of people who together make strategic decisions about the organization’s direction, provide oversight and guidance, and are ultimately responsible for the organization’s mission and ability to carry out its mission. In most cases, this will be a Board of Directors, but it might also be a steering committee, collective, or other leadership structure. We do not prioritize any particular structure, but we do want to know who is in leadership of your organization.

The column headers can be edited to reflect the structure of your organization.

Do not neglect Section 4 of this form, regarding the specific diversity category that are important to your organization. For example, if your organization works with day laborers, include day laborers as a diversity category. If refugees are an important part of your constituency, include refugees as a diversity category. Don’t just list the category, be sure to fill in the numbers for each.

Click here to access all the Application attachment forms and templates

Rapid Response & Seed Grant application instructions

Our application is best completed through our online grant portal. If you cannot submit an application online for any reason, we will accept applications by email or post mail. Our online grant application makes it easy to complete all three components of our application: 1) organizational cover sheet 2) narrative responses to our application questions and 3) requested financial and organizational documents.

Be prepared to include the following in your Rapid Response or Seed Grant application:

Organizational Cover Sheet

  • Organization’s contact information
  • Budget size
  • Organization’s mission statement
  • Summary of grant proposal request

Narrative Questions:

  • Organizational background: Mission, history, and major accomplishments
  • A descriptions of your leadership and community organizing strategies
  • Organization goals and objectives
  • Description of the urgent or emergency issue or situation and how you will respond to the emerging issue or situation
  • A plan for how funds will be used
  • Examples of collaboration

Note: SJF welcomes applications from people with all levels of English fluency and formal education; therefore, grammatical and spelling errors will not negatively impact scores.

Requested Attachments:

  1. IRS 501(c)(3) or Fiscal Sponsorship letter (if neither incorporated nor sponsored, talk to SJF staff before applying)
  2. Diversity Chart

For detailed instructions for each attachment, see below.

Note: Your entire application (narrative and all attachments) will be shared with Rapid Response & Seed Grant Committee – a group of volunteers from the community who will read and decide on the applications for this grant cycle. In addition, if SJF makes a grant to your organization, your narrative or portions thereof might be shared with the general public to illustrate the type of work we fund. If we share any portion of your narrative, we will always give credit to your organization.

Rapid Response & Seed Grant application attachments
  • Fiscal Status Letter (submit one of the following). If you are…
    • A 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) organization: Submit your IRS 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) letter, or Federally Recognized American Indian Tribal status letter
    • Fiscally sponsored: Submit a letter from your fiscal agent verifying your fiscal sponsorship status and include the IRS 501(c)(3) letter for your fiscal agent
    • Not a501(c)(3) and not fiscally sponsored : If you are not a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) or fiscally sponsored, submit Attachment A with your application. Social Justice Fund NW is able to make a limited number of grants to organizations that do not have501(c)(3)/501(c)(4) status but you must speak with an SJF staff member before applying so we can review the process with you.
  • Organizational Diversity Chart (Download Diversity template)

The Diversity Chart is a critical piece of our application. Please fill out this form to the best of your ability. Note that “Leadership Body” refers to the group of people who together make strategic decisions about the organization’s direction, provide oversight and guidance, and are ultimately responsible for the organization’s mission and ability to carry out its mission. In most cases, this will be a Board of Directors, but it might also be a steering committee, collective, or other leadership structure. We do not prioritize any particular structure, but we do want to know who is in leadership of your organization.

The column headers can be edited to reflect the structure of your organization.

Do not neglect section 4 of this form, regarding the specific diversity category that are important to your organization. For example, if your organization works with day laborers, include day laborers as a diversity category. If refugees are an important part of your constituency, include refugees as a diversity category. Don’t just list the category; be sure to fill in the numbers for each.

Click here to access all the application attachment forms and templates