Eligibility & Areas of Support

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for support from 21CF, organizations must meet two (2) of the following three (3) criteria. At least:

Fifty percent (50%) of the staff is African American or of African descent.
Fifty percent (50%) of the board of directors is African American or of African descent.
Fifty percent (50%) of the community “served” is African American or of African descent.

In addition, grantees are required to have an IRS 501(c)(3) designation or secure a fiscal sponsor that does. Organizations are encouraged to request funding for general operating support. The average 21CF grant is between $15K-25K.

Restrictions Grants are not ordinarily made to the following:
Individuals
Scholarships
Debt reduction or loans
Dissertations or student research projects
Galas or social events General endowment
Activities of religious organizations for their direct religious purposes
Institutions that discriminate on the basis of race, creed, gender or sexual orientation, in policy or practice

We recommend the Foundation Center as an excellent resource for researching funding possibilities. The Foundation Center has several locations across the country and can be reached at (800) 424-4230 or www.fdncenter.org.

GRANTMAKING AREAS OF SUPPORT
21CF grantmaking will focus on organizations actively involved in or wanting to engage in community organizing, advocacy and/or leadership development focused on addressing root causes of social injustice impacting the Black community:

By community organizing 21CF means activities that help people build power to collectively change their social conditions. Priorities for 21CF are low-income and disenfranchised communities. By advocacy 21CF means programs working to change policies through public education, “grassroots” lobbying and class action suits. By leadership development 21CF means organizations helping people and communities more fully claim their sense of power to change social conditions and transform their communities.

There's an old adage that says, ‘If you give a person a fish, they eat for a day. But if you teach them to fish, they eat for a lifetime.’ Though this may sound cliché, it illustrates what 21CF hopes to capture in a successful proposal for funding. Further, we offer the following scenario to help organizations understand different strategies: What happens if a factory is polluting the river upstream?

Community organizing is building a base of local residents, churches and/or others that use various approaches to get the factory to stop polluting. This may include public actions and negotiations.
Advocacy is using existing channels of laws, regulations and legal negotiations to force the factory to stop polluting.
Leadership development is enhancing existing knowledge and expertise of individuals and/or organizations to better claim their own power to respond to the factory’s actions.

As you consider submitting a proposal for funding, also note the following:

21CF is interested in organizations that articulate and understand the larger political, social and economic context of their work and are seeking ways to positively impact it. 21CF seeks to support initiatives that are working “for” and not just “against” an issue and/or social condition. Organizations submitting proposals for funding that focus on African American men and boys and/or youth and social justice may be given preferential consideration. Though national in scope, proposals from Baltimore, Chicago, the Gulf Coast, Los Angeles, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Orleans, New York City, Oakland and Philadelphia may be given preferential consideration. However, applications from other geographical areas will not be excluded.

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