Birth Justice Rapid Response Fund – Aug 14

Posted by National Birth Equity Collaborative on August 2, 2022

National Birth Equity Collaborative invites applications for Birth Justice Rapid Response Fund

The National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC) invites applications for its Birth Justice Rapid Response Fund.

The Birth Justice Fund–Rapid Response Fund (BJF-RRF) is a three-year opportunity to advance community power efforts led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) birth justice organizations to address implicit bias and structural racism and their impact on maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Through the fund, grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to support organizations doing work in the fields of birth equity and reproductive justice, with an explicit or organization-wide focus on issues that address structural racism, social injustice, and their impact on maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.

Specifically, the RRF is designed to: expedite grants to social justice organizations led by women of color, transgender, gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and queer people of color, and low-income women in the fight to protect and advance reproductive and social justice; reduce barriers and increase accessibility to funds, including recurring grantmaking cycles; operationalize the tenets of trust-based philanthropy into practice, including the belief that people who are closest to the experience of race, class, and gender injustice are best suited to devise solutions to counter it; build and shift power in ways that advance birth justice, including innovative practices and approaches to base building; and provide early and/or “first-in” funder support for base building to cultivate knowledge and skills, capacity building for social change, organizing and advocacy campaigns, leadership development, connectivity and intersectional work across movements, and the scaling of community-generated strategies.

Eligible applicants include individuals and/or social justice organizations led by and serving women of color (Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latine/x, Asian-American/Pacific Islander (AAPI)); transgender, gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and queer people of color; low-income women of color; and/or low-income transgender, gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, and queer people of color. This funding allows for a wide range of potential applicants not usually eligible for funding from philanthropic institutions, including independent 501(c)(3) organizations; projects affiliated with a fiscal sponsor possessing 501(c)(3) status; and for-profit organizations, individuals, and 501(c)(4)s with specific initiatives/programs (already in place or entirely new) that have a charitable purpose. Applicants must be BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving. Local branches of national organizations are eligible to apply, provided the local budget falls within the prescribed range.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the National Birth Equity Collaborative website.

Deadline: August 14, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET