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Funding Guidelines and Priorities

Guías y Prioridades para los Fondos

We define social change as change that addresses the systemic, root causes of social (economic, environmental, political, and racial) inequalities in an effort to alleviate those inequalities but also the underlying conditions and circumstances that cause and sustain them.

The Fund for Santa Barbara is unabashedly progressive and is looking to support projects that address the systemic root causes of social inequalities. We support projects with a strong systemic change component.

El Fund de Santa Barbara es desvergonzadamente progresista y está buscando apoyar proyectos que abordan las raíces sistémicas de las injusticias sociales. Apoyamos proyectos con un fuerte componente de cambio social.

Definimos al cambio social como el cambio que aborda las raíces sistémicas de las injusticias sociales (económicas, medioambientales, políticas, raciales) con el objetivo de aliviar aquellas injusticias y condiciones y circunstancias subyacentes que las causan y sostienen.

Funding Guidelines

Directrices para el otorgamiento de fondos

In order to meet our guidelines, a project must:

  • Actively support anti-discrimination based on race, sex/gender, age, religion, language spoken, or immigration status;
  • Actively support communities marginalized by power structures to engage in dialogue and actions that seek to counter social injustice;
  • Actively work to improve the rights of workers and their families whose living conditions have been marginalized;
  • Promote the cultural life of underserved communities and support the activities of cultural workers;
  • Promote self-determination and leadership development in low income and disenfranchised communities;
  • Promote Global peace and organize locally for just policies;
  • Work on building coalitions to enhance improving environmental justice and address climate change, especially organizing a constituency usually without access to decision-makers
  • Engage in collaborative action and coalition-building to strengthen movement ecosystems;
  • Work against community violence and actively support recovery and restorative justice activities and initiatives;
  • Operate in a democratic manner, responsive to and directed by the constituency being served.

Para cumplir con nuestras directrices, un proyecto debe:

  • Apoyar activamente la lucha contra la discriminación basada en la raza, sexo/género, edad, religión, idioma o estado inmigratorio;
  • Apoyar activamente a las comunidades marginalizadas por las estructuras de poder para participar en diálogo y acciones que busquen contrarrestar la injusticia social;
  • Trabajar activamente para mejorar los derechos de los trabajadores y de sus familias cuyas condiciones de vida han sido marginalizadas;
  • Promover la vida cultural de comunidades desatendidas y apoyar las actividades de los trabajadores culturales;
  • Promover la autodeterminación y el desarrollo en comunidades de bajos ingresos y que han sido privadas de sus derechos;
  • Promover la paz global y trabajar localmente por políticas justas;
  • Trabajar para crear coaliciones para mejorar la justicia medioambiental y abordar el calentamiento global, especialmente al organizar a constituyentes que usualmente no tienen acceso a la toma de decisiones;
  • Participar en una acción colaborativa y en la creación de coaliciones para reforzar los ecosistemas de movimiento; trabajar contra la violencia comunitaria y apoyar activamente la recuperación y actividades e iniciativas de la justicia restauradora;
  • Operar de manera democrática, que responda a y dirigida por los constituyentes a los que se sirve.

Funding Priorities (not applicable to YMC)

​​Prioridades de financiamiento

Guiding questions used by the Grant Making Committee during deliberation:

  • Guidelines: Does this project have the potential to create or advance social, economic, political, and/or environmental change? Please refer to FUND Guidelines
  • Priorities: Are there elements of Community Organizing, Lobbying, Direct Action, Base-building, Coalition-Building, or Legal Strategy?
  • Access to Funding: Does this project lack access to funding? Would the project go forward without support from the Fund?
  • Critical Timing/Need: Does the organization have the capacity to reach their social change goals? Are the key players familiar with other organizations in the same field to further the goal of movement building?
  • Impact of Funds: How clear is the budget outline? How well does the budget support the project’s social change goals? Will funding help start-up the organization, stabilize the organization, and/or leverage other funding sources?
  • Regional Equity: Will this project help the GMC achieve its objective of providing equity in funding throughout Santa Barbara County?

Preguntas guía utilizadas por el Comité de Becas durante la deliberación:

  • Directrices: ¿Tiene este proyecto el potencial de crear o fomentar el cambio social, económico, político y/o del medio ambiente? Por favor, consulte las Directrices del FUND
  • Prioridades: ¿Hay elementos de organización comunitaria, “lobbying”, defensa, acción directa, creación de la base, creación de coaliciones o estrategia legal?
  • Acceso a fondos: ¿Le falta a este proyecto acceso a fondos? ¿Avanzaría este proyecto sin el apoyo del FUND?
  • Necesidad/momento crítico: ¿Tiene la organización la capacidad de alcanzar sus metas para el cambio social? ¿Conocen los participantes clave otras organizaciones en el mismo campo para impulsar el objetivo de la creación del movimiento?
  • Impacto de los fondos: ¿Cuán claro es el borrador del presupuesto? ¿Apoya el presupuesto adecuadamente a los objetivos de cambio social del proyecto? ¿Ayudará el financiamiento a crear la organización, estabilizar la organización y/o aprovechar otras fuentes de financiamiento?
  • Equidad regional: ¿Ayudará este proyecto a que el Comité de Becas alcance su objetivo de proveer equidad a través de subsidios en el Condado de Santa Bárbara?

We do not fund

No financiamos

  • Political campaigns that support a candidate or a political party;
  • Private (vs. public) interests;
  • Direct labor organizing;
  • Projects providing direct services without a social change component;
  • Direct support to individuals;
  • Building improvements;
  • Capital ventures, i.e. machines, vehicles, etc.;
  • Equipment, i.e. office equipment, tools, etc; 
  • Projects located outside of Santa Barbara County.

Eligibility Criteria

Guías y Prioridades para los Fondos

  • Campañas políticas que apoyan a unx candidatx o partido político;
  • Intereses privados (vs. públicos);
  • Organización de sindicatos
  • Proyectos que proveen servicios directos sin un componente de cambio social;
  • Apoyo directo a individuos;
  • Mejoras de edificios;
  • Inversiones de capital, por ej., equipo de oficina, maquinarias o vehículos;
  • Proyectos ubicados fuera del Condado de Santa Bárbara.

General Eligibility Criteria

  • Must meet the Funding Guidelines and Priorities
  • Must have a Tax ID Number or Employer Identification Number (EIN); or a tax-exempt fiscal sponsor
  • Must have an organizational bank account; or a fiscal sponsor’s
  • Budget and Planned Activities must fall within the funding timeframe for which the proposal is submitted
  • Must not be a currently funded grantee (Racial Equity Fund & Mickey Flacks Social Housing Fund grantees excluded)

Multi-year eligibility criteria

  • Must meet the General Eligibility Criteria
  • Must have a significant funding history with The FUND (at least 3 funding cycles in recent history)
  • Budget and Planned Activities must build on each other and fall within the 3-year funding timeframe
  • Must submit initial inquiry paragraph describing the proposed request/organization to be funded and demonstrating that the proposal meets The FUND’s Funding Guidelines and Priorities

Youth Making Change eligibility criteria

Must be youth-led (age 12-24) Youth are leaders in all aspects of the project, including the writing of this grant application.

  • Must meet the Funding Guidelines
  • Must operate in a democratic manner, responsive to and directed by the group of people you aim to serve; Teens in the community must benefit from your project, not just the planning team
  • Must attempt to fix a problem affecting youth by providing a solution
  • Must be located in Santa Barbara County
  • Must have a sponsoring organization, such as a school or community group with a Tax ID Number or Employer Identification Number (EIN) and an organizational bank account
  • Budget and Planned Activities must fall within the funding timeframe for which the proposal is submitted
  • Must not be a currently funded grantee (Racial Equity Fund & Mickey Flacks Social Housing Fund grantees excluded)
 
A strong project also includes (optional): 
  • Research to find out the most pressing needs in your community.
  • An opportunity for you and other youth planners to develop valuable skills and knowledge.
  • An opportunity for other youth in the community to develop valuable skills, knowledge, or experience.
  • A plan to keep your project running for a year or more.

Racial Equity Fund eligibility criteria

This fund aims to effect the culture and policy for systemic change necessary to advance racial equity and justice, and reverse the legacy of slavery and effects of racism in Santa Barbara County.

  • Must be a historically oppressed, marginalized and underrepresented-led group
    • Must support community members directly harmed by the racist policies and marginalized by systemic racism
  • Must include as a core mission the goal of addressing systemic racism
  • Projects must take place in the County of Santa Barbara
  • Have a Tax ID Number, Employer Identification Number (EIN), or a fiscal sponsor
  • Have an organizational bank account (or a fiscal sponsor’s)
  • **REFSBC funding cannot be used for lobbying, legal strategy or 501(c)4 work

Other funding programs

  • Contact [email protected] to learn more about the eligibility criteria for our other funding programs

Questions?
[email protected].

¿Preguntas?
[email protected].