The Jews of Color Initiative’s mission is to advance racial equity in the U.S. Jewish community by centering the leadership of Jews of Color, and ensuring that our communities and institutions reflect the multiracial reality of the Jewish people.
We work to achieve this through our grantmaking by supporting field building for Jews of Color (JoC) in the U.S. Jewish community. Our grantmaking cycle is currently open.
View our 3-part video series on our grantmaking here.
What is Field Building?
A “field” is a set of individuals and organizations working to address a common social issue or problem, often developing and using a common knowledge base. Our field of focus is Jews of Color in the U.S. Jewish community. Our grantmaking supports our efforts for field building by investing in Jews of Color and allies who are driving and scaling impact for JoCs in the professional pipeline, growing participation in Jewish communal life, advancing research, and supporting policy and change affecting Jews of Color.
JoCI’s Funding Priorities
We take an equity-based approach to building out the U.S. Jewish communal field for JoC, and focus our grantmaking on the following five areas of field building:
- Shared Identity: JoC identity-building pilot initiatives that are JoC-centered, led, and/or focused
- Leadership Development: empowering JoC leaders and professionals in the U.S. Jewish communal ecosystem
- Knowledge: research by/for JoCs in the U.S.
- Standards of Practice: capacity building for JoC-led and focused organizations in the U.S.
- Policy: other work that builds out the U.S. Jewish communal field for JoC and supports environments where JoC can thrive
Please note, we do not fund individuals, scholarships, or DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work.
Types of Funding Available:
- Small Grants: $5,000 and under
- Mid-Size Grants: $5,000 to $10,000
- Large Grants: $10,000 +
- Special Grantmaking Initiatives/Request for Proposals
Eligibility:
- Projects must be JoC-centered, led and/or focused
- Grantees must be a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit, or a fiscally sponsored project of a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit
- Our funding must be domestically focused and based within the U.S. and U.S. territories
- Organizations must have a proven commitment to racial justice and equity
- Grantees must have a national scope and an ability to share learnings and impact with the wider community
Interested in Applying for a Grant?
We encourage you to take a look at past grantees. If you have a project or idea that aligns with our funding priorities and meets our eligibility requirements (or have any questions about whether it does), please reach out to our grants team for an initial conversation.
We welcome unsolicited grant inquiries but ask that you do not create extra materials or LOI’s for us. We want our first meeting to focus on getting to know each other and learning more about you and your project, clarifying any questions you may have, and only sharing our application once we’ve had an initial conversation and feel that there is a strong alignment. This is intended solely to save you and our team time and effort to ensure that your project meets our basic requirements and funding priorities.
Step 1: Initial Meeting
If you have a project that is laser-focused on Jews of Color, and fits our grantmaking priorities and basic requirements, please reach out to our grantmaking team at grants@jewsofcolorinitiative.org.
Step 2: Workshopping
If your project is a strong fit, one of our Program Officers will meet with you and workshop as needed. If it is not a fit, we are happy to discuss our grantmaking priorities, and encourage you to come back to us if you have a project that is in stronger alignment.
You can expect 2-3 workshopping meetings, and emails in between, before final application submission.
Step 3: Application Submission
Our application is 3-4 pages in a Word document and a budget in an Excel spreadsheet. When you are ready to submit, applications will be submitted by email to your assigned program officer for review. If you need any additional accommodations for the grant application and submission process, please let us know.
Step 4: Hearing Back
Our grants team reviews our small and mid-sized grant applications, and you can expect to hear back 2-3 weeks after your application submission.
Our large size grants and special grantmaking initiatives (RFPs) must be reviewed by our Grant Advisory Committee, which meets every 10-12 weeks during the fiscal year.