FUNDING CRITERIA & PRIORITIES

Social Change

Crossroads Fund supports work that promotes social change. We define social change work as people in communities organizing together to change the conditions, institutions, and policies that create and maintain inequality and oppression.

Social change groups work to examine and challenge the underlying causes of the problems and conditions various communities face. Examples of this type of work include (but are not limited to):

• a group working with the homeless, that focuses not only on providing shelter, clothing and food, but also advocates for legislation that would provide opportunities for adequate and affordable housing, job training, placement and retention, and transportation for people to be able to build decent lives;
• a workers’ rights center providing information about labor laws and leadership training, with a goal of organizing workers to make their workplaces safe, fair and respectful;
• an arts organization building media skills for youth to express themselves around issues such as police brutality, gentrification, prison, racism, homophobia and immigration.

Working for Social Change: organizing community members to examine and challenge the underlying causes of their problems and conditions

Cross-Issue Organizing: working with an understanding of the connectedness among the various people and issues that make up the whole community

Grassroots Leadership: involving the people who are directly affected at all levels of the organization – in planning, organizing and leading, and working to continue building leadership within the grassroots community

• having a clear purpose to the project with well-planned goals, objectives, activities and a tool to measure outcomes and impact
• a timeline and budget that reflects the proposed objectives and activities
• a realistic fundraising plan

Work in the Chicago Metropolitan Area: being rooted in communities in the Chicago metropolitan area, including Northwestern Indiana.

Budget: Groups with previous year annual expenses under $300,000.

Funding Priorities for ALL Grants

Collaborative: working in alliance with other progressive groups as a way to build multiple strategies for bringing social change

Risk-taking: doing work that may be controversial, marginalized, and/or new and emerging

Strategic: working with a long-term vision which clearly links to current plans

Impact: achieving concrete success which has positively impacted the community

Development: increasing the ability to raise money from multiple sources throughout the community, such as foundations, businesses, individuals, special events, and income generating projects

(Crossroads recognizes the difficulty for many groups to secure funding from larger foundations due to the political nature of the work. We also know that foundation funding is not always consistent. For these reasons, we believe building support from a wide range of sources is critical to an organization’s ability to maintain and grow its level of impact on the community.)

Crossroads supports many different forms of social change organizing, such as (but not limited to):

• Direct Action Organizing
• Public Policy Advocacy
• Art & Cultural work that is community-based and linked to activism
• Economic Development
• International Solidarity
• Action Research as an organizing strategy to identify, document and analyze information, in partnership with a community group
• Media Advocacy that promotes greater public understanding of critical issues and increasing organizing outreach efforts
• Social Services linked with Activism
• Leadership Development and Training
• Providing Resources for Local Activists
• Working Collaboratively Across Issues and Communities
• Gatherings & Conferences

Crossroads Fund supports non-profit organizations, including those that do not have 501(c)3 status. Fiscal sponsorship for those organizations without tax-exempt status is recommended but not required. If a fiscal sponsor is not used, an organizational bank account is required.

To comply with IRS regulations, Crossroads Fund cannot:

• fund organizations involved in electoral campaigns;
• contribute substantially to support lobbying at the federal, state, or local levels; or
• support private, in contrast to public, interest.