Eligibility Guidelines

Who may apply

501(c)(3) organizations and, on occasion, governmental agencies
An organization that is not a 501c3 may be eligible to apply if it is able to secure a fiscal sponsor agreement with an otherwise eligible organization. View our fiscal sponsor agreement for more information.
Eligible nonprofits must have board membership that is at least 10 percent people of color. The term “people of color” refers to African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic/Latino Americans and all other persons who are not categorized as white
Organizations that provide programs/projects that support Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties

Beyond the due diligence that is standard across all grants, proposals are evaluated on the racial equity impact of these components:

Relative impact: the extent to which grant dollars meet community needs, develop capacity, build narrative power, etc.
Representation: cultural and actual power of global majority populations enduring the systemic concentration of disadvantage
Power: the capacity to execute strategy, control resource flows, make decisions, govern the narrative, etc. (i.e., the devolution of hierarchical decision-making to community leadership, leveraging positionality to effect collective action, demonstration of anti-racist organizational development, political enfranchisement, policy advocacy, cultural programming, etc.)
Policy: the policies, processes, organizational development and norms that instill meaning and structure our way of being
Solidarity and collaboration: among service providers and community in their sector/work
Advocacy: policy efforts, including anti-racist organizational development and external efforts, which transform influence in their sector/work
Racial health disparities: including effective interventions that are disproportionately underfunded