Our programs are based on trust, relationships, and true partnership.
We believe philanthropy should seek deep, systemic, and long-lasting change—not charity.
Philanthropy has had a troubled history in our country, putting donors and wealth holders above communities and failing to be accountable to the people it’s supposed to serve.
Seeding Justice is taking a different approach: we believe that philanthropy should be transparent and people-led, and rooted in community; should focus on over-resourcing the communities who have been and continue to be disenfranchised and left behind, and who, despite it all, continue to resiliently thrive; and should seek deep, systemic, and long-lasting change—not charity.
Our approach to resourcing our communities
At Seeding Justice, we work to not only shift wealth, but also power by…
- Funding groups and projects that are actively working to challenge White Supremacist, capitalist, and patriarchal systems.
- Funding primarily emergent, small, and grassroots organizations and groups that don’t have access to traditional sources of wealth.
- Using a participatory grantmaking process—the folks making funding decisions are organizers, activists, and cultural workers from different parts of the state who have lived and professional experience in the issues we support. We simply facilitate the process and support the decision makers in their work.
- Actively seeking applicants from the communities that are most under-resourced, working with them to strengthen their applications. We also connect them with other funders, and provide resources so they build capacity and sustain their work.
- Making ourselves available to share knowledge, receive feedback, or discuss the ways in which our movements can navigate and push back against the status quo.
Grants & Awards Programs
General Fund Grants
Our General Fund Grants (link) prioritize funding for small, emergent, and grassroots organizations and those that are led by Black and Indigenous people and other communities of color, especially those that identify as having other intersecting identities, such as LGBTQIA2S+, immigrants and refugees, folks living with disabilities, people living with low incomes, folks that currently or formerly incarcerated, houseless people, those living in rural communities, and others.
Rapid Response Grants
Rapid Response Grants are designed to provide current grantees with small grants to respond to emergencies and opportunities.
Lilla Jewel Awards
Lilla Jewel Awards—named in honor of artist, radical feminist, and suffragist Lilla Jewel— was created to address these inequities by resourcing and amplifying Oregon-based artists of marginalized genders who advance a social change message through their work.
Open Opportunities
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Meet our New Communications Director, Samantha Bakall!
The Staff and Board of Seeding Justice
Make a Gift in Celebration of 45 Years of Seeding Justice!
YES! I want to make a donation
*Drum Roll* Presenting our 2021 Lilla Jewel Awardees!
The Lilla Jewel Award—named in honor of
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If there is funding available, our open grants will be visible on our website. If you don’t see any open opportunities, that’s because no funding is available at this time.
By signing up for our newsletters and/or following us on social media (links) you’ll make sure you don’t miss any of our announcements when funding is available.
To receive a grant, your group must be Oregon-based and either a 501(c)(3) organization or a group that’s fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization. Occasionally, we may fund groups that are neither 501(c)(3) or fiscally sponsored. (Question 4 below addresses this scenario.)
For a list of projects we cannot fund, please check out Question 5.
We accept applications from groups that have neither 501(c)(3) status nor a fiscal sponsor under two conditions:
- They are registered in the state of Oregon as a nonprofit corporation; and
- They have established a bank account in the name of the organization
If you want to talk more about your unique situation, please contact us.
Example of a contact form
Example of a contact form
Timeline header (FPO)
In 1986, MRG made critical seed funding to Black United Fund of Oregon. Throughout MRG’s history we have provided seed and/or critical early funding to: Black United Front, Ebone Eyes, Coalition of Black Men, Brother to Brother, Sisters in Action, Eugene/Springfield NAACP, International Center for Traditional Childbearing and PFLAG Portland Black Chapter.
The federal government re-recognizes the Klamath Tribe after Klamath tribal sovereignty was terminated in 1954 by the federal government. MRG made multiple grants to Klamath Tribe groups in Chiloquin and Klamath Falls as tribal members organized to regain federally recognized sovereignty. Recent grants to the Confederated Tribes of the Lower Rogue have helped members preserve the Tututni language and Komemma Cultural Protection Association has helped preserve the Kalapuya culture.
In 1986, MRG made critical seed funding to Black United Fund of Oregon. Throughout MRG’s history we have provided seed and/or critical early funding to: Black United Front, Ebone Eyes, Coalition of Black Men, Brother to Brother, Sisters in Action, Eugene/Springfield NAACP, International Center for Traditional Childbearing and PFLAG Portland Black Chapter.
The federal government re-recognizes the Klamath Tribe after Klamath tribal sovereignty was terminated in 1954 by the federal government. MRG made multiple grants to Klamath Tribe groups in Chiloquin and Klamath Falls as tribal members organized to regain federally recognized sovereignty. Recent grants to the Confederated Tribes of the Lower Rogue have helped members preserve the Tututni language and Komemma Cultural Protection Association has helped preserve the Kalapuya culture.
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