What We Fund: Funding Priorities

• Non-partisan Voter Engagement: We support voter mobilization, turn out and ongoing civic education in disenfranchised communities to create an informed, empowered and influential electorate.

• Non-partisan Civic Leadership: We fund initiatives that train, support, and develop disenfranchised communities to seek positions in government at the elected and appointed level.  

• Electoral Justice: We support electoral reform and voting rights initiatives that work to ensure that the electoral process is fair, open, and accountable to voters.

• Immigrant Civic Participation: We fund our nation’s immigrants to participate in our democracy, and to hold government officials accountable to their needs.

• Civic Culture Change: We support initiatives that promote media, messaging, research and communication strategies that shape public attitudes and beliefs to inspire disenfranchised communities to exercise their voting power. 

What do we mean by “disenfranchised communities”? Access Strategies Fund is committed to funding initiatives that benefit traditionally excluded groups such as people of color, women, immigrants, and low-income communities.

Where We Fund: Boston and Worcester

• The Access Strategies Fund supports organizations in urban areas of Massachusetts. The foundation is currently focusing our funding in the cities of Boston and Worcester. We also consider proposals from “statewide” organizations applying for multi city and/or statewide strategies.

Who Should Apply: Eligibility Criteria

Organizations that meet all of the following criteria:

• Organizations that work with and within people of color, low-income and/or immigrant communities in Boston and/or Worcester

• Organizations that are primarily led by people of color at the highest levels of the organization, especially executive director, mid-management, and board roles

• Organizations committed to creating grassroots, systemic political change to improve the lives of disenfranchised communities

• Organizations that demonstrate a commitment to community input, involvement and accountability in the decision-making, policy and agenda-setting process

• Organizations that explicitly encourage affirmative steps towards removing individual, interpersonal and institutional barriers within their organization because of race, ethnicity, immigrant status, class, gender, sexual orientation, age and disability

We prioritize funding for organizations with budgets under $2 million, but will consider funding collaborations between regional and community-based organizations, if the larger organization is committed to building the infrastructure of its collaborator.

The Access Strategies Fund makes grants to 501(c)(3) organizations or organizations that have established a relationship with a fiscal sponsor with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

We Provide the Following Types of Funding

We provide general operating, project, capacity building and technical assistance grants ranging from $500-$50,000, with typical grants ranging between $20,000 and $50,000. We support the following types of grants:

• "Seed" funding: Grants to new or emerging initiatives that have the potential to develop into substantive civic engagement efforts.

• One-year grants: One year grants to eligible organizations.

• Multi-year grants: Two to three year grants to organizations that have a clear vision, an established track record, and a concrete plan.

• Renewal grants: Following seed, one year or multi-year grants, the Fund may consider renewal grants, depending on the scope of an initiative and the progress made during the initial years of funding.

• Technical assistance grants: We provide funding for technical and capacity building support, including, but not limited to training, organizational development, strategic planning, and technology. We also provide funding to current grantees interested in receiving legal assistance in determining permissible political activities within the 501(c)(3) / 501(c)(4) tax designation framework.

We Do Not Fund

We do not fund:

• Partisan programs

• 501(c)(4) organizations

• Strictly direct service programs

• Individuals

• Education or school-based scholarships for individuals

• Capital campaigns

• Any municipal, state or federal agency