Bread & Roses Community Fund believes in change, not charity. We organize donors at all levels to support community-based groups in building movements for racial, social and economic justice. We support movements and their leaders through fundraising, grantmaking, capacity building, and convening.
Bread & Roses makes grants to organizations that use community organizing to create sustainable social change.
What do we mean by community organizing?
We define community organizing as community-led collective action aimed at shifting the balance of power between community members and policy makers and making changes in policies or practices at the institutional or systems level. Examples of community organizing include:
- Civil disobedience
- Mass protest
- Mobilizing community members to voice community concerns by attending meetings with or writing letters, sending emails, and making phone calls to public officials
- Mobilizing community members to pressure individual public officials to change their position on an issue
- Hosting town hall meetings and conducting listening projects or using other methods to gather community input on a particular issue with the intention of building a base of community members and taking collective action to create change at the policy or institutional level
- Training community members to disrupt harmful practices that government or corporate entities are using to maintain the existing system
- Creating alternatives to existing government or corporate systems or practices that are harmful and making those alternatives available in ways that have a measurable impact on the larger community
- Providing space for political education that builds the leadership and skills of members of an affected community, enabling them to analyze harmful systems, develop strategies for social change, and take collective action to create sustainable social change
Who is eligible to receive a grant?
Organizations must meet all of the following basic requirements to be eligible for a grant from Bread & Roses:
- Must be located in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Camden counties
- Must be designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization or have a fiscal sponsor that is designated by the IRS as a 501(c)3 organization
- Must be current with all progress reports from previously awarded Bread & Roses grants
- Must submit a complete application prior to the deadline (because of the volume of applications we receive, we cannot make exceptions)
- Must be using community organizing to create sustainable social change
Additional eligibility criteria are listed within the description for each fund. Organizations can apply for a grant in every fund for which they are eligible. Organizations can receive up to $50,000 total in grants from Bread & Roses within a 12-month period.
Bread & Roses makes grants to organizations that have a long-term vision for social justice and engage in strategies that promote sustainable social change, including:
- A focus on community organizing and activism (not social service, self-help, or educational programs)
- A clear understanding of the root causes of the problem or issue that they are working to resolve
- A vision that emphasizes changing the systems that create or perpetuate the problem or issue being addressed
- A strategy that includes building a local base for taking collective action by the community affected by the problem or issue and results in concrete outcomes at the neighborhood, city, state or national level
- Leadership that is primarily composed of people most affected by the problem or issue that is being addressed
Bread & Roses does not make grants for:
- Direct service work/social services, self-help/empowerment programs, educational programs, or advocacy
- Research
- Capital campaigns or building projects
- Scholarships, fellowships, or grants to individuals (except through the Lax Scholarship Fund)
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative at Bread & Roses Community Fund awards grants ranging from $4,000 to $8,000 to grassroots groups that are building a base for taking collective action against injustices within the criminal legal system. Groups applying to the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative must have a long-term vision for change and use community organizing strategies to promote justice.
Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative grantees address issues that include, but are not limited to: police brutality, racially biased sentencing policies, growth of the for-profit prison industry, mass incarceration, criminalization of youth, and the death penalty. Check out the list of prior grantees and review the characteristics of a Bread & Roses grantee on our website to learn if your organization is right for the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative.
Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 17, 2025. Only proposals submitted before the deadline can be accepted.
The Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative makes grants to groups that:
- Have a long-term vision and engage strategies that promote justice within the criminal legal system
- Are led by people most affected by injustice, and build broad membership and leadership bases that can survive when key leaders step down
- Understand power differences based on identity and can talk about how they are trying to challenge those power imbalances both within their organizations and in their communities
- Have a shared vision for what that change looks like and can articulate that vision
- Prioritize ongoing education/consciousness raising for constituents and allies that broadens their membership base
- Have a plan, including short term and long term goals that are specific, achievable, and relevant to criminal justice
- Are knowledgeable about other organizations working on the same issue, and are able to work in coalition across movements, issues, and communities to amplify impact
- Are less likely to be funded by more traditional funders, because of their commitment to challenging power and prioritizing the leadership of marginalized people. Therefore, a grant from Bread & Roses Community Fund is critical to seeding or sustaining their work
Groups must also meet Bread & Roses' eligibility criteria.
Application Process Suggestions
- We suggest you review all of the application questions before filling out the form.
- When working on your application summary, you might find it helpful to complete the application questions first and then pull the key points into your summary.
- You can save your application and return to edit it as long as you do not submit your application. Once you hit submit, you will not be able to make any changes.
- Please fill in the charts in as completely as you can. If you don't have the information we're requesting, please explain in the space for a longer narrative that is below every chart.
- Do not wait until the last minute to submit your application. We cannot make exceptions to the deadline for technical difficulties.
What Happens After You Submit Your Application
- Bread & Roses staff will screen all of the proposals to make sure that they meet our eligibility requirements.
- Proposals that meet our eligibility criteria will be sent to the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative Committee for review.
- Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative Committee members will interview invited organizations in March 2025.
- Recommendations for grants made by the Phoebus Criminal Justice Initiative Committee will be presented to the Bread & Roses Board of Directors for final approval.
- Grant award announcements will be made in April 2025.
Opportunity Fund grants are intended for special projects or emergencies that are not part of an organization’s ongoing work. These activities are frequently in response to rapidly emerging issues and might include: demonstrations and rallies, coalition efforts, conferences, or forums.
The Opportunity Fund makes grants to groups that:
- Meet all basic eligibility requirements and funding criteria
- Are facing an emerging issue, project, or situation that is not part of the organization’s ongoing work
- Have not received an Opportunity Fund grant within the past 12 months*
*12 months from when the application was submitted
Grants range from $50 to $1,000. Groups who have received grants from the Opportunity Fund in the past year may not reapply in the following grant cycle.
For eligibility criteria and more information about this Fund, visit our website. Check out our list of recent grantees to see if the Opportunity Fund is right for your group.
The Lax Scholarship Fund was established in 1994 by the late entrepreneur and inventor Jonathan R. Lax for the express purpose of encouraging other gay men to pursue higher education, contribute to society through activism, and to be out about their sexual orientation.
The Jonathan Lax Scholarship Committee awards $5,000 to $10,000 college scholarships to scholars who:
- identify as gay men and
- graduated or will graduate from high school in the Philadelphia region (Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties) and will be enrolled at an accredited college, graduate, or professional school in the United States during the 2025-2026 academic year; or
- graduated or will graduate from a high school outside the region and will be enrolled in a degree program at an accredited college, graduate, or professional school in the Philadelphia region (Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties) during the 2025-2026 academic year.
Please complete all required fields and submit your application by 11:59 pm (EST) on December 2, 2024.
*Required fields are marked with a red asterisk in the online application.*
NOTE: You can save a draft of your application at any time and come back to keep working on it. Once you hit submit, you will not be able to change any information.
Your completed application will include three reference letters from people who can provide information about your academic achievements, community involvement, and personal characteristics. We recommend that you contact your three references as soon as possible. Let them know they will receive an email from the Submittable platform with instructions on how to complete their letters of reference online.
A virtual information session will be held in November to support people working on applications. Please join our mailing list to receive updates about this event.