Ahead of Deadline, Bread & Roses Community Fund Hosts Info Session for 2 Major Funds

Next Tuesday, the Bread and Roses Community Fund, a grantmaking organization that supports grassroots organizing, will host an information session for potential grantees that explains the guidelines for two of its major funding programs, the Racial & Economic Justice Fund and the Future Fund.

The Racial & Economic Justice Fund, for more established nonprofits, supports community organizing to promote racial and economic justice at the local, state, national, and international policy levels. The maximum award is $10,000. Previous grantees include Philadelphians Organized to Witness Empower & Rebuild (POWER), Action United, and Philadelphia Jobs with Justice.

The Future Fund, whose top grant is $6,000, is intended for “any organizations that have recently formed and are trying to build their own capacity,” said Caitlin Quigley, the project manager at Bread & Roses.

Often, a grant from the Future Fund is the first award received by an emerging organization, Quigley added, and helps “legitimize the grantee” to the larger funding community. Past recipients include Norris Square Neighborhood Project and Student Labor Action Project at Penn (SLAP).

Funding decisions are determined by a 20-member committee of activists, donors, leaders and organizers from the Philadelphia area, all of whom bring specific knowledge and experience to the grantmaking process. In nearly 40 years of operation, Bread & Roses has awarded over $10 million.

The deadline for both the Racial & Economic Justice Fund and the Future Fund is March 2.

Later this month, Bread & Roses is planning an exhibition and program series, titled RELEASE, in partnership with the Leeway Foundation.

Featuring original art and a collection of portraits and narratives focused on incarcerated women of color, RELEASE will address gender injustice and mass incarceration, with an emphasis on the experiences of women and transgender people.

According to Quigley, the series was conceived in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign and the recent debate around police violence.

RELEASE is an “intentional space to lift up the voices of women of color and trans people” whose absence from the discussion has been noticeable, she said.

The exhibit opens on February 26 and runs through June 30, 2015.