Community-Reviewed Grant Programs (Seed Fund, Community Resilience Fund, Youth Fund for Social Change)
A Chicago-area public foundation that funds small, community-based groups working for racial, social and economic justice through several funds — a Seed Fund for emerging initiatives, a Community Resilience Fund, and a Youth Fund for Social Change — plus pooled collaboratives including the Chicago Racial Justice Pooled Fund. The very small budget ceiling makes this a route for grassroots partners of social work researchers rather than institutions, supporting organizing, community documentation and locally driven evaluation.
- Indicative award
- Amount not published (varies by call)No grant amounts are published on the funding criteria page.
- Timing
- Periodic callsNo specific published date recorded. This funder publishes a cycle rather than a date, and this database does not invent one.The funding criteria page does not list application deadlines; applications are handled through the funder's online grant portal.
- Who can apply
- Community organisation, Practitioner
- Eligibility
- Groups must have had previous-year annual expenses under $500,000 and must work in the Chicago metropolitan area — Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties in Illinois plus Lake County, Indiana. Eligible entity types are 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), cooperatives, or groups without tax-exempt status operating under a fiscal sponsor; all applicants need an organizational bank account. A university cannot be the applicant given the budget ceiling and grassroots focus; a researcher would partner with a grantee group.
- SSWR clusters
- Topics
- social justice organizing · youth-led organizing · community resilience
- Apply at
- https://crossroadsfund.org/funding-criteria
- This entry
- Curated by the working group. Written 2026-08-07. Funder link last confirmed to resolve on 2026-09-25.
Amounts and dates on this page are indicative and are maintained by people rather than scraped. Funders change ceilings, windows and eligibility without notice; confirm all details at the source above before applying.
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