Third Wave Fund
/OVERVIEW: The Third Wave Fund makes grants for women and girls, LGBTQ causes and, to a lesser extent, civic engagement and democracy. This foundation’s major focus is gender justice and its intersection with “age, race, class, migration, disability, faith and geography.”
IP TAKE: The Third Wave Fund, a GUTC signatory, is committed to providing integral support to small community- and youth-led organizations working for gender justice. The fund maintains separate grantmaking programs for rapid response funding, operational support and capacity building, youth organizations and grants that address oppressions facing sex workers.
Third Wave runs an ongoing application system for its rapid-response Mobilize Power initiative and accepts applications each April for its Own Our Power grants, which mainly support youth-led gender justice groups. However, its capacity building and sex worker grantmaking programs run closed application programs. Prospective applicants can reach out to relevant staff members via email addresses available on the fund’s staff webpage. The fund is responsive and approachable, but grants are competitive since this space is less funded than others in the Women and Girls focus area
Note that this funder conducts grants through an intersectional lens, so if your work does not occur through a similar vein, then your work will not stand out here.
PROFILE: In 1992, Rebecca Walker and Shannon Lister founded the Third Wave Direct Action Corporation “to fill a void in young women’s leadership and to mobilize young people to become more involved socially and politically in their communities. Five years later, in 1997, the Third Wave Direct Action Corporation evolved into the Third Wave Fund, which supports “youth-led, intersectional, gender justice activism to advance the community power, well-being, and self-determination of young Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color (BIPOC).” A GUTC signatory, the Fund makes grants for LGBTQ communities, women and girls, immigrants, racial justice and democracy.
Grants for LGBTQ, Women and Girls, Indigenous Rights, BIPOC and Immigrants
The Third Wave Fund funds women’s and girls’ causes across all four of its giving programs. Recent grantmaking focused on women of color, LGBTQ and reproductive rights, youth activism and women who are marginalized by immigration status, sexual orientation or religious or cultural affiliations.
The Fund conducts grantmaking for both LGBTQ and Women through a variety of means, currently organized into six distinct grantmaking programs:
Mobilize Power Fund is a rapid response grantmaking program that supports activism and leadership among “young women of color (transgender and cisgender), and trans, queer, gender non-conforming and intersex young people under 35.” These grants are generally awarded in amounts up to $10,000 for a single group and up to $20,000 for a partnership of two or more groups.
Grow Power Fund provides women’s and LGBTQ organizations with “general operating support, capacity building resources and organizational development coaching”, with recent grants supporting “gender justice movements at the intersections of age, race, class, migration, disability, faith and geography.” The Grow Power Fund’s grants are made in amounts up to $35,000.
Own Our Power grants focus on providing youth-led reproductive and gender justice organizations with growth-oriented grants for leadership development, strategic development and communications projects. Own Our Power grants are generally awarded in the amount of $25,000 per year for a two-year capacity building term.
Sex Worker Giving Circle, a newer initiative, makes grants that address the oppressive and exploitative conditions under which sex workers live and work. These grants are awarded in the amount of $15,000 or $25,000 per year over a two-year period.
Accountable Futures Fund makes grants that “support communities, organizations, and movements… [that] navigate conflict and harm in ways that decrease the power of carceral and state systems.” Grants from the Accountable Futures Fund are generally awarded in amounts up to $21,000.
Disability Frontlines Fund, Third Wave Fund’s newest initiative, is focused on creating “impactful, intersectional and sustainable movements to address issues facing BIPOC disabled individuals and communities in an ableist world.” At the time of writing, this initiative is in a learning phase and is not currently accepting applications. Interested grantseekers may check back on the fund’s website for updated information, as it becomes available.
Past grantees include Chicago-based Hearth Women and Girls, which aims to prevent sexual violence against Muslim women, and New Mexico’s Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, which provides counseling and legal support to women survivors of multiple forms of gender-based violence and sex-trafficking. Other women’s organizations that received grants from Third Wave include the Girls’ Justice League of Philadelphia, New York City’s Black Women’s Blueprint, the Young Women’s Freedom Center of San Francisco and the National Black Mama’s Day Bail Out.
Grants for LGBTQ tend to focus on youth organizations and initiatives working to end LGBTQ discrimination in the areas of health, employment, education and housing. In Colorado, the Fund has supported Trans Queer Pueblo, which aims to “create community solutions” for meeting the basic needs of LGBTQ people and migrants of color. Another grantee, Detroit’s Trans Sistas of Color, supports gender transitioning people with supportive programs and events that address mental health, advocacy and employment. Other LGBTQ grantees include Alabama’s TAKE Resources Center, Los Angeles’s Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement and Washington D.C.’s Trans Women of Color Collective.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
Through its women’s, girls’ and LGBTQ grantmaking programs, the Third Wave Fund also supports organizations involved in supporting the civic engagement of marginalized young people. In Los Angeles, the Immigrant Youth Coalition organizes and advocates for the rights of undocumented young people. Another recent grantee, North Carolina’s Youth Organizing Institute, is “dedicated to empowering the lives and experiences of young people” and runs fellowship programs and leadership training institutes throughout the year.
Important Grant Details:
The Third Wave Fund makes about $250,000 a year in grants, ranging from about $5,000 to $35,000. Each program has its own grant ranges, listed with their overall grantmaking goals (above).
This funder favors small, community- or youth-led grassroots groups working in the fund’s specific areas of interest. For additional information about recent grantmaking see the fund’s individual program pages or its recent tax filings, available as part of their annual reporting.
The Third Wave Fund accepts applications on an ongoing basis for its Mobilize Power Fund through its online grant portal. The Own Our Power Fund accepts grant applications each April, when it also holds informational webinars about its grantmaking process.
The fund does not accept applications for its Grow Power Fund, Sex Worker Giving Circle, Accountable Futures Fund, or Disability Frontlines Fund grants.
General inquiries may be directed to the fund’s staff via email at info@thirdwavefund.org or telephone at 917-387-1262. The fund also provides staff bios and email addresses on its staff page.
PEOPLE:
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