Tides Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Tides Foundation is a left-leaning donor advised fund that supports environmental causes, civic and voter engagement initiatives, public health and access, women and girls, and global development projects through its handful of collective action funds.
IP TAKE: This is not a transparent funder nor is it always possible to see where Tides’ money comes from or where it goes. Its website is frequently unhelpful in this regard. Some collective funding campaigns provide end of year reports and grant assessments from previous years, but others do not. Part of this may be because the collective action funds are few in number and short-lived. Even so, it would be useful for grantseekers to see the results of expired campaigns to have a better idea about what to expect. Additionally, for such a large and important foundation, its website is relatively tight-lipped.
This is a supportive funder, however, that offers multi-year general funding, in addition to other forms of support. However, grantmaking is very competitive here so prepare accordingly.
The Tides website does provide several ways to get in touch with the foundation, and some individual Funds have email addresses that offer methods of contact that are more direct. Nevertheless, using a simple, bare-bones contact form to navigate such a large and complex organization can feel as futile for grantseekers as whistling in the wind.
While its few collective action funds have annual or biannual calls for proposals, most of the foundation’s support is inaccessible through direct approach, and as is par for the course with donor advised funds, the best way to access foundation funds is networking.
PROFILE: Established in 1976, Tides Foundation was created by progressive political activist Drummond Pike, who served as CEO until 2010. Based in San Francisco, CA, the foundation is part of the Tides collection of organizations, which is made up of five separate legal entities: Tides Foundation, Tides Center, Tides Two Rivers Fund, Tides, Inc., and Tides Network, which oversees the others. The Tides Center is an incubator and support system for smaller social justice organizations. Tides Two Rivers Fund and Tides, Inc. are part of Tides Converge, which provides community workspaces and administrative services for nonprofits in San Francisco and New York City. Tides Advocacy, a liberal lobbying organization that works to further social justice and advocate for policy reform, is an affiliated but independent entity.
The Tides Foundation is the primary grantmaking organization and works to “solve society’s toughest problems in areas such as equality and human rights, sustainable environment, and health and education, pushing boundaries with every dollar and idea to fuel real and lasting change.” It manages around 400 donor advised funds and does not provide direct funding of its own. While Tides makes donations all the time and support for a wide range of groups and projects passes through the foundation’s hands, it has only a handful of collaborative funding efforts running at any given time. Currently, these are Frontline Justice Fund, WE LEAD Fund, Healthy Democracy Fund, Stronger Together Fund, and Advancing Girls Fund. Outside of these collective action funds, foundation grants directed by anonymous donors support projects and organizations working in arts and culture, community and economic development, information and communications, international relations, science research, women and girls, LGBTQ+ causes, democracy and civic engagement, and criminal justice reform.
As an organization that supports politically sensitive causes, the Tides Foundation has been described as an example of “dark money” in politics, and it has been singled out by right-wing groups like Capital Research Center and others. Additionally, in 2021, Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse compared the socially progressive Tides Foundation to center-right groups like the Federalist Society and the Judicial Crisis Network, who, according to Whitehouse, have helped radicalize the U.S. Supreme Court.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change, and Clean Energy
Tides has steadily supported environmental causes, including climate change and clean energy, for decades, and established environmental organizations such as The Story of Stuff, Environmental Working Group, and Conservation International began as Tides campaigns. Tides currently has two active environmental campaigns, one of which supports community groups who use legal advocacy to push for climate justice and the other which promotes women’s grassroots activism on the climate frontlines.
The Tides Foundation’s Frontline Justice Fund works to “provide grants to groups representing communities who are living with and fighting against toxic pollution, the fallout from climate disasters, and the looming threat of new and expanding oil pipelines, mines, deadly petrochemical plants, and other dangerous and destructive projects.” The groups it funds use litigation and other legal means to seek environmental justice that directly impacts communities most in danger of experiencing harm from environmental impact. Organizations led by BIPOC individuals or representing low-income communities are prioritized. The fund provides both rapid response and multi-year grants depending on need. These can be unrestricted or for project support. It will also make grants to cover general operating costs. Tides is the fund’s sponsor and controls grantmaking activities. Keep an eye on Tides’ website for open calls for proposals and application submission windows.
The WE LEAD Fund is the other active environmental fund that seeks to address the interconnected problems of climate change and social justice. It works to “elevate, center, and resource women’s grassroots leadership on the frontlines of climate disruption in the United States” and to provide “a shift in power and resources to those making a tangible impact on the ground, namely Black women, women of color, and indigenous women (BIWOC) taking on big polluters with local, community-based action.” Keep an eye on Tides’ website for open calls for proposals and application submission windows. For more information about the fund, email Tides at WELEAD@tides.org.
Grants for Democracy and Civic Engagement
The Tides Foundation’s support for democracy and public policy is currently channeled through its Healthy Democracy Fund, which seeks to partner “with social justice donor networks and movement leaders to foster a healthier, more inclusive, and more reflective democracy.” It works to do this by increasing voter turnout and to preserve and protect the voting rights of underrepresented groups and young voters. Visit the fund’s page to see End of Year Reports and assessments for previous years. Also, keep an eye on Tides’ website for open calls for proposals and application submission windows. For more information about the fund, email Tides at healthydemocracy@tides.org. The fund’s previous grantees include Rural Arizona Engagement, Forward Justice, Silver State Voices, Ohio Voice, and New Georgia Project Incorporated. For more grantees, see the fund’s end of year report.
Grants for Public Health and Access, Diseases
Tides steadily supports grantmaking for health causes through its Stronger Together Fund, which currently focuses on helping low-income populations and communities of color recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Established in 2020, the fund is “an emergency response fund to support the social ventures that call Tides home.” Grants range between $5,000 – $30,000 and are dispersed as unrestricted funds.
The submission window is currently closed. It is unclear for how much long the foundation intends to keep the Stronger Together Fund active. For more insight into how the Tides Foundation responded to the coronavirus pandemic, see Tides + COVID-19, COVID-19 and Racism, and COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants
Grants for Global Development, Women and Girls
Tides history of supporting women and girls is long and consistent. Organizations such as Urgent Action Fund and the V-Day movement began as Tides campaigns.
The Advancing Girls Fund framework was migrated to the Tides foundation in 2020 from the NoVo Foundation’s Adolescent Girls Grantmaking Initiative, following NoVo’s extensive restructuring that year. The fund works to bring “donors together to invest meaningfully and collectively in adolescent girls and young women of color so that they have the resources to dream, learn, play, and lead” and seeks to “support girl-led change in the U.S. and the global south.” According to the website, the fund defines girls and young women as “young people around the ages of 11–30 who identify as girls, as well as non-binary and gender expansive youth.”
Grants are multiyear and for general operating costs. Those looking for more detailed information regarding the fund’s grantmaking strategies should check out the Advancing Girls graphic framework document.
Other Opportunities
As largely a pass-through entity, the Tides Foundation does not typically provide direct funding. However, millions have passed through the foundation’s hands to reach groups and projects in all areas of philanthropy. According to tax records, Tides has given almost $200 million to human rights causes, over $100 million to education groups, almost $300 million for community development and human services, $56.5 million for information and communication organizations, over $50 million for the environment and climate change, and another $50 million for public health issues. The foundation has also given extensively for arts and culture, international relations, science research, criminal justice reform, and LGBTQ+ causes. Grantees who have received funding in the past run the gamut from small local groups to massive national and international organizations.
Important Grant Details:
According to its website, “Tides has managed project and grantmaking activities totaling more than $3 billion since 1976” and has “sponsored and provided backbone services to more than 1000 nonprofit ventures.” A searchable database of Tides’ partners, which shows both individuals and institutions with grantmaking funds at Tides and fiscally sponsored organizations incubated at Tides, is available here.
Tides urges potential partners to carefully review the eligibility requirements before reaching out. In addition to mission alignment and legal fit, applicants “must have an expected annual budget of at least $250,000 with confirmed support and formal grant commitments for 100% of [their] budget for the first year at Tides,” as well as “at least one full time employee who will be employed through Tides.”
The process to become fiscally sponsored by Tides is outlined in detail here and here. After checking eligibility requirements, applicants will need to complete the Partner with Us digital form. It is worth noting that Tides does not accept unsolicited proposals or requests for funding, and it is not an endowed foundation and cannot provide direct funding.
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