OVERVIEW: The Arch Community Fund supports grassroots groups working for social justice across overlapping areas of community development, civic engagement and the rights of all marginalized people. 

IP TAKE: The Arch Community Fund “seeks to fund community-led organizing that is visionary, intersectional and focused on building power.” This small fund works nationally to provide general operating support to grassroot organizations working toward pressing community needs and the rights of marginalized people across the U.S. This is an accessible and approachable  funder that accepts applications for a single annual grantmaking cycle. Also of interest is its Leslie Preston Healing Justice Award, which goes annually to “an organization focused on healing justice or focused care for individual organizers and their communities.” This funder is also a GUTC signatory. 

PROFILE: The Arch Community Fund was established by siblings Alan, Leslie and Dean Preston in 2017 and pursues a mission “to strengthen grassroots movements to resist oppression and build towards a more equitable future.” Adhering to core principles of resistance, community leadership, anti-capitalist solutions and intersectionality, the foundation makes grants to grassroots organizations and makes high impact investments in enterprises “that shift control of and access to resources over those that maximize return and accumulation of foundation assets.” This funder is a GUTC signatory. 

The Arch Community Foundation does not articulate specific grantmaking areas of interest, but broadly supports:

• Transformative Organizing for systemic change.
• It also makes Discretionary Grants to organizations that “amplify the work of grassroots community organizations.”
• In memory of one of its founders, it awards an annual Leslie Preston Healing Justice Grant.

Grants for LGBTQ and Social Justice 

The Arch Community Fund makes grants through three separate programs. All giving occurs through an intersectional lens, which means that this funder’s grantmaking intersects with grants for immigrant rights, racial equity, youth, violence prevention, civic engagement and democracy.

• The fund’’s Transformative Organizing grantmaking is its largest giving stream and works broadly to support grassroots groups working for “systemic change” toward social justice. While the fund does not name more specific thematic targets for its giving, tax filings show that grants have supported organizations working in overlapping areas of community, youth development, civic engagement and the rights of all marginalized people.
  • The Transformative Organizing program typically makes between ten and 15 grants a year, with grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000, and a handful or its grant representing multi-year commitments. 
  • This program accepts applications for a single annual grantmaking cycle via its JustFund application portal. Past due dates have fallen at the end of February, but keep up with the latest guidelines on the application page. 
  • Grantees include Oakland’s Anti-Police Terror Project, People Matter of Chicago, the New York Transgender Advocacy Group and Nativewomanshare of Grants Pass, Oregon.
• Discretionary Grants are awarded annually to “organizations that do not meet our eligibility criteria per se, but that amplify the work of grassroots community organizations.”
  • The fund does not appear to accept applications for these grants. 
  • Past grantees include Brooklyn’s Right to the City, a housing advocacy organization, and Dissenters, a national organization that advocates for military divestment for the purpose of reinvestment in “in life-giving institutions, and repair collaborative relationships with the earth and people around the world.” 
• The Leslie Preston Healing Justice Award is given annually in the amount of $25,000  to “an organization focused on healing justice or focused care for individual organizers and their communities.”
  • It honors the memory of co-founder Leslie Preston, a social worker who “champion[ed] the mental health needs of low-income immigrant communities at La Clinica de la Raza in Oakland, CA.” 
  • Past awardees include Georgia’s Acorn Center for Restoration and Freedom and the California-based Justice Teams Network, which focuses on “eradicating all forms of State violence & criminal acts against prisoners.” 

Important Grant Details: 

The Arch Fund’s Transformative Organizing grants range from $15,000 to $25,000 and the Leslie Preston Healing Justice Award is awarded annually in the amount of $25,000. 

• This funder’s Transformative Organizing grant program is its largest and targets grassroots groups working across a range of overlapping social justice concerns. 
• The fund makes between ten and 15 grants a year for general operating support. 
• Some of this funder’s grants provide  multi-year support. 
• The fund accepts applications annually via its JustFund application portal, and provides detailed guidelines on its  application page. 
• Coalitions and other types of organizations that support the work of grassroots group are eligible for the fund’s discretionary grants. 
• Information about past grantees is available on each of the foundation’s three program pages. 

Submit questions to the Arch Community Fund via email at  info@archcommunityfund.org.

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