April 5, 2024 – For the Disability Inclusion Fund at Borealis, part of our efforts for disability rights and justice includes the ways disability and technology are working towards shared goals in our movements.  The DIF x Tech initiative, supported by the Ford Foundation’s Technology & Society Program and the MacArthur Foundation’s Technology in the Public Interest, invites proposals that are working to bring about transformational change at the intersections of disability, justice, and technology.

About Borealis Philanthropy

Borealis Philanthropy is a philanthropic social justice intermediary that works to resource grassroots leaders and social justice movements for transformative change. We help funders expand their reach and strengthen their impact through donor collaboratives that support a variety of issues, communities, and movements. Borealis is home to nine donor collaboratives, including the Disability Inclusion Fund and Disability x Tech.

About the Disability Inclusion Fund and DIF x Tech

The Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) supports U.S.-based groups run by and for people with disabilities to lead transformational change. The Fund is supported by donors including the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy, which is comprised of foundation presidents who are committed to disability inclusion as part of improving diversity, equity, and inclusion within philanthropy. 

Part of the efforts of disability rights and justice includes the ways disability and technology are working towards shared goals in our movements. This newly launched initiative is housed at the Disability Inclusion Fund (DIF) and supported by Ford Foundation’s Technology & Society Program and the MacArthur Foundation’s Technology in the Public Interest. 

DIF x Tech Fund Values and Process

The DIF x Tech Fund’s RFP has been co-developed by a diverse advisory committee of disabled people. The members of this committee included a range of expertise and backgrounds at the intersection of technology, disability rights and justice, and for 2024, includes some grantees from the previous DIFxTech round of funding in 2022.

This advisory committee is guided by the Fund’s team throughout the RFP and grantmaking process.

All grantees will be selected by members of the DIFxTech team, with support and recommendations from the 2024 advisory and review committee.

All Disability x Tech award decisions will align with the DIF guiding values. The DIF guiding values are:

• Participation: Movement funding accountable to the disability rights movement. Those impacted by injustice/exclusion should be involved in strategies to advance justice/inclusion. 
• Intersectionality: Acknowledging that disabled people have multiple and intersecting social and political identities that can influence their ability to have access and inclusion including race, gender identity, class, sexual orientation.
• Radical inclusion: Deeply committed to removing barriers and ensuring access so that those most affected by intersecting identities can participate, valuing lived experience.
• Leadership of those most impacted by ableism: Emphasis is given to organizations led by people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation, particularly disabled people of color, queer, gender nonconforming and women with disabilities.
• Cross-movement solidarity: Intentional focus on collaboration and bridge- building amongst disability justice activists and across movements.

What we fund

DIF x Tech invites proposals that are at the nexus of technology, disability rights and justice. We believe that in order for a world where true technology and disability justice are realized, we must support disabled leaders, and disability-led organizations, working to ensure technology can be used by everyone in order to fully participate in our society. We also believe that such a world would be a place where technology is free from perpetuating ableist biases, algorithmic discrimination, and other forms of disparate treatment towards disabled people that contribute to further marginalization. 

Disability justice principles and the DIF’s guiding values inform this RFP’s following areas of focus:

To transform and identify the ways technology can/should be used to uphold disability rights and justice at the intersection of tech and civil rights. These initiatives may include:

• Policy advocacy initiatives to mitigate algorithmic bias in cross-movement areas such as abolition, climate justice, and the caregiving infrastructure, for example, through anti-discrimination statues;
• Strategies that center and are led by disability rights and justice principles, including recognizing wholeness, self-determination, autonomy, and collective access to improve data ownership and privacy protection;
• Programs that work to expand the consideration of disability rights laws in new tech policy development;
• Supporting the partnership and collaboration across disability justice, rights, and broader civil rights movement leaders to establish issue-area coalitions at the intersection of justice and tech – for example school-to-prison pipeline and reproductive health access;
• Opportunities to generate a deeper solidarity and relationship-building across disability justice and tech that moves beyond accessibility, compliance, and architectural barriers;
• Bridging a commitment between technology and disability justice groups to facilitate knowledge sharing, identifying content/technical gaps, and trust-building towards a more disability justice informed tech industry.

To democratize tech development, provide collective and equitable access to digital infrastructure, and mobilize cross disability solidarity in the tech sector.  This fund aims to support these efforts in ways that may include:  

• Innovative strategies, toolchains, and infrastructure that improve and promote open source, anti-ableist design and tech development, such as accessible dev tools and workflows;
• Programs that support technologists in ways of centering disability justice in the development of software in partnership with grassroots disabled leaders and disability justice activists;
• Programs that support technologists in ways of centering disability justice in the development of software in partnership with grassroots disabled leaders and disability justice activists;
• Efforts to broaden and implement cross-disability access tools, for example to housing and distributing multi-format accessible, plain language materials/instructions;
• Efforts to improve access to the tools and infrastructure that disabled communities need to bridge the digital divide;
• Programs to facilitate knowledge sharing in order to generate the development of curricula and lift up other ways to reframe tech in both traditional disability rights spaces and tech;

To expand the participation, leadership, and thought partnership of overlooked and under-resourced people with disabilities in all areas of the technology sector. These areas of work may involve:

• Efforts to build inroads and pathways between disability communities and emerging  tech;
• Strategies to remove barriers to participation for disabled people as developers, engineers, and technologists, particularly in the civil society and disability justice sectors;
• Programs to reframe tech education in disability-centered spaces and organizations;
• Deliberately convening conversations that foster relationship-building where marginalized disabled peoples’ experiences as technologists are amplified and elevated, such as workshops, conferences, maker and hackerspaces, and hackathons;
• Programs to expand education for a broad tech sector audience, on disability justice and anti-ableist approaches at the intersection of tech and disability;
• Broadening the representation of people with disabilities in tech through peer mentorships, professional networks, and other community engagement campaigns;
• Building and deepening the pipeline of professionals with experiences in both disability rights, justice, and tech expertise.

Types of support we cannot provide:

• Organizations that are non U.S-based or non U.S. Territories
• Hardware and software product development
• Hospitals, medical research, direct services, individual / personal support
• For profit / LLCs

Levels of Support

DIF x Tech will provide two-year grants to organizations working at the intersection of disability justice and technology. The grants will range in size from a total of $50,000 (or $25,000/year) – $100,000 (or $50,000/year). 

Grantmaking Process

The deadline for proposals is May 29th, 2024, by 8:59 pm PT or 11:59 pm ET.

Contact

• If you have questions, need technical assistance, or have technology issues in submitting your application, please email grants@borealisphilanthropy.org
• If you have questions about what we fund or eligibility for grants, please email DIFxTech@borealisphilanthropy.org

Frequently Asked Questions

We have put together answers to frequently asked questions, which include the list of proposal questions. Read the FAQs.

Application Access

The DIF is committed to making all application materials available in multiple forms to be accessible to all. You may access the application by signing into our Salesforce portal: DIF x Tech application portal.

Other accessible application formats include: an online Jot Form, a plain language version of this RFP and application questions, Microsoft word document, large print, video interview, or phone interview. To obtain and complete an application in alternative formats, please email us at difxtech@borealisphilanthropy.org.

What questions will be on the application?

Narrative questions for organization applications

About the project

• Please briefly describe your project (150 words or less)
• What is the problem you are trying to solve? (150 words or less)
• Please share more about how your work is addressing disability justice, tech, and inclusion from an intersectional social justice lens. 

About the organization

• Describe how your organization is disability-led 
• In what ways does your organization currently address disability justice and technology?
• How will you use this grant’s funds to build out your organization’s infrastructure and operating capacity?

About the project’s impact

• How does your project include or collaborate with those who are most marginalized or impacted?
• Who will the project benefit? 
• What are key program plans and activities for this next year? And how do you measure the impact and success of that work?
• Is there anything else you would like us to know?

Organizational Information

• What is the mission statement of the organization you are working with? 
• What is its Organizational Status – for example, a 501c3, or is it fiscally sponsored by a different non-profit organization? 
• List Staff and Board Demographics for the organization.

Financial Information

• Grant amount requested
  • Organizations can request from $50,000 – $100,000 a year
• Organizational budget
  • Please supply your organization’s current or previous fiscal year budget
• What are your organization’s other funders?

Applications will be reviewed by the following criteria:

Eligibility Criteria:

Is a U.S. citizen (verified by the employer)

Is 18 years or older

Activities: Does this applicant’s project fall within the 3 areas within the scope:

1.) To transform and identify the ways technology can/should be used to uphold disability rights and justice at the intersection of tech and civil rights

2.) To democratize tech development, provide collective and equitable access to digital infrastructure, and mobilize cross disability solidarity in the tech sector.

3.) To expand the participation, leadership, and thought partnership of overlooked and under-resourced people with disabilities in all areas of the technology sector.

Discussion Questions:

Excitement and joy: What stood out to you about the application? What about this application made you excited?

Removing access barriers/building and supporting the pipeline: In what ways does this project remove barriers to the field for underrepresented people?

Building the bridges: Does this project offer opportunities for cross-sector relationship building in ways that are new, innovative, and do not currently exist?

Expanding movement capacity: In what ways is this application’s work contributing towards movement/sector innovation, new strategies or issue areas? Is it replicating or building upon an existing model?

Expanding capacity of disability justice: How does this application/project deepen, strengthen, or sustain disability justice practices?

Expanding capacity of tech: How does this application/project bring disability justice to technologists?