Over the past several years, police-involved deaths and other breaches of police accountability have made national headlines. When these incidents occur, organizers in local communities must quickly respond through tactics including messaging and communications, grassroots organizing, and legal advocacy.

Often, organizers need additional resources to pursue activities that present strategic opportunities for long-term movement-building, such as research and in-person convenings. A deep need also exists for healing and respite to address the trauma that is experienced by families and communities engaged in this work. To respond to these needs, the Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) is launching a rapid response fund to help bolster and sustain the national infrastructure of police accountability advocacy.

Criteria and Eligibility:

  • Grant amounts may not exceed $10K.
  • Priority is given to current Borealis grantees, but non-Borealis grantees may also apply.
  • Your organization must have its own 501c3 status or a fiscal sponsor with 501c3 status.
  • The funding request should support advocacy needs that are not easily funded through traditional grantmaking processes, including campaign research, planning and convenings.
  • The funding request should be short-term, urgent, or time-sensitive, and initiated in response to an acute police accountability issue, or be used to strategically advance campaign work that bolsters the community’s police accountability agenda in a local jurisdiction or state.
  • Organizations or projects may apply for a rapid response grant at any time and may only receive one rapid response grant per every 12-month period.

Examples of activities that might be funded include:

  • Community-lawyering efforts
  • Jail monitoring
  • Communications and messaging support
  • Grassroots organizing in response to an acute police accountability issue
  • Travel to participate in urgent actions
  • Hosting or travel support for strategy convenings
  • Planning processes to launch a police reform campaign in a jurisdiction
  • Research and data analysis to support campaign planning
  • Healing resources for families and communities impacted by police violence

Borealis’ Approach to Rapid Response:

  • Simple online grant application process – brief proposal and standard supporting materials, where applicable.
  • Make grants quickly – ten days or less from the day all proposal materials are received; electronic grant agreement signatures and direct deposit options to increase promptness of payment processing.
  • Applications accepted on a rolling basis until funds are exhausted.

To apply: 

Please contact Lana Lovely, CTPF Program Assistant, at llovely@borealisphilanthropy.org to receive an application to request funding.

The mission of the Communities Transforming Policing Fund (CTPF) is to support promising police reform advocacy in local jurisdictions in the United States. The Fund was created in consultation with police reform advocates engaged in efforts to ensure law enforcement practices do not disproportionality target communities of color, LGBTQ people, people who are homeless, people with mental illnesses, and other vulnerable community members. The CTPF is a collaborative effort of the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation. For more information, please visit the Fund’s page. For additional updates on other Borealis grantmaking initiatives, also be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.