OVERVIEW: The Third Wave Fund makes grants for women and girls, LGBTQ causes, movement building, disability causes, justice reform, 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 is a progressive funder known for supporting marginalized populations and practicing forms of inclusive and participatory grantmaking. Third Wave is committed to providing integral support to small community-led, BIPOC-led, and/or youth-led organizations working for gender justice. As further delineated below, Third Wave maintains six separate grantmaking funds for justice reform, people with disabilities, capacity building for emerging organizations, capacity building for community-based organizations, rapid response funding for gender justice organizations, and a sex workers giving circle. In a recent interview with Inside Philanthropy, Third Wave co-director Morgan (Mo) Willis said that Third Wave is “an intermediary in a position to take risks and support folks who are so marginalized and kept at the gates of philanthropy. We’re in relationship with folks who know Third Wave will give to folks who they [philanthropy] would have a hard time justifying giving to… organizing by disabled folks, sex workers, folks for whom English isn’t their first language, and youth.”
Third Wave is an accessible funder with cyclical open applications for some of its grant programs. Several of Third Wave’s grantmaking funds are by invitation only, but some are occasionally open to applicants. Interested grantseekers should reference Third Wave’s “programs” page for information about which funds are currently open. Prospective applicants can reach out to relevant staff members via email addresses available on the fund’s staff webpage. Third Wave is responsive and approachable, but grants are competitive.
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 pursues a mission of supporting “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).” The Fund conducts its grantmaking via six distinct funds: Mobilize Power Fund; Grow Power Fund; Own Our Power fund; the Sex Worker Giving Circle; the Accountable Futures Fund; and the Disability Frontlines Fund.
Grants for LGBTQ, Women and Girls, Indigenous Rights, BIPOC and Immigrants
The Third Wave Fund funds women and girls’ causes across all 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 support “emerging organizations with budgets under $200,000” with grants of up to $35,000. Application for this grant program is by invitation only.
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 one- or two-year capacity building terms. Application is by invitation only.
Sex Worker Giving Circle, a newer initiative, makes grants that address the oppressive and exploitative conditions under which sex workers live and work. The circle is led by “a group of Fellows with current or past experience with sex work or the sex trade” who “make all high-level funding decisions and grantmaking recommendations, and lead many of our fundraising activities.” Sex Worker Giving Circle grants are variable, but recent grantees received two-year grants of up to $35,000.
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 target “movements led by young BIPOC cis and trans women, and queer, trans, and gender non conforming people from” and are generally awarded in amounts up to $21,000. Application is by invitation only at this time.
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.” Application is by invitation only.
- 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, 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’s grants typically range from about $5,000 to $35,000.
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 grantees page 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 spring and posts specific dates and deadlines on its program page. Application for most other grant programs is by invitation only.
- 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:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
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