DC's Diverse City Fund

DC's Diverse City Fund will announce their second round of grants today. I make the point often that DC has a pretty weak array of civil society organizations.  This fund provides a way to support ground-up, civic, and grassroots efforts.  It's a community fund supported by individual contribution.  Other cities have similar projects, e.g., Pittsburgh's Sprout Fund funds innovative, creative small projects.

From the DCF website:

MISSION STATEMENT


The Diverse City Fund works to nurture community leaders and grassroots projects which are acting to transform DC into a more just, vibrant place to live. Through our grantmaking, we identify, support, and connect people in communities of color who are engaged in change work.


We support the development of community-level social change by funding projects that have less access to traditional funding sources.


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The DC Fund came about with a vision to support community projects and leaders working to bring about justice in Washington DC. We want to see a city as rich in its present diversity as in its history, grounded in respect for the work that has brought so many neighborhood institutions into being, and with a readiness to support a new generation of community leaders.


Our support will come in the form of small grants to projects powered largely by volunteer labor. Smaller, volunteer-driven community initiatives have few options for funding, but it is often these very projects that work to build institutions by and for communities with the least access to resources. Ultimately, we envision the DC Fund as a glimpse into the political and historical context for citywide social change, as well as a place to foster community among fund supporters and put a spotlight on less visible community-level projects.