We are thrilled to announce the first round of grantmaking for the newly launched Just Futures Initiative at Borealis Philanthropy.

This opportunity builds on Borealis’ longstanding investments in community safety and justice to resource frontline power-building organizations, emergent formations, and coalitions advancing community safety, democracy protection, and belonging in communities most impacted by criminalization. Our investments will support strategies that transform the systems that entrap people through rising criminalization and exclusion.

The Just Futures Initiative is currently accepting applications on a rolling basis while funding remains available. Interested organizations should first complete the Just Futures Eligibility Quiz here. Organizations that meet the eligibility requirements will receive access to the Letter of Interest form, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal.

About Borealis Philanthropy

Borealis Philanthropy is a movement-rooted philanthropic intermediary dedicated to building a truly inclusive, multiracial democracy where everyone belongs and lives with dignity, safety, and full humanity. We focus on a range of social justice issues, including community safety and justice, and invest in leaders, organizations, and movements using diverse and innovative strategies to pursue transformational change.

About the Just Futures Initiative

The Just Futures Initiative builds on Borealis’ long-standing investment in community safety, decarceration, protest defense, and community-rooted alternatives to punishment. Housed within the Community Safety & Justice pillar, this initiative supports organizations building the conditions for safety without state violence, freedom from criminalization, protection of civil and human rights, and deeper civic belonging. We believe the communities closest to harm are the architects of our most promising solutions—and this opportunity is designed to move resources in alignment with that truth.

About the Opportunity

Across the country, rising criminalization, attacks on protest and civil rights, and deep instability continue to threaten the conditions that make safety, belonging, and democracy possible. Yet communities most impacted by these systems are already building the alternatives that hold: community-defined safety strategies, protest defense infrastructure, rapid response formations, and the local ecosystems that make democracy protection materially possible.

Read the full article about the Just Futures Initiative at Borealis Philanthropy.