Rapid Response Fund

About

At Headwaters Foundation for Justice (HFJ), we know that the nature of grassroots organizing means that our funding cycles do not always align with organizations’ real-time financial needs in moments of crisis or opportunity. As a result, HFJ budgets a yearly pool of funds for rapid response grantmaking.  

The Rapid Response Fund supports strategic organizing around new, rapidly emerging, or unexpected legislative or policy developments, events, and political moments. Examples could include, but are not limited to:  

• short-term strategic collaboration/coalition with other organizations 
• civic engagement project or public education 
• legal defense and security costs 
• cultural organizing/healing justice work in response to a community need in the face of an unexpected political event 
• restorative justice after an incident of harm within the community 
• unanticipated moments of internal organizational pivots, i.e., leadership transitions, unionization efforts, etc.  

About the Host

Since 1984, Headwaters Foundation for Justice has resourced movement organizations that are too often overlooked or excluded by mainstream philanthropy. Our grantmaking supports organizations and groups on the front lines of social change. We believe that the people who directly experience society’s injustices are the ones who know the path to collective liberation.