IN THIS POST

Appetite For Change

Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit

Bellden Cafe

Bikes Not Bombs

Cara

Conservation Corps of Long Beach

Curbside Enterprises

Emma’s Torch

Global Neighborhood

Grow Good

Homeward Bound of Marin

Neighborhood Industries

New Moms

Northern Valley Industries, Inc.

Project Return

Re-use Hawai’i

SLA, Inc.

Urban University

Vested Solutions

We are thrilled to announce the launch of a pilot Participatory Grant Making (PGM) fund, in partnership with leaders from the employment social enterprises (ESEs) that we serve!

Participatory grantmaking is an approach to grantmaking that centers equity and inclusion by redistributing power toward the individuals affected by grantmaking decisions. This approach to grantmaking is all about trust: it puts funding decisions directly in the hands of the individuals closest to the challenges and opportunities faced day to day. 

The goal of this pilot program is to support sustainable growth for REDF Community ESEs, so that these organizations can grow their impact in their communities. To get there, this pilot aims to invest in leaders with lived experience (lived expertise), seed new and innovative ideas, and provide care for the people doing the work in these organizations.

For REDF, participatory grantmaking allows us to affirm our commitment to the value of lived expertise by empowering leaders in our community with the authority to make decisions about how funding is deployed, as they work to address core needs for the people they serve and employ.

How Did We Get Here?

A few years back, REDF began an ongoing process of understanding how we can become more trust-based funding partners to the ESEs that we serve. One of the opportunities this process surfaced was participatory grantmaking. In 2022 and 2023, REDF began carefully exploring what that could look like within our current programs and how it could best reflect the ESEs and leaders in our Community. 

In June 2024, REDF curated a group of 20 ESE leaders that represent the rich variety of organizations in our Community to design a pilot participatory grantmaking fund. This group of leaders, dubbed the PGM Design Team, or the Power 20, decided on terms for fund eligibility, funding priorities, and review criteria. They also collaborated with our PGM consulting partners (P3 Development Group and Kin Consultant Group), external participatory grantmaking experts, and REDF staff.

What is the PGM Pilot Fund?

Through the design process, the Power 20 decided on a north star for this participatory grantmaking pilot: supporting sustainable growth for ESEs to deepen impact in their communities. 

In pursuit of that goal, the Power 20 determined the pilot fund would allocate money for ESE support in three key ways:

1. $180,000 for Leadership Opportunities for People with Lived Experience: This fund will support ESEs that are intentionally working to shift or advance leadership structures within their organizations by elevating the perspectives of individuals with lived experience. 
2. $180,000 for Innovative Ideas: This fund seeks to provide flexible funding for new ideas that will help strengthen sustainable growth and deepen impact. 
3. $40,000 Care Benefit: A financial gift dedicated to care for the people doing the work within ESEs. 

In June, we invited ESEs in our Community (current or alum organizations of any REDF program, a pool of more than 300 organizations across the country) to apply for a grant through the PGM fund.

Over the next few months, the PGM Design Team will review all applications, and announce acceptance decisions by year’s end. We look forward to sharing more about this journey as we move through selection, funding and learning about the ultimate results of these grants.

Introducing the Power 20: The PGM Design Team Members

The Power 20 is composed of leaders from diverse ESE organizations from across the country who share a unified commitment to grow sustainable organizations with deep impact in our communities.

We are so grateful for their commitment, vulnerability, and service-oriented leadership. They have put in many hours of dedicated work and navigated healthy conflict with generosity and grace. Their commitment to the process and their peers, as well as their deep expertise about what it takes to run an ESE, were the foundation upon which they came up with a deeply thoughtful grant and application.

The PGM Design Team

• Latasha Powell, Appetite for Change (Minneapolis, MN)
• Chris Rutherford, Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit (Detroit, MI)
• Claire Sumadiwirya, Bellden Cafe (Bellevue, WA)
• Elijah Evans, Bikes Not Bombs (Boston, MA)
• Kathleen Caliento, Cara (Chicago, IL)
• David Sall, Conservation Corps of Long Beach (Long Beach, CA)
• Whitley O’Connor, Curbside Enterprises (Oklahoma City, OK)
• Sierra Murray, Emma’s Torch (Brooklyn, NY)
• Emily (Milly) Ramirez, Global Neighborhood (Spokane, WA)
• Meghan Garvey, GrowGood, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA)
• Andrea Rey, Homeward Bound of Marin (Novato, CA)
• Anthony Armour, Neighborhood Industries (Fresno, CA)
• Pamela Bozeman, New Moms (Chicago, IL)
• Nika Vaughan, New Moms (Chicago, IL)
• Sherri Waid, Northern Valley Industries (Wausau, WI)
• Larry Craig, Project Return, Inc. (Nashville, TN)
• Nathaniel Pak, Re-use Hawai’i (Honolulu, HI)
• Jessie Salazar, SLA (Los Angeles, CA)
• Tracey Williams, Urban Furniture and Boutique (Oakland, CA)
• Sadiyyah Wyllie-James, Vested Solutions (Palm Desert, CA)