Aepoch Fund
See below for short descriptions of our various funding streams and examples of grants we have made in the last few years. Most of our regular grants have supported small, community-based organizations and have ranged in size from $10,000 to $40,000. We have also made a few larger grants ($50,000+) by pooling funds from several donors.
Please note that currently, all grantmaking is done by invitation only. We do not accept unsolicited proposals.
- Community Healing Fund
- partners in meaningful ways with communities that embrace healing, growth, and transformation in the face of sustained trauma. We make grants to 1) strengthen existing healing and cultural practices that address the impact of trauma on individuals and communities, 2) support the experimentation, innovation, and emergence of new practices, 3) foster new models of community organizing and movement building that embrace healing, sustainability, and systemic change, and 4) honor and sustain healers, artists, and activists who are engaged in community healing work, 5) document and disseminate new learning, innovative practices, and emerging models that address community healing and transformation.
- Examples of Grants - Community Healing Fund
- Creative Solutions Fund
- provides grants to organizations and movements that are catalyzing viable alternatives to current systems of inequality, violence and environmental degradation. We emphasize support for cross-issue, cross-sector strategies and organizations led by young people, people of color, people with disabilities and others who have less access to mainstream sources of funding.
- Examples of Grants - Creative Solutions Fund
- Arts Fund
- provides grants to creative projects and organizations that engage in achievable strategies to generate personal, social and political awareness and change. The Fund supports activities that blur the boundaries between artistic activity and social change and grants are made primarily to people and projects that have difficulties in being funded or "valued" in a traditional sense, including underrepresented individuals, and projects with little or no funding history.
- Examples of Grants - Arts Fund
- Aepoch Coaching Fund
- Coaching is a powerful leadership development tool that has mostly been available to affluent individuals and business leaders, and--more recently--mainstream non-profit organizations. The primary purpose of the Aepoch Coaching Fund is to make high-quality, low-cost coaching available to people who are doing work aligned with Aepoch's mission and interests. Aepoch covers up to 80% of the costs for one-on-one leadership coaching from selected coaches for up to 20 sessions per client. Most coaching awards range from $1,500 to $2,500. Each organization is asked to contribute to the coaching cost based on their budget size. From 2007 (when we launched the first pilot program) to 2010, the Aepoch Coaching Fund has supported 35 community leaders with one-on-one coaching awards, and 5 organizational leadership teams with team coaching awards.
- See more details about the Aepoch Coaching Fund.
- See Aepoch's roster of coaches.
- Flow Funds
- Aepoch Fund distributes a portion of its grants through Flow Funds, in which community advisors make recommendations for small grants from a fund designated for a specific purpose. Each Flow Fund process draws on the wisdom and collective life experiences of its advisors in selecting the fund recipients. The funds are distributed in a simple way - planting seeds that may have a ripple effect far beyond the initial gifts. Most Flow Fund grants range between $500 and $2,500.
- See a list of Flow Funds
- U.S. Social Forum Fund
- The second United States Social Forum (USSF) takes place June 22-26th, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan. The USSF is a space where activists from around the country come together to create grassroots solutions to the economic, political, and environmental challenges of our time. In support of this critical and historic process, Aepoch set aside a $20,000 USSF Fund to increase accessibility to the event. We have granted 7 small travel stipends to our grantee organizations and communities who would otherwise not be able to attend, as well as supporting the development of workshop tracks offered by our grantees. In addition, Aepoch made a grant to the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network in support of their community gardens project.
The following organizations received awards from the Aepoch USSF Fund: - Other Worlds Are Possible Giving Circle
- The Other Worlds Are Possible Giving Circle provides an opportunity for funders and activists to learn about “just alternatives” to dominant economic and social systems. The Giving Circle pools financial resources and distributes small grants to organizations that build “just alternatives” around the world. Formed as a learning community in 2008 with support from Aepoch, the Circle strives to contribute to the body of knowledge about alternatives, and how to fund them respectfully and effectively. Open to individual donors, staff and trustees of philanthropic institutions, the Giving Circle also invites participants from the grassroots movements that are developing these alternatives to become members. Fiscal sponsor: Grassroots International.
See a list of organizations (categorized by region and country) that received funding from the 2009 Other Worlds Are Possible Giving Circle.
