What kinds of things qualify for a microgrant?

• Human rights organizing: any youth-led organizing work taking place in Idaho for to advance justice, protect the dignity for all persons, and bring about collective liberation. This includes work related to economic, environmental, racial, immigration, indigenous, and gender issues and more. The work must be focused on improving the material conditions of human lives. For example, if you are organizing to save wild salmon, your grant application should talk about why protecting salmon is important to human rights. The work must also be focused on collective action, not just individual transformation.  That means grant funds should support advocating for change within an institution (government, corporations, culture, religion, etc.), not changes in individual behavior. For example, if you are organizing to stop climate change, your event or campaign should be focused on pushing for societal climate action, rather than reducing attendees' personal "carbon footprint."

• Queer community building: any youth-focused initiative to help queer people feel safe, welcome, and loved in their communities or in a new community you are creating. This includes queer youth meet-ups (e.g. outdoor activities, storytelling circles, movie nights), school events like queer proms, pride parades, support groups, and any activities conducted by school gay-straight alliances and church youth groups. The event must be open to all people of a certain queer identity. That means events open to anyone and events open exclusively to trans women or Black gay men, for example, are okay, but we can't fund private friend hangouts or events that aren't made available to a public audience.

Ultimately, the decision to approve an application is made by our Board of Directors. Because we have limited funds some proposals that qualify still might not receive funding. Projects that have the greatest impact will be prioritized. If you're not sure if your event, initiative, or campaign qualifies for a grant, please shoot us a text or email or just fill out the application anyways and we'll contact you if we have any questions.