Category Archives: Immigration and Refugees

Barbara McDowell Foundation

The Barbara McDowell Foundation provides grant funding for legal fees related to specific social justice cases in the United States.

Letters of Intent will be accepted June 1-15, 2024 for a grant term of October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025. LOIs submitted before June 1st will be rejected.

Eligibility

This grant is open to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations to pay legal fees for social justice cases filed between October 1, 2022 and December 31, 2024.

Criminal cases, individual claims, and amicus briefs are not eligible.

Key Issues

The McDowell Foundation is focused on cases related to:

  • Access to benefits
  • Children’s rights
  • Disability rights
  • Discrimination
  • Domestic violence
  • Due process
  • Environmental justice
  • Healthcare
  • Homelessness
  • Housing
  • Native American rights
  • Prisoner’s rights
  • Refugee and immigration rights
  • Veteran’s rights
  • Voting rights

Ideal cases will:

  • Address one of these areas of interest
  • Have a significant impact on the well being and civil liberties of disadvantaged Americans
  • Set a significant legal precedent

Scoring Criteria

All LOIs will be scored based on:

  • Alignment with mission
  • Social justice impact
  • Financial need

Elevating Migrant Leadership: Building Inclusive Futures

The WES Mariam Assefa Fund is championing the rights of immigrants and refugees in the United States and Canada. Throught the Elevating Migrant Leadership: Building Inclusive Futures program, they are supporting projects that help give a voice to the voiceless.

Seven grantees will receive $100,000 over 2 years as well as access to capacity building and peer learning. Letters of Intent are due by March 25, 2024. Select applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal, due in June 2024.

Eligibility

This grant is open to 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations or organizations with a fiscal sponsor who:

  • Operate in the United States
  • Have a mission focused on assisting immigrants and refugees
  • Directly serve immigrants, refugees, or migrants who identify as Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander, Black/African/African American, Latino/Latin American, Middle Eastern, and/or Indigenous
  • Have an operating budget of $3 million or less

Focus Areas

Submitted projects must focus on two of the following areas:

  • Narrative building – utilizing the voices and perspectives of immigrants, refugees, and migrants to change the prevailing narrative
  • Experiental learning – increasing the leadership capacity of immigrants, refugees, and migrants through applied learning experiences
  • Mentorship – forging relationships with mentors to provide guidance and introductions to networks

Evaluation Criteria

  • Goal and Program Alignment – does the project include two of the three focus areas and further the overall program goals?
  • Network Development for Leadership – are opportunities provided for community members to build relationships and learn from one another?
  • Representative Leadership – are members of the community and their lived experiences represented among organizational leadership?
  • Community-Informed and Democratic Approach – is feedback from the community welcome and used to shape the work?
  • Learning & Impact – does the organization adapt to changing community needs?