Hearing and Vision Grants

NOTE: Although we operate an invitation-only application process, we want to hear about ideas and work that fit within our programme strategies. Therefore, if an organisation believes that strong alignment exists with Oak Foundation’s funding priorities, we encourage the organisation to submit an unsolicited letter of enquiry. We will invite the organisation to apply for a grant if we also find alignment with our funding priorities and if there is available budget.

Environment Program: Climate Change Strategy

We envision a future free of pollution. To this end, we support organisations in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India and the United States.

In December 2015, world leaders signed the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. Their pledge is to keep global average temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius. It is an ambitious target and we will play a role alongside civil society groups, businesses and policy makers in finding ways to meet it.

Our grants between 2016 and 2020 are helping to guide economic, social and environmental development policies towards clean energy and an equitable future

Our Four Key Areas

Clean and efficient energy systems

We believe that clean and efficient energy systems will help reduce pollution, improve health and lift millions out of poverty.

To achieve the vision of a low-carbon future, financial and political support must end for the most heavily polluting projects, including tar sands expansion, new and existing coal power plants and deep-sea oil drilling.

Sustainable cities

We believe in building cleaner, safer and healthier cities. Sustainable cities have people-friendly urban planning and promote the use of low-carbon public transport to reduce car use and slash CO2 emissions.

To this end, we support organisations that champion better public health and quality of life through: better-funded transport systems; the promotion of cycling and walking; and the active involvement of women, young people and the elderly in public transit design. This will help make city living more attractive and accessible for everyone.

Fuel efficiency and electric vehicles

We believe that laws which regulate vehicle efficiency, encourage the use of electric vehicles and implement driverless cars will help create a cleaner, low-carbon world.

To this end we support organisations that: protect progressive vehicle efficiency standards; promote the benefits of fossil-free transport; and shape policies that make roads safer and cities healthier.

An enabling environment

We believe that creating jobs and economic benefits that encourage cleaner, smarter ways of powering homes and economies will:

• enable groups to mobilise public pressure for action;
• raise awareness of opportunities for climate action; and
• work with institutions that invest in clean energy solutions.

Our Grant-Making

For programme officers to make the best possible recommendation for funding, they strive to gain the most comprehensive view of the organisation, its board members, the project and finances. Therefore, we have a rigorous due diligence and selection process, which includes extensive discussions, financial reviews and site visits.

Funding decisions are made by the Board of Trustees, either individually or as a group. While the Board of Trustees meets twice annually, grants are considered on a rolling basis throughout the calendar year.

This process does not have a set time frame. It can take from two months to more than a year from the submission of a concept note to final approval, as indicated in the chart on this page. The formal application process begins only when an organisation is invited to submit an application.

Timing depends on a number of factors, but we work to ensure the most efficient process possible. After the initial approval of a concept note, organisations are encouraged to reach out to programme officers to learn about the grant-making process and the stages of the application.

The lines of communication between the programme officer and the organisations are always open once the organisation has been invited to apply – it is a collaborative effort.

Our principles

In all of our work, we are committed to social justice. To this end, we pursue rights-based approaches, gender equality and partnership with the organisations we fund. We seek to support innovation, visionary leaders and organisations. We seek to be inclusive, flexible and to learn from different points of view. We believe that the best grant-making reflects both careful due diligence and the willingness to take risks.

We encourage our partners to work together – we believe that together we are stronger. As a whole we fund initiatives that:

• target the root causes of problems;
• are replicable either within a sector or across geographical locations;
• include plans for long-term sustainability, such as co-funding;
• strive to collaborate with like-minded organisations;
• demonstrate good financial and organisational management; and
• value the participation of people (including children) and communities.

NOTE: The Overbrook Foundation does not accept unsolicited requests for support from organizations not currently funded by the Foundation. However, we remain committed to our primary fields of interest and are eager to hear news from organizations working in those areas of human and rights and the environment presently of priority to the Foundation.

Mission

The Overbrook Foundation is a progressive family foundation that supports organizations advancing human rights and conserving the natural environment.

Values

Honoring the vision and dedication of its founders, Helen and Frank Altschul, The Overbrook Foundation:

• Honors its role as a steward of both the public trust and the Foundation's mission
• Advances programs ethically, responsibly and respectfully
• Is transparent and open
• Engages in its work in a deliberate and thoughtful way
• Takes measured risks
• Employs diverse approaches to seize opportunities and respond to challenges
• Supports social justice and environmental sustainability
• Promotes advocacy, accountability and reform of institutions and government

Focus Areas

Environment

The Environment Program provides support to environmental organizations in the United States and in Latin America. In Latin America, the Program funds initiatives that advance biodiversity conservation and sustainable community development, with a specific focus on the Mesoamerican region. The Foundation’s Environment Program also seeks out initiatives, primarily in the United States, that tackle some of today’s biggest environmental challenges, including corporate and consumer practices, climate change, and waste. The Program’s Movement Building portfolio aims to understand and support movements – rather than specific organizations or issues – to make them stronger, more resilient, and more impactful.

The Foundation’s Environment Program will consider supporting organizations working on the following issues:

Latin American Biodiversity Conservation

The Overbrook Foundation recognizes the value of protecting endangered biodiversity and the vital environmental and social benefits it provides. The Biodiversity Conservation program area supports programs in Latin America, with a specific focus on Mesoamerica, where globally important species and ecosystems face a wide range of threats. The Foundation seeks out projects that create practical solutions to these threats, particularly those that promote sustainable livelihoods and engage local communities in conservation efforts.

Corporate and Consumer Practices

The Foundation’s Corporate and Consumer Practices program area supports organizations that build towards a sustainable future, particularly by shifting corporate and consumer environmental practices. Funded projects range from direct engagement with corporations, to activism against destructive industries, to public education and media that amplifies efforts to improve consumer behavior surrounding energy and consumption. These initiatives work towards a sustainable economy that relies less on destructive, extractive practices and more on renewable, circular production and consumption models. In seeking projects making an impact in these areas, the Foundation prioritizes organizations that are grassroots-led, that hold the potential to serve as industry or community “tipping points,” and that apply a climate change analysis to their work.

Innovative Solutions 

Advances in technology, the growth of social media, and increased global awareness and investment are providing new and exciting environmental tools. The Foundation began a small program area that invests in organizations that are creating, developing, and implementing new and innovative approaches to sustainability and conservation.

Movement Building

The Movement Building program area was created in 2014 in an effort to understand and support movements – rather than specific organizations or issues – to make them stronger, more resilient, and more impactful. This area supports organizations that build networks and alliances, recognize the interdependence of their work with that of other organizations, and seek to advance the mission of the broader progressive movement, beyond individual issue areas. While formally a part of the Foundation’s Environment Program, the Movement Building portfolio ties together the Environment and Human Rights Programs, emphasizing organizations that work in the intersections of both movements.

Human Rights

The Overbrook Foundation has supported civil and human rights since its earliest years. Carrying this legacy forward, Overbrook currently provides funding to human rights organizations in the United States and Latin America.

For Overbrook, human rights organizations are those that see human rights as universal, inalienable, indivisible and interdependent. They lead with the people and communities impacted by the issues they are working on. They are values driven, have an all of us or none of us perspective in their analysis and messaging, and they work across sectors and identities, recognizing the range of their constituents’ needs and rights. Overbrook’s human rights grantmaking is currently focused on three programmatic initiatives and one initiative remains in development.

Internationally, the Foundation funds organizations that support human rights defenders at risk in Mesoamerica. As a part of this focus, Overbrook supports groups providing legal assistance, training, emergency grants, advocacy, accompaniment, networks and/or psychosocial support to human rights defenders at risk given the grave threats many activists face for engaging in their important human rights work.

Domestically, the Foundation currently awards grants in two areas. First, it supports organizations challenging the undue influence of moneyed interests in the U.S. political system. These organizations are working to make our government and policy makers more accountable to the people by reforming the role of money in our political system. The Foundation’s gender rights program currently supports organizations working across reproductive justice and LGBT rights issues. This includes a focus on funding organizations advancing the reproductive justice movement and those challenging overly broad religious exemptions being used to undermine LGBT rights, racial justice and reproductive justice.   

Finally, the Foundation is exploring a newer area of grantmaking using a human rights approach to challenge mass incarceration and criminalization, building on Overbrook’s long term support for organizations advancing a U.S. human rights movement. This initiative remains in development.

As described above, the Foundation’s Human Rights grantmaking can be divided into the following initiatives:

• Domestic Human Rights
• Gender Rights
• Human Rights Defenders
• Money in Politics

The Lawrence Foundation is a private family foundation focused on making grants to support environmental, human services and other causes.

The Lawrence Foundation was established in mid-2000. We make both program and operating grants and do not have any geographical restrictions on our grants. Nonprofit organizations that qualify for public charity status under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code or other similar organizations are eligible for grants from The Lawrence Foundation.  

Grant Amount and Types

Grants typically range between $5,000 - $10,000. In some limited cases we may make larger grants, but that is typically after we have gotten to know your organization over a period of time. We also generally don’t make multi-year grants, although we may fund the same organization on a year by year basis over a period of years.

General operating or program/project grant requests within our areas of interests are accepted.

Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation Grant

The Foundation will consider requests to support museums, cultural and performing arts programs; schools and hospitals; educational, skills-training and other programs for youth, seniors, and persons with disabilities; environmental and wildlife protection activities; and other community-based organizations and programs.

What We Fund

We’re looking for the people with the ideas that are going to change education and open doors for all children. The call has never been more urgent to innovate — to bring new approaches and new organizations that will give every child a great chance in life. Each and every child has a fundamental right to an excellent education — one that leaves her ready to create a fulfilling life, make positive change, and help build an equitable future for everyone. Yet, too many children — especially in Black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods — don’t have access to the learning opportunities they need. If you have a plan to change that, we want to support you.

We believe the genius to create an excellent and equitable education system already exists in our nation, in our communities, and that new ideas must have the support they need to grow. That’s why NewSchools offers not just funding, but partnership and support, to innovators who seek to build strong schools and organizations dedicated to a more just future in education.

EDge Fund

We will invest more than $5 million through our EDge Fund, which is how we deploy resources to meet pressing needs in the sector in responsive ways. Through this fund, we will invest in solutions that extend beyond any single investment area, with a focus on innovations that empower students with learning differences, specifically those who are also facing the impacts of poverty and racism, as well as innovations emerging in response to the pandemic. We are interested in hearing your best ideas for how schools can recover and rebuild from the pandemic and chart new paths for students to realize their full potential.

Ventures will receive a one-year, unrestricted grant ranging from $150,000 to $250,000, depending on the stage of the idea. If you are still developing your strategy or are in the process of piloting your idea, you are likely to receive a grant on the lower end of our range. If you already have a clear strategy and a successful pilot under your belt, you will probably land toward the top of our range

What We Fund

We’re looking for the people with the ideas that are going to change education and open doors for all children. The call has never been more urgent to innovate — to bring new approaches and new organizations that will give every child a great chance in life. Each and every child has a fundamental right to an excellent education — one that leaves her ready to create a fulfilling life, make positive change, and help build an equitable future for everyone. Yet, too many children — especially in Black, Latino and low-income neighborhoods — don’t have access to the learning opportunities they need. If you have a plan to change that, we want to support you.

We believe the genius to create an excellent and equitable education system already exists in our nation, in our communities, and that new ideas must have the support they need to grow. That’s why NewSchools offers not just funding, but partnership and support, to innovators who seek to build strong schools and organizations dedicated to a more just future in education.

Diverse Leaders Grant Program

Diverse leadership matters. Research shows that increasing leadership diversity improves student outcomes, spurs innovation, and strengthens organizations. Yet, in a country where the majority of public school students are children of color, diversity in the field — among teachers, leaders and parent advocates — lags far behind. We’re enthusiastically committed to supporting efforts that will change that. If you’re building an organization that’s working to bring diversity to education, we can’t wait to hear from you.

In 2015, NewSchools created a fund to help close the racial leadership gap in education. We’ve invested $24.3 million in more than 85 organizations so far, working not just as funders, but as partners committed to helping leaders build powerful, sustainable organizations. Together, these ventures have supported 26,000 leaders, 71 percent of whom are Black or Latino, who collectively serve 27 million students. And the impact goes beyond the numbers, as we watch Black and Latino innovators step into their own power, realize their dreams and bring new solutions to improve education for all students.

There’s much further to go. We know we’ve only scratched the surface of the genius that exists within communities of color around this country, and we’re committed to accelerating the progress. We’ll continue to seek out organizations that recruit and support the growth of Black and Latino teachers, leaders and advocates. We’ll also continue to support ventures that serve as capacity-builders, helping education organizations adopt inclusive, equitable practices that advance the ultimate goal of improving the life outcomes of children.

We’re also changing the ways we work in order to support a group too often left out of the leadership picture: parents. Parents have not always been seen as education leaders — though few people are closer to the educational inequity in our system or have a clearer view of the change required in their schools and communities. That’s why we’re supporting efforts to empower Black and Latino parents to advocate for changes that benefit their children, and shift the culture and practices of education systems to be more equitable and inclusive.

We help organizations move from start-up to sustainability and scale. We know Black and Latino innovators don’t always get the thoughtful hearing they deserve from funders, and we’re determined to be different. Our funding provides the support early-stage entrepreneurs need to work on their idea full-time or hire staff, begin piloting and operating programs, refine their idea, and collaborate with key partners in the field. And every year, we’re increasing the financial support we provide to our ventures. We provide seed funding for new organizations as well as funding for new initiatives within established organizations, along with customized management assistance and a community of practice.