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SalaryApplications are now being accepted for the next Giving Project with Headwaters Foundation for Justice! This is a volunteer/fellowship type program. A small stipend for participation may be offered at the end of the program, but this isn't considered a paid experience.
We’re looking for 20 people to join our cohort that starts in September 2024. The Giving Project is open to anyone who is passionate about funding social change, prepared to commit time and financial resources to support the project, and ready for personal transformation and learning along the way. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) and LGBTQI-identified people are especially encouraged to apply. The priority application deadline for this cohort is June 16, 2024.
This transformational program builds a multiracial, multigenerational, cross-class cohort of community volunteers for shared learning, skill development, and immediate action. Participants commit to a 6-month learning process (Sept 2024 - Feb 2025) with 12 in-person trainings at the Headwaters office in Minneapolis. Through political education, community building, grassroots fundraising and donor organizing, 1:1 coaching, and collective grantmaking, Giving Project participants develop a shared understanding of race, class, gender, and power to become resource mobilizers in the social movement ecosystem. After each training session, participants are supported in putting their new skills into action.
In an effort to refine and strengthen the political analysis of the Giving Project in 2024, we have selected a theme of gender justice for this year. Gender justice is intersectional, expansive, and centers those most impacted by various, often compounding, forms of gender-based oppression. Headwaters notably refers to the wisdom and leadership of Third Wave Fund in defining gender justice as, “a movement to end patriarchy, transphobia, and homophobia, and to create a world free from misogyny.” By selecting this theme for the 2024-25 Giving Project, Headwaters is emphasizing our understanding of gender justice as a necessary component in all efforts towards collective liberation. You do not need to have knowledge about gender justice to participate in the program, though openness and curiosity are requested since you will be engaged in conversations about the topic.
The Giving Project is a 6-month commitment that totals approximately 120 hours (or about 20 hours per month). The basic Giving Project structure is:
- A cross-class, multiracial group of 20 individuals commits to the entire 6-month process.
- Through staff-led workshops and trainings, the group develops a shared understanding of race, class, gender, and power within society.
- We provide lots of hands-on support from Headwaters staff and program alumni for each piece of training in the Giving Project program.
- Participants also learn about and are supported through the Headwaters community-led grantmaking process. Together, the cohort reads and scores real grant proposals submitted to Headwaters, takes part in site visits with each potential grantee, and makes collective decisions on which organizations will receive grants.
- Each participant is expected to make a personally meaningful financial gift (an amount determined by the participant) that supports the group's collective donor organizing efforts. At the end of the program, all the money raised will be granted to Minnesota-based organizations that use community organizing as their means of building power and changing unjust systems.
For specific questions, reach out to Chris Olson, Giving Project Development Officer, at chris@headwatersfoundation.org.
