The Black Fund Grants

About the 2023 grant opportunity

The Black Fund at the Austin Community Foundation exists to harness the power of Black-led organizations and uplift solutions to benefit the Black community in Central Texas. Driven by data and community voices, we strive for an equitable, just society that nurtures the growth, economic security, and wellness of Black people.

Each grant cycle, The Black Fund will invest in organizations and initiatives in the following strategy areas:

• Education: support successful educational outcomes for Black people.
• Health & Wellness: advance the mental, physical, and spiritual health and wellness of Black Central Texans.
• Power Building, Organizing, & Advocacy: support urgent, emergent, and ongoing efforts that harness the collective power of Black people as a means of challenging, redesigning, or uprooting systems to continually move us towards an equitable society.
• Wealth Building: close the racial wealth gap for Black Central Texans by providing an ecosystem of support resulting in increased individual and shared growth and prosperity
• New! Arts, Culture & Preservation: support programs and organizations that directly invest in the creative and cultural contributions of Black artists of all kinds as a means of expressing, celebrating, preserving, and advancing the legacy of Black people.

Eligibility Considerations

Applications must be submitted by organizations or initiatives that are Black-led. For the purposes of this grant application, Black-led is defined as:

• Black-identified Executive Director, CEO, or Project Lead and
• At least 50% of Board Black-identified or at least 50% of staff Black-identified

Other qualifications include:

• Nonprofit applicants must be working in the six county Central Texas region, which includes: Travis, Burnet, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, and Williamson counties.
• Organizations must be tax-exempt under Sections 501(c)3 or 170(b)(1)(a)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code, operate with a fiscal sponsorship, and/or be a unit of government.

A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides fiduciary oversight, financial management, and other administrative services to help build the capacity of charitable projects. For the purposes of this grant application, the following organization has been identified as a potential fiscal sponsor:

• Six Square: Austin’s Black Cultural District

Applicants interested in applying through a fiscal sponsor should reach out directly to the organizations listed above.

Proposals will be considered from the following:

• Organizations that engage in non-lobbying advocacy work. Organizations doing systems change level work such as educating the public about issues, community organizing, policy research and other non-lobbying advocacy activities may apply.
• Religious organization that engage in non-religious programming. Religious organizations will need to demonstrate that their work aligning with The Black Fund strategies is secular in nature and does not discriminate against any employees or clients based on religion.