2025 Small Grants Fund

RTF 2025 Small Grants - Proteus Fund

Background

RISE Together Fund (RTF), an initiative of Proteus Fund, is announcing an open call for inquiries for our 2025 Small Grants Fund to support U.S.-based Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian (BAMEMSA) communities and organizations. The maximum request for an inquiry is $25,000, with an average grant size of $15,000.

We will review inquiries on a rolling basis until funds are depleted. RTF has an approximate budget of $500,000 to allocate to small grants through this open call.

RTF will be accepting applications in three cycles, pending availability of funds. Applications that are submitted after the deadlines will be automatically moved to the next cycle for consideration except in the case of the third cycle. The deadlines for each cycle are included below.

Round 1:
Application opens: April 2, 2025, 9AM ET
Application closes: May 2, 2025, 5PM ET

Round 2:
Application opens: July 1, 2025, 9AM ET
Application closes: July 31, 2025, 5PM ET

Round 3:
Application opens: October 1, 9AM ET
Application closes: October 31, 2025 5PM ET

An announcement will be made via the RISE Organizing listserv and on our website prior to each cycle opening. We will announce if funds have been expended before all the funding cycles are complete.

As part of RTF’s commitment to prioritizing the needs and sustainability of the fields we collectively support, RTF will provide organizations with general operating grants to allow for organizational flexibility when possible. Please read the below priorities, criteria, and process carefully before applying. If you are a 501c4 organization or interested in applying for c4 funding, do not use this application and instead please contact us directly, at webcontact.rtaf@proteusactionleague.org.

About RTF’s 2025 Small Grants Fund

BAMEMSA movements have a strong history of organizing and collaboration, and are well poised with the knowledge, learning and experience to respond to the current unconstitutional threats faced by our communities. Through this fund, RTF aims to resource community power building organizations that use a multiplicity of approaches to create change rooted in the strength and leadership of our movements.

RTF supports groups that build community power, strengthen movement bases, defend civil and human rights including freedom of protest, speech, religion, and association, end the criminalization and surveillance of our communities, and respond to the rise in xenophobia, Islamophobia, and hate. RTF values groups that are intersectional in their approach and have or are developing sustainable long-term strategies to support BAMEMSA communities and movements.

Eligibility Criteria

RTF uses the following eligibility criteria and considerations when making decisions about which organizations may receive funding. All organizations that meet the criteria below are eligible to apply.

Tax status: The requesting organization is recognized by the IRS as a Section 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) of the IRS tax code, or it has a fiscal sponsor with the appropriate tax status.

Financial health: The requesting organization has a plan and support to meet the overall organizational budget regardless of RTF’s funding decision.
Organization’s Strategic Focus: The requesting organization is BAMEMSA-led and/or serving and has a track record of meeting community needs and a strategic focus toward long-term systems change. A focus of the program is inclusivity, and grantees selected will not be limited by race or ethnicity of leadership or populations.

Intersectionality: The requesting organization is committed to racial, disability, and gender equity and justice in its many forms, as reflected in the organization’s mission, leadership, staffing, approach, and/or learning journey.

Community support: The requesting organization can demonstrate that the organization has community-based support, including from BAMEMSA communities.
Priority: The funding request meets one or more of the priority areas listed below under the “Fund Priorities” section.

Fund Priorities:

As we assess inquiries, RTF will prioritize powerbuilding organizations whose mission focuses on one or more of the areas listed below and have a strategic vision for long-term systems change:

  • Responding to the needs of and the threats facing BAMEMSA immigrant and refugee communities.
  • Responding to the crackdown of constitutionally-protected dissent and the misuse of national security frameworks to target and oppress BAMEMSA communities.
  • Addressing the rise in transnational repression targeting BAMEMSA communities in the US.
  • Advocating for the U.S. to use its influence to maintain a ceasefire and push back against the domestic implications of the ongoing devastation in Gaza, including exclusionary policies that risk shutting down Palestine human rights voices in the U.S.
  • Addressing the rise of disinformation and misinformation targeting BAMEMSA communities.
  • Supporting an equitable world for LGBTQ people and the fundamental right of bodily autonomy and rejecting efforts to weaponize LGBTQ identity and reproductive freedom to fracture BAMEMSA communities.

As we learn from inquiries and movement partners, we may refine these priorities between cycles and update our application and outreach to reflect the changes. If you feel RTF has missed a crucial area of work supporting BAMESMA communities, please contact webcontact.ks@proteusfund.org.

RTF does NOT fund organizations that primarily focus on:

  • International work
  • Partisan political campaigns, and electioneering.
  • Providing for basic or individual needs, including mutual aid, supporting bail funds, individual legal funds or direct donations or grants to individuals.
  • Direct service or individual legal services that are not tied to your organization’s intentional powerbuilding strategy.
  • Scholarships or individual scholarly research.

Process

Please bear in mind that sometimes we experience an extraordinary volume of inquiries and proposals. We will do our very best to adhere to the timeline described below. Your application will be considered for the round in which you apply.

Step 1: Please complete the eligibility form by logging into our grant application portal. New applicants can create a new account by clicking “Register Now.” Once logged in, visit the “Open Grant Opportunities Tab” to find the eligibility form. If you meet the eligibility criteria as laid out above, you will be immediately invited to submit a narrative application. If you are declined at this stage and feel you are eligible, please contact rtf.outreach@proteusfund.org.

Step 2: For your narrative, we will ask you to answer the following questions:

  • A short description of your organization of no more than 500 words. You can also upload existing material, such as a PDF of a recent annual report or a hyperlink to your website’s “About Us.”
  • How do you build impact with your communities for long-term systems change? 500 words max or upload existing materials.
  • To help us get to know you better and learn about new organizations, we invite you to share the names of movement partners and coalitions you often collaborate with. You can share a list or bullet points and please feel free to skip this question if you prefer.

Step 3: RTF will be in touch with you prior to the next submission deadline about the status of your application. If your request is declined at this stage, please know that RTF will do our best to share your needs with other funder partners.

Step 4: If RTF is interested in recommending your request to our leadership, we will:

  • Request your organizational budget. If you are fiscally sponsored, we will also request your fiscal sponsor’s budget and your MOU with the fiscal sponsor.
  • Recommend your grant to the Proteus Fund board for funding. This will take approximately two weeks.
  • If your grant is approved by our leadership, RTF will work internally to ensure the release of funding to your organization within one month of the close of each cycle.
  • For emergency situations, RTF will make every effort to expedite your request to ensure faster receipt of funds.
  • For questions or comments, please contact rtf.outreach@proteusfund.org to share your needs and the RTF team will be in touch.

About RISE Together Fund
RTF’s vision is to realize the promise of a just, inclusive multiracial democracy where BAMEMSA communities can live freely, lead fully, and participate joyously. We aim to strengthen BAMEMSA movements to build power and infrastructure that break the interlocking cycles of violence fueled by racism, surveillance and criminalization. RTF is the first and only national donor collaborative dedicated to supporting the critical work of BAMEMSA power building organizations. Since 2008, RTF and its partner organization RISE Together Action Fund have funded directly impacted voices to lead policy and social change granting nearly $30 million to more than 500 organizations. RTF bolsters its national grantmaking with capacity building support and technical assistance to build and expand the capacity of BAMEMSA movements toward racial, gender, queer, and disability justice. You can learn more about RTF’s 5-year strategic plan and the organizations we fund here.

Who are BAMEMSA movements?
BAMEMSA is an acronym for Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian enumerated to describe communities that have been acutely impacted by post-9/11 discrimination. While Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) is a common term, Black communities within the AMEMSA ecosystem are often excluded in community and philanthropic spaces. As such, it’s important to explicitly include Black communities, specifically Black and African-American Muslims who account for 20 percent of American Muslims and who are also impacted by post-9/11 discrimination. Our communities are not homogenous; they are beautifully intersectional, diasporic, complex, multi-racial, and multilingual. Our grantees largely do not self-identify as BAMEMSA; this acronym is an attempt at encapsulating a multiplicity of identities with a view toward advocating for a liberatory future and increasing philanthropic relationships within the field. While useful in helping to orient partners, there is no perfect acronym because our communities cannot be reduced to them.

What truly connects us are community characteristics: the issues we face and the common vision we co-create and seek. Ultimately, the communities we focus on are impacted by interlocking systems of hate and violence engendered by the War on Terror. Our partners are working to break those cycles of violence