OUR APPROACH
CS Fund practices strategic, effective and values-aligned grantmaking.
As a small foundation, we seek to have an outsized impact while also addressing systemic inequities within philanthropy.
We fund a diverse, intersectional ecosystem of organizations and strategies, including legal, policy, education, organizing, grassroots power building, narrative/communications, and cultural change.
Our current program areas build upon grantmaking undertaken since the CS Fund was established in 1981. Some grantees have received support for four decades.
Occasionally we may make grants outside of our program areas to support particularly innovative social change strategies.
ETC Group
Ecology Action
Center for Constitutional Rights
THEORY OF CHANGE
Building the capacity and power of social movements for justice and equity - and creating conditions in which they can thrive - will dismantle harmful systems and create an inclusive democracy and a just transition to a regenerative economy and food system, both of which are necessary to mitigate climate chaos.
WHAT WE DO
Address root causes of problems
Promote systemic solutions
Identify and seize opportunities for strategic intervention
Play a catalytic role in launching new initiatives
Fight false solutions
Encourage the creation of positive alternatives
Be forward thinking and evolve over time
Prioritize organizations and strategies that are especially under-resourced in comparison with the scale of the problems they address and especially effective in achieving systems change
HOW WE DO IT
Provide the long-term, multi-year general and program support necessary for grantees to build capacity and power
Be flexible and responsive through the use of special opportunity grants
Act as a partner and resource to our grantees based on mutual openness, trust and accountability
Reduce the burden on our grantees throughout the grant lifecycle (application, due diligence, granting, and reporting processes)