About PTP’s Organizing Technology Grants Program

Technology for Organizing

Summary

The PTP Organizing Technology Grants Program awards 10-15 grants of up to $10,000 each to support the use of technology by grassroots organizing groups to advance specific aspects of their community-organizing efforts. Funds can be used for training, technical support, consulting, needs assessment, planning, hardware and software, designing applications and setting up systems.

Purpose of Our Grants Program

The purpose of the Organizing Technology Grants Program is to help groups strengthen their organizing efforts through appropriate use of technology. This program provides capacity building grants that groups can use to purchase equipment, secure technical assistance and provide training to staff and members. The grants will help develop new uses of technology for organizing that can be shared as models and examples. More than just providing funds to purchase equipment, a grant award should be used to assist a group in applying technology to its work in a way that makes the organization stronger and more effective at achieving its social change ends.

Examples

Over the last eight funding rounds, successful proposals have focused on using technology to advance specific aspects of the groups’ organizing work (e.g. membership recruitment, leadership development, campaigns, coalition building, etc .. )

Examples of successful requests include:

• Training, equipment and technical assistance to use databases to strengthen outreach efforts by tracking member participation and event attendance
• Technical assistance to create a technology assessment and plan for enhancing specific organizing campaigns
• Equipment, technical assistance, and training to use Geographic Information Systems (computer aided mapping) to identify local polluters in low-income neighborhoods
• Equipment and training to use translation technologies to increase participation of a multi-lingual membership
• Training and equipment to use an auto-dialer to systematically reach a large number of members
• Technical assistance and staff support to develop training programs for low-income members to use technology as organizing tools

Funding Criteria and Eligibility

PTP’s Target Community: Grassroots Organizing Groups

PTP’s Organizing Technology Grants Program supports grassroots organizing groups that engage in multi-issue social, economic and environmental justice efforts to empower low-income people and communities of color to address root causes of social inequities.

The organizing process brings marginalized populations together to build collective power to improve quality of life conditions for the common good. Organizing involves active recruitment of new people into an organization, systematic activities to cultivate leadership skills and abilities of an organization’s membership, and achieving institutional change through campaigns that shift power relations.

The organizations that PTP supports engage diverse constituencies and employ a broad array of organizing models, but share these key characteristics:

• Seek to address the underlying causes of social, economic and environmental problems
• Work to transform power relationships by actively engaging those who are most affected by public policy decisions, especially low income people and people of color
• Work to develop and empower community leaders to impact public policy and hold decision makers accountable
• Foster democratic values and skills by developing accountable leadership structures and organizations governed by the people they serve
• Employ non-violent, direct-action strategies to raise unseen issues and unheard voices into the public view

To be eligible for funding in this program, an organization should:

• Be engaged in community organizing work
• Commit to expending the effort to successfully use technology to improve its efforts
• Have basic technological capacity (hardware, training and technical assistance resources)
• Recognize its need for technology training, technical assistance as well as equipment

In addition to the above requirements, an applicant must be a non-profit, community-based organization with an IRS tax-exempt 501(c)3 status or sponsored by such an organization. PTP only accepts proposals from organizations focused on and based in the United States.

PTP does not fund

PTP will not consider funding for organizations that it has funded through this program within the last two years. Additionally, PTP does not fund the following:

• grants to schools or universities
• grants to individuals
• grants to cities, counties or government agencies
• organizations focused on or based outside the United States
• scholarships/fellowships
• direct services
• child care programs
• emergency shelters
• medical services
• books or publications
• capital improvement and job training or readiness projects
• technical service provision
• technology projects unrelated to grassroots social change efforts

Grants Application Process

The stages of the Organizing Technology Grants Application Process

1) Complete an Organization Application first so that we may evaluate whether or not your organization qualifies for this program. Please complete the form even if your organization has qualified in the past. This will make sure that our records are up to date.

2) We will read your organization application and respond within two business days. If you qualify, we will send you a link to the Organizing Technology Grant Application form.

3) Complete the Organizing Technology Grant Application with the remaining required information. You may prepare your application by reviewing the questions on this web page.

4) After the application deadline of November 28th, 2006, we will begin the grant determination process.

Grants Determination Process

How We Select the Grant Awards

The grants committee will assess the following when considering proposals:

• Clear description of organizing goals and strategies
• Use of technology to support and strengthen organizing efforts
• Support of staff and leaders through training and technical assistance
• Sustainability of the project beyond the support from PTP

PTP’s staff conducts the first evaluation of all proposals, eliminating applications that do not meet the eligibility requirements and funding criteria. The PTP Grants Committee reviews the remaining applications and selects the grantees. The Committee is comprised of a team of four volunteers who have expertise in the funding, technology or organizing fields. Three Grants Committee members are PTP board members and one is from outside of PTP.