Investing in change

Fund for the Public Interest Foundation is a project of Fund for the Public Interest and The Public Interest Network. The Fund for the Public Interest has been our network's engine for organization-building via civic engagement since 1984. The mission of the Fund Foundation is to support civic engagement efforts, helping organizations make a difference and strengthen themselves through the process of building public support for specific causes.

Some of the groups who have received our grants:

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Highlighted Grant

Winning campaigns to solve America’s problems depends on advocates’ ability to organize people: to bring people together to call for change in one voice. While digital outreach is a powerful tool in the organizing toolbox, an email to a decision-maker is no match for a personal phone call from a constituent. A web signup form can’t deliver the same motivational power as a phone call from an organizer to a member or volunteer.

Through the Calling for Action program, we combine the old-fashioned power of the telephone with up-to-date technology to reach hundreds of thousands of people each year, building the membership of social change organizations and amplifying the voices of concerned Americans in important debates.

Anil Mohabir, CC BY SA 2.0 via Flickr

Highlighted Grant: Save the Bay

The Save Our Bay coalition has been working to stop a plan to dump 1.1 million gallons of radioactive waste from the decommissioned Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., into Cape Cod Bay. With help from Community Action Works, an environmental organizing backup center and part of The Public Interest Network, the group helped convince Gov. Maura Healy's administration to oppose the plan. The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a draft determination that the plan is illegal, finding that Cape Cod Bay is a protected ocean sanctuary under state law. With help from a Calling for Action grant, Save Our Bay enlisted over 1,000 people to sign on to joint testimony against the dumping plan and helped turn out people for a DEP hearing on the issue.

“Electric transport is a huge part of the solution to the air pollution and climate crises, and we're all in on pushing for laws that will accelerate its deployment in a socially equitable manner, with a focus on cities and overburdened communities. If someone asks "What would Jesus, Moses, Mohammad, Lord Krishna, or the Buddha drive?” - the answer is clear: they'd take public transit in the form of an electric bus!”

—The Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director, GreenFaith

Want to learn more? Let's talk.

We strongly encourage applications for our calling for action program. To learn more about the program and how to apply, contact callingforaction@fundstaff.org. For information on our direct grants and emergency grant program, please contact us at fundfoundation@fundstaff.org. No unsolicited proposals, please.