Letter of Inquiry

Overview

Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) is on a learning journey, and we seek to connect with innovative partners and proximate change makers who are driving impact. We want to learn from, work with, and support organizations that share our commitment to advancing racial, economic, and environmental justice (REEJ). 

We support organizations based in the United States, its Territories, and Israel-Palestine. We are particularly interested in work focused on the U.S. South.

Racial Justice -- Our vision for racial justice is the removal of structural barriers and hierarchies based on race. It seeks to reimagine political, economic, and social systems in ways that allow all people to thrive, regardless of their racial identity.

Focus Areas: To advance racial justice, we support organizations that address the following focus areas:

• Civic Engagement: BIPOC and other marginalized communities face long-standing and concerted efforts to restrict and suppress their participation in the public sphere, especially in civic processes. We support efforts to ensure these communities have the access and capacity to participate freely in shaping the policies, practices, and institutions that impact their everyday lives.
• Racial Wealth Gap: As a product of centuries of policies and practices, extreme racial wealth inequality persists in the United States, especially among Black communities. We support efforts to repair this harm, build wealth, and address the root causes of the racial wealth gap.
• Racism + Oppression: White supremacy is at the root of our society’s most unequal systems, institutions, and policies. We support efforts to build the infrastructure and capacity necessary to create systems that are free from oppression and allow us all to thrive.

Economic Justice -- Economic justice means that everyone has opportunities to participate and thrive in the economy, including those who are marginalized by our current economic systems. The principles of economic justice create a stronger economy because prosperity and equity go hand in hand.

Focus Areas: To advance economic justice, we support organizations that address the following focus areas:

• Economic Security: Economic security is a necessary baseline for people to survive and thrive, especially amidst conditions of rising inequality. We support efforts that systemically mitigate economic precarity and secure a path to a more stable future for poor and low-income people.
• Access to Capital: Generations of discriminatory lending and investment practices have prevented BIPOC and women from accessing the capital required to bring their innovative ideas to the marketplace and profit from them. We support efforts to provide more access to capital for historically excluded entrepreneurs and to cultivate an ecosystem in which they can prosper.
• Monopoly Power: Monopoly power drives many of the corrosive and pressing problems in our political, economic, and social systems. We support efforts to decrease corporate power and create a level playing field for workers, marginalized communities, and small businesses.

Environmental Justice -- Environmental justice is the right of all people and communities to a clean, healthy, and safe environment. It promotes equal environmental protection under the law and in fact. It empowers all communities to make informed decisions and fully participate civically and economically in the creation of environmental solutions.

Focus Areas:  To advance environmental justice, we support organizations that address the following focus areas:

• Environmental Harms: BIPOC and low-income communities are disproportionately harmed by environmental hazards. We focus on efforts to prevent and repair these environmental disparities and ensure the affected communities can meaningfully engage in forging solutions.
• Inclusive Participation in the Green Economy: A Green Energy transition is well underway, but the economic opportunity that goes along with it is not distributed equitably. We focus on efforts to ensure that BIPOC-led environmental organizations and diverse companies can fully take advantage of the investments, benefits, and opportunities of the Green Economy.
• Regenerative Economic Models: Achieving environmental justice and addressing climate change requires a shift from extractive to regenerative economic models. We focus on social entrepreneurs and innovators who are building regenerative projects and models based on sustainability, ecological restoration, and community wealth-building and resilience.

[If planning on submitting an application, please alert Ashley O’Brion, ASUF.]

Most of our grants range from about $50,000 – $250,000. We anticipate most PRIs will range from $250,000 to $750,000, typically to be repaid within three to seven years.

For FY 2025, the portal will be open from January 16, 2025, through June 30, 2025, and will reopen on October 1, 2025.

You can view a preview of the LOI Forms here: Grants LOI; PRI LOI.