Blue Heart
Blue Heart
2024 Grassroots Giving Guide
Making it easy to support
incredible grassroots organizations!
Art from the Alphabet Alliance of Color in Seattle designed by self-taught artist Sam Picone Louro, who is queer, Boriken Taino and Portuguese.
Blue Heart funded the creation of this piece.
Championing Grassroots Changemakers
& FUNDING AT THE FRINGES
Blue Heart introduces donors to grassroots, community-led groups advancing political power for low-income communities and communities of color across the US. During giving season, well-funded nonprofits often overshadow smaller, impactful organizations serving marginalized communities. Blue Heart is here to uplift those at the grassroots level and ensure big-hearted givers like you find out about work you might otherwise never know existed!
This guide highlights organizations supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), gender-marginalized, queer, disabled, and low-income communities—advocating for transformative change from the ground up.
Most people donate based on personal recommendations. Invite your network to #GiveBoldly, and help amplify these grassroots changemakers.
How WE CREATED This Guide
This guide supports visionary, creative movement-builders who are often overlooked, in getting the recognition they deserve among donors.
The groups you’ll see in this Giving Guide are included because they were recommended by other organizations Blue Heart has donated to or by our community members. All groups meet the criteria of being currently active in their work, having a clear way for people to donate, having annual budgets under $2 million, and working on grassroots social change.
While focused on the U.S.-based groups, we encourage donations to globally accountable grassroots intermediaries as well. Funding social change isn't 'silver bullet philanthropy'. Rather, it requires investing in diverse strategies and long-term visions.
Art by Christina Whipple and Leilani Salvador / Blue Heart Creator Fund
How to use this guide
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Discover: Dive into the list, whether you're interested in organizations working locally or those focusing on specific issues we've got you covered.
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Donate: While any contribution makes an impact, if you're financially stable, consider donating 1% or more of your annual income. Monthly donations help organizations plan better, so consider giving a bit every month.
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Engage: Follow your chosen organizations on social media (especially IG and Facebook). Stay updated and deepen your bond with them.
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Share: Most people donate based on personal recommendations. Spread the word, ask your friends and family to #GiveBoldly. Share on socials.
Before you dive in, here are a few questions to ask yourself:
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Looking to support entities close to home or those with limited philanthropic resources?
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Use icons next to organizations to guide you.
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Interested in a specific issue?
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Explore our 12 different issue-specific portfolios.
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Do you want to get your money out of the urban bubble?
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Rural non-profits are dramatically less-resourced than urban ones. If you want to support grassroots organizing in rural communities, check out our "Rural Organizing" portfolio.
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Want to incorporate a reparations perspective?
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Reflect on the history and current state of indigenous and marginalized communities and consider how you can contribute to repairing past injustices.
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Concerned about tax deductions?
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We've marked organizations without a 501c3 status with a [*].
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Be aware of the design bias when selecting organizations. A sleek website doesn't necessarily equate to the efficacy of an organization. Some may prioritize on-ground efforts over digital presence. Judge by their impact, not their interface.
Recommended Grassroots Organizations
Arts & Culture
Health, Food & Disability Justice
Mass Incarceration
Black Liberation
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Indigenous Self-Determination
Rural Organizing
Climate Justice
Immigrants & Refugees
Women
Economic & Housing Justice
LGBTQ+
Youth & Families
boldly commit and become a blue heart member
Want to support grassroots power-building all year long?
Join a community of over 100 member-donors who are supporting grassroots change. We have channeled over $300,000 to under-the-radar changemakers, artists, and visionaries.
Blue Heart membership means donating monthly and trusting that your funds go to values-aligned local grassroots organizations.
Members who wish to go beyond donating and get more engaged are welcome to join our bioregional Giving Collectives, spaces to build deeper relationships with one another and amazing organizations, and contribute time, energy, skills, in addition to your money.
(Note: We are a fiscally-sponsored project within the non-profit Social Good Fund.)
arts & culture
An Oakland-based arts organization that hosts the EastSide Cultural Center, dedicated to the development of young artists and fostering Black pride in East Oakland.
CALIFORNIA
Using grassroots activism to provide solutions through Hip Hop culture by implementing grassroots organizing, arts programming, and educational events to advance our mission.
CALIFORNIA
An organization based in the Southern USA whose mission is to support the creation and presentation of original art, in all its forms, which is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition or spirit.
SOUTH
An Oakland workspace bringing together makers, craftspeople, entrepreneurs, and programmers around project-based education.
CALIFORNIA
Calling Up Justice are cultural producers and activists who share justice resources, build digital co-working spaces, and focus on disability, racial, and gender justice.
CALIFORNIA
A poor people–led/Indigenous people–led, grassroots, non-profit arts organization dedicated to providing revolutionary media access, art, education, and advocacy to silenced youth, adults, and elders in poverty across Mama Earth.
CALIFORNIA
A disability justice based performance project that celebrates artists with disabilities, centralizing artists of color and LGBTQ / gender-variant artists.
CALIFORNIA
An arts-based alternative to incarceration for young people in King County, Washington.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A non-profit organization that supports, trains, and unites the next generation of artists, journalists, storytellers and peace builders.
EAST
An Oakland cooperative supporting the creative needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color by providing physical space for community care and collaboration.
CALIFORNIA
An organization of working class artists and cultural producers transforming politics and healing through art in Puerto Rico.
PUERTO RICO
Arts and education organization promoting social justice with year-round programs, legal support, and advocacy against discrimination.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Breaking the cycles of violence and trauma through arts opportunities that ignite change in vulnerable youth.
SOUTH
black liberation
A Greensboro community center rooted in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of proactive struggles for racial and economic justice, democracy, and beloved community.
SOUTH
Committed to investing in the activation, long-term engagement, training and development of new organizers, and mobilization of historically disengaged voters of color.
WASHINGTON
First Aid offers workshops, research, and policy design with experts focused on reparations, racial justice, and Black empowerment.
MIDWEST
A growing consortium of media-makers and activists collectively dreaming reparative policies, interventions and futures
EAST
A full service direct action organization building capacity to execute creative and effective action in service of their organizing and advocacy work.
CALIFORNIA
A black-led initiative for the activation, long-term engagement, and development of new organizers to mobilize historically disengaged voters of color.
SOUTH
A South Seattle nonprofit nurturing intergenerational leaders through transformative education and social action.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Fighting for reparatory justice and restoration for African American communities plundered by slavery, segregation, colonialism, and ongoing legacies of American apartheid.
EAST
Black-led healing community for BIPOC people, offering a semi-mobile camp in the Mojave Desert focused on grief support for African-heritage folks and all People of the Global Majority.
CALIFORNIA
A Black grassroots organization organizing and empowering the community towards self determination and equity.
CALIFORNIA
A movement dedicated to helping Black People search for, identify, and reclaim land taken from them over the past 400 years.
CALIFORNIA
An Oakland-based Black/New Afrikan organization dedicated to empowering the community of Oakland through grassroots community programs.
CALIFORNIA
An organization that aims to support the goal of reparations for slavery in the United States.
EAST
Climate justice
A Flint, MI community nonprofit growing diverse environmental justice leaders and just relationships to secure a healthy, sustainable future.
MIDWEST
A group of young climate justice activists fighting for a livable climate and an equitable, sustainable, and just world.
CALIFORNIA
An alliance of New Jersey organizations & individuals committed to creating healthy, sustainable & just communities by eliminating environmental injustices in low income & communities of color.
EAST
Verde
A Portland, OR nonprofit building environmental wealth through social enterprise, outreach and advocacy.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Advancing environmental and social justice through engagement, education, and nationally recognized programs.
EAST
A Western New York nonprofit developing grassroots leaders who organize their communities to run and win environmental justice and public health campaigns.
CALIFORNIA
A California nonprofit mobilizing community power to win victories that change government and industry policies and practices to protect health and promote environmental, social, economic, racial, and climate justice.
CALIFORNIA
An agroecology coalition of women farmers and organizers working to ensure people of color regain community control of food and land, protect and commune with the land, share resources, grow food, and prioritize community healing.
EAST
A membership-based nonprofit building energy democracy in Highland Park and our neighboring communities through organizing, education, and community-owned clean energy.
MIDWEST
Environmental and community development organization working to create and sustain equitable communities with initatives like the youth builders program.
EAST
A Portland nonprofit building power for environmental justice and civil rights in Oregon.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A regional nonprofit supporting a just transition to a regenerative economy that protects the environment, climate, and future generations.
MIDWEST
An intergenerational, women of color led grassroots organization promoting Brooklyn community resiliency through organizing, leadership development, and artistic expression.
EAST
A Detroit nonprofit protecting and restoring land, air, water and diversity of life through informed personal and public action.
MIDWEST
Economic & Housing Justice
A member-based community organizing group invested in serving the communities of deep East Oakland by building racial and economic equity.
CALIFORNIA
An Eastern Iowa nonprofit uniting low-wage workers across race, ethnicity, and immigration status to promote and defend workers’ rights on the job, tenants’ rights to safe and affordable housing, just immigration policies, and more equitable communities.
MIDWEST
A coalition of local social justice organizations across the West Coast working to eliminate the root causes of homelessness and poverty.
CALIFORNIA
A Massachusetts nonprofit building the power low-income communities of color to eradicate environmental racism, and create healthy, sustainable communities.
EAST
C4C’s mission is to dramatically increase the participation of Oakland residents in local government in order to create the communities they want to see.
CALIFORNIA
An all-volunteer campaign in Oakland promoting active citizenship, community learning, and direct democracy by putting the people in charge of the budget.
CALIFORNIA
An Oakland grassroots committed to increasing the capacity of unhoused Oakland residents by providing direct material assistance to individuals and curbside communities in need.
CALIFORNIA
A national coalition of current and former sex workers working together with supporting networks for an improved understanding of sexual policies and its human, social and political impacts of criminalization’s surrounding sex work.
CALIFORNIA
A South Texas worker's union that has become an organizing platform for low income workers across the region.
EAST
A Denver nonprofit supporting day laborers and domestic workers in Colorado through education, job skills, united action and advocacy.
MIDWEST
A nonprofit advancing economic democracy and building a solidarity economy anchored by a network of cooperatives and other worker-owned enterprises.
SOUTH
A grassroot, Black-led organization devoted to locally driven development in Seattle's Rainier Beach neighborhood.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
An Oakland volunteer-run organization led by unhoused, housing insecure, and formerly unhoused folks providing direct services and policy advocacy.
CALIFORNIA
Moms 4 Housing is a collective of homeless and marginally housed mothers coming together to reclaim vacant, investor-owned properties.
CALIFORNIA
healtH, food & Disability justice
A health and human rights movement advocating for just transitions, disability justice, and climate action as interdependent goals.
CALIFORNIA
A Chicago organization offering training in urban emergency first response to communities where shootings often occur.
MIDWEST
A statewide grassroots organization that addresses health, environmental, reproductive justice, and other social issues faced by its low-income, female, Vietnamese immigrant and refugee workforce.
CALIFORNIA*
A network of over 130 practitioners healing generational trauma and restoring a reverence of the sacred.
CALIFORNIA
A food justice organization providing a free, accessible meal program for Oakland’s most vulnerable community members.
CALIFORNIA
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An Oakland-based collective that works at the intersection of art and activism as a food-centered political education project.
CALIFORNIA
A thriving urban farm in Seattle, WA with a community farming program fostering self-sufficiency and social justice.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A collective building unity and self determination through care programs that provide food, cultural nourishment and support to North Oakland & South Berkeley residents.
CALIFORNIA
A women of color-led nonprofit working to end structural racism through participatory democracy, food justice, and movement building.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A Seattle nonprofit training youth of color and working-class youth to build collective power and organize for transformative and systemic change in their schools.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Indigenous Self-determination
A nonprofit established in 1955 as one of the first urban American Indian community centers in the nation, providing social services for those relocated from reservations.
CALIFORNIA
An Alaska native peoples' organization enacting habitat restoration, Indigenous food sovereignty and cultural revitalization.
WASHINGTON
Working for Native women’s full representation, participation, and leadership in tribal, local, state, and national affairs.
WASHINGTON
An ambitious project to restore ancestral salmon to the waterways blocked by the Shasta dam in Northern California.
CALIFORNIA
This project marks the first repatriation attempt for the Duwamish Tribe, impacting recognition claims and providing space for community programming, education, and traditional practices.
WASHINGTON
A community-based volunteer organization offering culturally relevant activities for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Native Americans, their families and friends.
CALIFORNIA
A community organization dedicated to achieving environmental health & sustainability through social justice & de-occupying the Hawaiian lands.
HAWAII
An indigenous-led organization that raises awareness about the significance of Mauna Kea, offering cultural education to promote native rights, social justice, and protect sacred places.
HAWAII
Immigrants & Refugees
A leadership development, community organizing and coalition building organization that seeks to create healthy, safe, and thriving communities.
CALIFORNIA
An Arizona grassroots organization that promotes the human and civil rights of all migrants regardless of their immigration status.
SOUTHWEST
A Bay Area nonprofit organization working to abolish immigration incarceration, recognizing we are part of a broader movement fighting for our freedom at the intersection of mass incarceration, immigration enforcement, and the deprivation of Black, brown, and Indigenous people’s autonomy.
CALIFORNIA
A grassroots organization fighting for racial and economic justice and the dignity and liberation of our Arab, and Muslim communities.
CALIFORNIA
A North Carolina grassroots organization defending latinx communities from ICE, abusive employers and landlords, and predatory politicians.
SOUTH
A network fighting to create space for currently and formerly undocumented Black immigrants to not only survive but thrive.
SOUTH
A Bay Area disaster relief fund helping undocumented people survive the impacts of wildfires and Covid-19.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
La Resistencia is a grassroots organization of undocumented immigrants and people of color in Washington State working to end oppressive immigrant detention and deportations.
WASHINGTON
LGBTQ+
A collaborative grounded in the self-determination of queer, trans, and two spirit Black & Indigenous people of color, and the vision of collectively owning land and labor.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A community of people working across race and gender to eradicate sexism, homophobia, and transphobia and create healthy frameworks of masculinity and change.
CALIFORNIA
A nonprofit building queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander power to amplify our voices and increase the visibility of our communities.
CALIFORNIA
Addressing violence against Black trans femmes and gender-diverse communities with intersectional legal help along with housing & social support.
WASHINGTON
Somos Familia builds leadership in our Latinx families and communities to create a culture where people of diverse genders and sexual orientations can thrive.
CALIFORNIA
An all volunteer-run effort on Duwamish land in the Seattle area to spread mutual support in the trans Black and Brown community.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
A San Francisco organization building collective vision and action to promote translatina survival and improved quality of life in the Bay Area.
CALIFORNIA
A Bay Area-based, queer + trans people of color crew of artist- and activist-healers making art for collective safety, healing, and bliss.
CALIFORNIA
Camp Indigo believes trans and gender-diverse kids deserve a normal summer camp experience filled with fun, friendship, and wonder.
CALIFORNIA
An arts and public advocacy organization defending the human rights of Black transgender people.
SOUTH
A community-based organization fighting for full social equality and human rights for translatinas in Texas.
SOUTH
A collective & community center responding to the interlocking crises of Puerto Rico by providing space for activists and organizers to strategize and collaborate.
PUERTO RICO
A group of sex-working community health workers formed the Green Light Project to support QTBIPOC2S individuals, providing resources and tools for self-advocacy.
WASHINGTON
mass incarceration
CCWP is a grassroots abolitionist organization—with members inside and outside prison—that challenges the institutional violence imposed on women, transgender people, and communities of color by the prison industrial complex (PIC).
CALIFORNIA
An Oakland nonprofit building youth leadership to transform the social conditions causing community violence and mass incarceration.
CALIFORNIA
We defend the humanity of the immigrant and fight for the rights of the incarcerated.
CALIFORNIA
A grassroots organization working to expose and end human rights abuses against incarcerated people in California by elevating the voices of those impacted.
CALIFORNIA
A non-profit working alongside the community to dismantle systems of oppression and heal from the traumatic effects on people who are targeted and impacted by incarceration, on their loved ones, and on our community.
WASHINGTON
A California nonprofit working with formerly incarcerated residents to carry out critical participatory action research, community organizing, and policy advocacy to build community power, foster healing, and address issues impacting individuals in reentry.
CALIFORNIA
An international movement organization working to end the prison industrial complex by challenging the belief that caging people makes us safe.
CALIFORNIA
rural organizing
A volunteer-driven environmental advocacy collective pushing to stop the destruction of our communities and environment by mountaintop removal mining, to improve the quality of life in our area and to help rebuild sustainable communities.
SOUTH
Build's power among farmworker and rural low-income communities in Florida
SOUTH
An alliance of organizations promoting a healthy, just Appalachia by supporting our member organizations in communities impacted by destructive resource extraction.
SOUTH
Fight for coalfield communities through advocacy, education, and organizing.
EAST
An organization of concerned citizens working to build just and equitable communities while addressing the costs of extraction in Appalachia.
SOUTH
women
A safe space for young and low income Southeast Asian women. We promote education, community, and leadership to foster cultural pride and self-determination for women at-risk of or engaged in sexual exploitation.
CALIFORNIA
A nonprofit supporting immigrant workers in the Bay Area’s garment, home care, hotel, restaurant, and assembly industries, and low-income immigrant youth.
CALIFORNIA
A Bay Area group of Latinx doulas serving their low income community with respect and culture, helping with prenatal and child development education.
CALIFORNIA
A grassroots collective of Black women and individuals across the African Diaspora transforming birthing experiences for Black women and birthing people.
CALIFORNIA
A California doula collective committed to the liberation of all peoples from cycles of reproductive injustice.
CALIFORNIA
Frailty Myths challenges patriarchy through intersectional feminism, offering team-building and leadership workshops that address how race, sexual identity, and class influence people's lives.
CALIFORNIA
A non-partisan network of organizations and individuals working to promote sexual health and reproductive rights and justice in the state of Tennessee.
SOUTH
SURGE Reproductive Justice
A Washington nonprofit fighting to end reproductive oppression for all people - intentionally centering Black women, women of color, and queer and trans people.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
YOUTH & FAMILIES
A program to serve the communities of the Santa Clara River Valley by providing a safe environment for 13–19-year-olds and preparing informed, empowered youth who are equipped with the tools to lead; cultivate cultural awareness; bridge the gaps of inequality; and advocate for fair, just and healthy individuals and community.
CALIFORNIA
A grassroots community organization led by young people of color to provide a safe space for young people to empower ourselves and work on environmental and social justice issues to establish positive systemic change.