Table of Contents
PURPOSE
Indigenous peoples, Black people, and racialized people experience systemic and institutional racism in many facets of their lives. These systemic inequities and biases exist within the legal/justice system, and in the laws, policies, and programs that impact people living across BC. The law and the legal/justice system play significant roles in shaping the way people experience the world and each individual’s place and status within it. Inequities within these systems have a determining influence on people’s lives, and racialized individuals and communities experience this first-hand every day.
Long understood by individuals and communities facing these injustices, racial injustice and inequity are also acknowledged by federal, provincial, and local governments, legislative bodies, Human Rights Commissions in BC and across Canada, and the Courts. As part of the legal profession in British Columbia, the Law Foundation shares in the collective obligation to work toward eradicating racial injustice in and through the legal system. The Law Foundation believes it needs to do more to meet this obligation.
The Law Foundation is also committed to supporting the implementation of the spirit, intent, and content of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, and the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In announcing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, the government and First Nations Leadership Council jointly recognized that Indigenous peoples in BC face enduring oppression and harm due to colonialism, and that law and legal mechanisms are a part of both the problem and the solution.
The International Decade for People of African Descent was declared by the United Nations in 2015 to address systemic issues of racism, discrimination, inequality, and social injustice faced by people of African descent. As such, it was formally recognized by the Government of Canada in 2018 and commitments were made to address the needs of Black communities across the country, including by working with community organizations to make positive change. On February 7, 2024, the Government of Canada has officially extended its commitment to this work until 2028. The Law Foundation is committed to addressing systemic inequities, injustice, and anti-Black racism including through our grantmaking efforts and Racial Justice grant calls.
The Law Foundation created and launched its first Racial Justice Grants Call in 2021 to support work and develop community infrastructure intended to advance racial justice. Through this third round of the Racial Justice Grants Call, $10 million is available for Generate Grants of up to $1,000,000 per grant, over a four-year period (up to $250,000 per year). All grant-seekers will complete a first-stage application after which shortlisted grant-seekers will be invited to participate in an oral application or provide a written application.
GENERATE GRANTS ELIGIBILITY
The Law Foundation of BC is offering up to four years of funding to support communities in building and generating collective power and capacity to advance racial justice through laws and policies.
Organizations can apply for up to $250,000 per year for up to four years, for a total of $1,000,000.
Generate Grants provide funding to grant-seekers who have strategies developed over three years or more and require a more sustained investment to create lasting change of a systemic nature to advance racial justice.
For Generate Grants, grant-seekers are expected to have enough experience, lessons, and momentum to describe the guiding principles of anti-racism, community accountability, intersectionality, and meaningful engagement clearly based on their work to date and their vision to elevate their work through collaborative community accountability to advance racial justice.
Projects can be from any sector if they fit within one or more of the five Law Foundation mandates: legal aid, law reform, legal education, legal research, and law libraries. You can learn more about the Foundation’s mandates HERE.
Applications are also expected to fit one or more of the following three focus areas to be eligible for funding.
Focus Areas for Generate Grants Funding
Generating collective power and action
Racial justice cannot be achieved by a single organization or grassroots group working in isolation. It requires the collaboration of many organizations, groups, sectors, policy makers working collaboratively to expand their capacity, combine their efforts, and coordinate their resources, for the purposes of community organizing, research, learning, policy and/or legal advocacy, legal actions, and campaigns.
This focus area is intended to support those interested in establishing, strengthening, and sustaining coalitions and networks working towards shifting policies and reforming laws affecting Indigenous, Black, and racialized people. Applications should demonstrate that the work centers Indigenous, Black, and racialized people’s leadership, lived experiences, vision, and priorities.
Elevating what works
Creative solutions to systemic challenges such as racial injustice often emerge from efforts imagined, developed, iterated, and piloted on a small scale over time. Despite many years of efforts, groups and organizations often lack the financial resources, infrastructure, and capacity to maximize their impacts and influence legal and policy changes.
This focus area supports organizations and groups to scale up and/or expand the scope and reach of promising community-led solutions they have designed and iterated on a smaller scale over time. The proposal must clearly demonstrate what strategies, partnerships, knowledge mobilization, and other approaches will be used for maximizing impact and how Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities’ leadership, guidance, and experiences will be integrated to advance the work to enable systemic change.
Changing the narrative
A key step toward racial justice requires critically analyzing the dominant narrative on various legal and policy issues that impact Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities and formulating new messaging that promote visions and values of equity, fairness, justice, democracy, collective benefit and wellbeing, and undoing harm.
This focus area supports organizations or groups to collaborate with artists, creators, educators, storytellers, and the media community to not only raise public awareness of the impact of current laws and policies on Indigenous, Black, and racialized communities but also to shift the narrative towards the creation of deliberate systems that support the transformation of laws and policies that lead to healing and racial justice.
Granting Strategy
Generate Grants are up to $1,000,000 over a four-year period (up to $250,000 per year). All grant-seekers will complete a first stage application after which short-listed grant-seekers will be invited to participate in an oral application or provide a written application.
These grants can be for operational funding, infrastructure development, capacity- building, community collaboration, collective organizing and expanding the reach of previous projects, and substantive work in relation to new projects.
These grants can range from one to four years at a range of amounts depending on the scale of the work and activities being proposed.
WHO CAN APPLY
We welcome applications from:
- Existing non-profit organizations; and
- Collaborative entities or groups.
if they operate (or intend to operate) in BC and/or for the benefit of people living in BC (referred to below as “grant-seekers”).
Grant-seekers do not need to be registered charities and they do not necessarily need to be registered non-profit societies. Grant-seekers do not need to identify as specifically law-focused groups or organizations as long as the proposed work relates to the legal system or the impact of laws and policies on the lived experiences of Indigenous, Black, and racialized peoples such as education, healthcare, family-based matters, land use, housing affordability, employment, law enforcement, immigration, and others.
Organizations from all sectors (e.g. arts, culture, education, and media) can apply for this funding if the project fits within the Foundation’s mandate areas, Racial Justice guiding principles, and has a strong connection to policy and law.
TYPES OF PROPOSALS THAT COULD BE ELIGIBLE
This program is meant for applications that aim to build the conditions necessary to advance racial justice as described by the guiding principles listed HERE. We will consider funding applications within the Foundation’s mandate areas that are closely aligned with:
- The racial justice guiding principles, and
- Generate Grant focus areas.
If you are unsure whether your proposed idea is eligible, please contact our staff at the email listed below.
There are multiple legal orders operating in the lands known as British Columbia, including Indigenous laws. Eligible applications may target a wide range of issues within this legal context and the context of racial justice, and do not need to be aimed at the justice system or the courts. For instance, applications may cover the criminal justice system, human rights and access to the courts and other decision-making bodies, as well as government decision-making across a range of systems, such as social benefits, healthcare, planning, and land use – all of which involve the law.
The Law Foundation invites applications from a single group or organization as well as those that involve collaboration among several groups or organizations.
The Law Foundation does not prefer one form over the other and trusts grant-seekers to determine whether a joint application with other groups or organizations will better serve the proposed work.
Note on Ineligible Proposals
This grant program is not intended to fund applications whose main purpose is the production of research studies, educational resources, and reports with some exceptions. In some cases, a research activity can be funded as an activity within a proposal if data or information is required to guide and inform the work. If you are unsure whether your idea will qualify, please contact our staff listed below.
This grant program is not intended to fund equity, diversity, or inclusion training for board/staff of organizations or program audits.
This grant program is not intended to fund existing programs and services unless they can clearly demonstrate how they fit into the three Generate Grant focus areas. This grant program is not intended for early stage and emerging idea explorations.
HOW TO APPLY
The Law Foundation uses the SmartSimple online grant management system to receive grant applications. The SmartSimple Portal can be found HERE.
Groups and organizations new to the Law Foundation’s SmartSimple system will need to first create an account for their group or organization. After clicking on the Register button, please select Organization as your registration type. Please then select Yes to the question “Are you applying for funding from the Law Foundation of BC?”. From there, you can enter your organization and key contact information. If you do not have an organizational address, simply enter “N/A” for all address fields during account set-up (we ask that you please avoid providing any personal/home addresses).
If your organization or entity is volunteer-run, or if you do not have the staff capacity to complete an online application, please reach out to us. The Foundation may extend honoraria to grant-seekers to support time and capacity spent writing applications where needed.
If you have technology barriers, or a specific accessibility need, please reach out to a staff member at the Law Foundation to coordinate an alternative application method. You can contact one of our staff members at the information below.
Stage 1
Grant-seekers will fill out a questionnaire with four questions and provide information about their group/organization, the communities they serve, and the policy or legal issue they are addressing.
A PDF version of the first-stage application can be found HERE. This PDF is provided for reference only. To be considered for funding, please submit your application through SmartSimple by May 27th at 4:30 PM PT.
Stage 2
Only those applications and groups/organizations most closely aligned with the guiding principles and priorities of the granting program will be invited to Stage 2.
Generate Grant-seekers in this stage will have the choice between scheduling an oral application with Foundation representatives or completing a written application form.
Grant-seekers will complete questionnaires regarding which of the three focus areas they plan to work in and their overall strategies as well as detailed project plan activities and timeline. They will also be able to elaborate on how their initiative meets the racial justice guiding principles, specifically intersectionality and meaningful engagement.
Grant-seekers will also need to prepare a budget. More information about the second- stage application process will be communicated directly to grant-seekers as part of their invitation package.
TIMELINE & GRANT REVIEW PROCESS
Applications for the first round will open on March 18th, 2024, and will be accepted until May 27th, 2024 at 4:30 PM PT.
Key expected dates for round one (could be subject to change depending on volume of applications to be processed – we will communicate any such changes to grant-seekers):
Stage 1
Shortlisting decisions will be communicated by Summer 2024.
Stage 2
- Oral applications will be scheduled during the summer months, and written applications will be due in the fall season. Second step applications will include more detailed questions about the proposed project timeline, budget, and vision.
- The Racial Justice Advisory Committee will review and discuss Generate Grant applications between November to December 2024.
- Final grant decisions will be made by the New Grants Committee, a subcommittee of the Board of Governors in mid-February 2025.
- Final Generate Grant decisions will be communicated, and funding awarded by the end of February or beginning of March 2025.
Each grant application is reviewed individually; past applications and prior grantee status is not taken into consideration for adjudication.
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Foundation staff will be hosting information sessions to provide an overview of the funding call and answer additional questions grant-seekers may have about the application process.
Information sessions will be held online over Zoom and are optional to attend. Both information sessions will have the same content; however, ASL interpretation will be provided at the May 1st session.
To sign up for one of these sessions, please follow the links below.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
There are three ways to get in touch with us to discuss any questions you may have. We are here to support you.
Info Sessions
We hosted two information sessions on April 16th and May 1st with ASL.
Virtual Meeting
We understand the information session timing may not work or you are looking for answers to specific questions. To book a time with our team, please click HERE.
Email Us
We are happy to answer your questions via email as well. Please email racialjustice[at]lawfoundationbc.org 
with your message. Please be advised that it may take up to five business days for our team to respond.