Dear CJI Grantee,

Thank you for all that you do to advance justice in your communities. We’re grateful to be in partnership with you through the Circle for Justice Innovations.

As a 2024 grantee of Circle for Justice Innovations, we kindly ask that you complete a grant report for your funding from the Leadership Circle, Until She’s Free Circle, and/or the Strategic Opportunities Support (SOS) Microgrant by June 20th via Submittable. 

If you received more than one grant, please be sure to submit a separate report for each. Your reflections and updates are vital to how we learn from and continue supporting this work. If you have any questions or need support with the reporting process, feel free to reach out to taliba obuya at talibao@cjifund.org directly.

With much appreciation,

taliba obuya

Circle of Justice Innovations

Director of Programs & Movement Partnerships

www.cjifund.org 

OVERVIEW:

Each week brings a new escalation of state violence, policy rollbacks, and targeted attacks on already-oppressed communities. From renewed pushes for federal “law and order” crackdowns, to the aggressive expansion of surveillance and detention, to sweeping attacks on civil liberties and protest rights —it’s clear we are living in an era of intensified authoritarianism and criminalization.

For directly impacted communities, the trauma is constant and compounding. Those of us committed to resistance are confronting not only systemic violence, but also what feels like daily assaults on our collective capacity to respond — the weariness of living under siege. This is outrage fatigue.

But we know the antidote to outrage fatigue is movement building: organizing, strategizing, healing, and fighting in community —so we can win in community.

Toward that goal, Circle for Justice Innovations (CJI) has launched our Strategic Opportunities for Support (SOS) Fund —a rapid-response resource for grassroots organizations confronting the immediate harms of the current political landscape. The SOS Fund is designed to enable bold, strategic, real-time actions to counter ongoing attacks on people most targeted by mass incarceration and state violence.

To be eligible for an SOS Grant, organizations must:

• Be led by formerly incarcerated and/or directly impacted people 
• Propose work that is responsive to current events or threats
• Organizations with budgets under $750,000.00 
• Be a 501(c)(3) organization or be fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) organization with a MOU 

The SOS Fund supports efforts such as: (not limited to)

• Rapid response to new political or legislative threats that escalate criminalization, surveillance, or incarceration;
• Organizing to protect constitutionally protected activity, including protest, assembly, and mutual aid;
• Actions that expose, resist, or halt state-led violence or expansions of carceral systems (e.g. new jails, surveillance programs, or immigration enforcement tactics);
• Work that advances restorative and transformative justice practices as alternatives to punishment and confinement;
• Movement-building events and activities that:          
  • Deepen cross-community solidarity, coordination and gathering,
  • Center healing, care, and resilience among frontline organizers and directly impacted people,
  • Invest in leadership development for those most harmed by systems of oppression.
• Narrative building and shifting for this moment,
• Know Your Rights education, training and production

In this moment, we need bold resistance — but also radical care, visionary strategy, and collective endurance. The SOS Fund is a resource to help make that possible.

Grant Review & Notification Process

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Submission Deadline: The 15th of each month
      (Final deadline: November 15th)

Grant Notifications:

October 1

October 15

November 15

December 1

Approved Grants Processed: Between the 15th and 20th of each month

You may apply at any time before November 15. Applications received by the 15th will be considered for that month's cycle.

Monthly Timeline:

•  Submissions Open: Ongoing until the 15th of each month, the 16th starts over with reviewing the next batch
•  Review Period: Applications are reviewed as they come in
•  Decision Deadline: By the 15th of each month
•  Processing Period: 15th–20th of each month for approved grants
•  Finalization: All grants finalized by the 30th of the month 

Final Deadline:
  The last day to submit applications is November 15th. The fund will close after this date.