Guidelines

The Equality and Opportunity Fund supports advocacy, field-building efforts, and critical campaigns and prioritizes funding efforts that:

• expose and address the structural roots of policy problems;
• are led by constituencies directly affected by unjust policies, laws or practices;
• have the broad political resonance needed to unite diverse constituencies that are sometimes pitted against one another;
• emphasize the values of fair play and shared fate;
• cut across two or more of the areas of racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, and gender justice.

To be considered for funding from the Open Society Institute Equality and Opportunity Fund, applicants must first complete a letter of inquiry. Please download the "Equality and Opportunity Fund Letter of Inquiry Guidelines" document below for instructions on what must be included with your inquiry. Please note that letters of inquiry are reviewed on a rolling basis.

The Equality and Opportunity Fund will consider letters of inquiry from advocacy groups, community groups, scholarly or research institutions, government agencies, associations of elected officials, and nonprofit business associations or initiatives.

The Equality and Opportunity Fund strongly encourages proposals from organizations that are led by (or cultivate the leadership of) those directly affected by policy debates relating to the fund's priority areas, including low-income individuals, women, immigrants, LGBTQ individuals and people of color.

To contact the Equality and Opportunity Fund, please email equality@sorosny.org.