Please Note: As of October 15, 2007, the Foundation will not be considering new proposals for the foreseeable future. The program will continue to consider grant renewals while completing project evaluations through at least the end of 2009.

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A growing number of U.S. civil society groups are turning to human rights to secure social, political, and economic objectives that they have sought for decades. To support these goals and explore the potential of human rights-based advocacy to achieve these changes, the Foundation launched an exploratory program in 2004 to test the viability of the international human rights framework for the realization of social change and justice in the United States.

The decision to take this approach was rooted in the Foundation’s recognition of two related factors: 1) The U.S. government’s antipathy, in recent history, to applying international human rights standards within the U.S.; and 2) The general public’s relative lack of knowledge about the human rights framework. These challenges notwithstanding, the Foundation feels encouraged by the growing efforts to enforce global human rights standards and law within U.S. borders. These efforts currently include U.S. Supreme Court justices, human rights organizations historically focused abroad, the nation’s pre-eminent civil rights organizations, and many grassroots organizations across the nation.

The Foundation has chosen to support:

• Projects that will yield valuable information for assessing the viability of the international human rights framework in the U.S. Projects have been chosen across the full spectrum of human rights – economic, social and cultural, as well as civil and political – and support a variety of constituencies and/or methods. Indeed, the Foundation has chosen a diverse set of projects involving a variety of rights, methods, constituencies and locations. Since this stream of funding is intended as a learning opportunity, the Foundation has also hired evaluators to examine the contribution of human rights to the realization of project objectives. 
• Networks and coalitions that build and strengthen linkages across regions, issues and/or constituencies. Since there is value in bridging the growing number of diverse efforts to leverage change through human rights, the Foundation is supporting national and regional networks through general operating support, institutional capacity building, and joint campaigns.
• Training that builds human rights advocacy capacity. Given the newness of human rights work to many in the U.S., the Foundation has supported human rights training programs that cover a range of rights, strategies and/or constituencies.

2009 GRANTS

Updated December 9, 2009

Projects