The Pollination Project
/OVERVIEW: The Pollination Project makes seed grants to individuals and grassroots organizations working to “create a more compassionate world.” Areas of grantmaking interest include but are not strictly limited to global development, human rights, women and girls, the environment, animals, mental health and arts and culture.
IP TAKE: The Pollination Project awards a seed grant of $1,000 every day of the year to organizations and individuals engaged in “selfless grassroots volunteerism.” Grantees who achieve a level of success with their ventures are invited to apply for capacity building grants of up to $10,000 and often receive strategic support from the project’s staff. Grants often support organizations and projects at the very earliest stages of development and prioritize work in underserved communities and developing countries. This supportive and approachable funder runs an ongoing open application program via its website.
PROFILE: The Berkeley, California-based Pollination Project was established in 2012 to “invest in grassroots projects by people who seek to create a more compassionate world.” The project’s funding model is to award a seed grant of $1,000 to a relevant new project every day of the year. As these new projects “blossom,” they become eligible for larger capacity building grants and strategic support from the Pollination Project. The project’s current areas of grantmaking include human rights, women and girls, animal welfare, global development, the environment, mental health and arts and culture, but the project’s seed grants have gone to innovative projects in other areas, as well. Grantmaking is global in scope, and many grantees are individuals who are at the earliest stages of their philanthropic work or social enterprise endeavors.
Grants for Global Security and Human Rights
Human Rights and Dignity is the Pollination Projects largest giving area. Recent priorities include ending child marriage and defending the rights of LGBTQ and indigenous people around the world. One recent grantee is the graphic artist Peter Harris, who used funding to support his Black Man of Happiness media campaign. Another grantee, George Reginald Freeman, is a gay man from Sierra Leone who suffered an assassination attempt when a newspaper named him as a homosexual. Freeman used a grant from the Pollination Project to publish his manifesto, Unveil the Lens of Unspoken Reality, which addresses the discrimination and danger faced by LGBTQ people in the 38 African nations where homosexuality is illegal.
Grants for Women and Girls
A significant portion of the Pollination Project’s grants fund initiatives for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. Grantmaking in this area has prioritized the Global South, and specific areas of interest have included education, job training and menstrual hygiene. One recent grantee, the Nairobi-based organization Mukuru Clean Stoves, is a women-led enterprise that produces and distributes safe, clean and efficient cookstoves. In Zambia, the project has supported the women’s health and rights activist Natasha Salifyanji Kaoma, who runs workshops on menstruation and reproductive health that include instructions on how to sew reusable menstrual pads using commonly available materials.
Grants for Animal Welfare and Wildlife
The Pollination Project names Animal Rights and Welfare as an area of grantmaking focus and makes grants for the protection of animal welfare through an Animal Welfare Grants program. The initiative has supported vegan initiatives, humane education programs, farm animal welfare and spay and neuter clinics for domestic pets. The project receives funding from the Tipping Point Foundation to support “projects that reduce the consumption of conventionally farmed meat and seafood anywhere in the world.” Past grantees include Bree and Me, a humane education program for children, and Lakshman Molleti, an Indian animal activist who has distributed thousands of sustainable water bowls throughout India so that stray animals may have access to clean water.
Grants for Global Development
The Pollination Project’s global development funding stems mainly from its Education and Access to Opportunity Initiative, which supports education and vocational skills training for children and adults and virtual learning platforms. The program places a strong emphasis on educationally underserved communities in developing countries. One grantee is Kenya’s Action Foundation, which provides therapeutic and educational services to children with disabilities. A grantee in South Africa, Hands of Honour, employs homeless and at-risk boys and men in an up-cycling business that has prevented “369 tons of waste from entering a landfill.”
Grants for Environmental Conservation and Justice
The Pollination Project supports environmental initiatives via its Environmental Conservation and Regeneration initiative, which aims to promote environmental awareness, reduce plastic pollution and preserve critical habitats. One grantee, Oregon’s Rogue Buzzway Project, used funding to map pollinator habitats and educate communities about the role of native plants in sustaining healthy populations of pollinators. In India, the projects supported an initiative to preserve habitats on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the only remaining areas where leatherback sea turtles continue to nest.
Grants for Sustainable Agriculture and Food
The project has given to initiatives for sustainable agriculture and food through its Health and Wholeness and Environmental funding programs. In Los Angeles, the project awarded a seed grant to Olympia Auset, who started Suprmrkt, an enterprise that offers low-cost fresh produce subscriptions and pop-up organic food events in underserved areas of Southern California. Another grantee, the People’s Fridge, engages volunteers to stock and maintain a refrigerator full of excess fresh produce from nearby farms and gardens in Merced, California.
Grants for Arts and Culture
The Pollination Project’s arts funding stems from its Artistic Expression and Creative Communities program, which aims to support arts education, activist art and art therapy programs. One recent grantee, the Northern Uganda Hip Hop Project, which aims to give an “artistic outlet to the thousands of young people fighting through the trauma of war.” In the U.S., the project has supported the Big Gratitude Project, a program that encourages the expression of gratitude through spoken and written word projects across communities in ten states.
Grants for Mental Health
The Pollination Project does not name mental health as an area of focus, but it has supported mental health programs via its Artistic Expression and Health and Wholeness programs. A seed grant supported the work of Nicole Cardoza, the founder of Yoga Foster, which trains teachers and others the fundamentals of mindfulness through movement and breathing. Another mental health grantee is the cartoonist Steve Barr’s Drawn to Help, a network of artists who support hospitalized children with art therapy sessions.
Grants for Disaster Relief and Humanitarian Aid
The Pollination Project’s Resilience and Recover Fund Emergency Grant program supports “projects designed by volunteers in the immediate aftermath of emergencies such as natural disaster, civil unrest, pandemic, or other unforeseen events.” Emergency funding consists of one-time grants of $1,000. This program accepts applications at any time through the Pollination Project’s online application portal.
Important Grant Details:
The Pollination Projects made about $1.6 million in seed and capacity building grants in a recent year. Seed grants are awarded in the amount of $1,000, and while capacity grants are larger, they rarely exceed $10,000. Many of the project’s grantees are individuals who have not yet established a formal nonprofit but have a viable idea for a project in one of the project’s many areas of interest. For additional information about past grantees, see the project’s changemakers page and blog.
The Pollination Project runs an ongoing open application process via its website. Application begins with an on-line eligibility quiz. General inquiries may be submitted to the project’s staff via its contact page.
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