"Overall, the grant reading process was extremely organized and easy to follow. I learned even more than I did my first (time) as a grant reader about the Guiding Practices, and feel as though I am better prepared to create, implement, and analyze well-rounded projects rooted in equity"
- Fall '24 Community Grant Reader
Sign Up Here to be a Fall 2024 Community Grant Reader
Join as a Community Grant Reader!
We need your perspectives in our decision-making process. As a volunteer reader, you:
- reflect on biases and review practices that center equity;
- share comments on pending Grow applications to help shape staff review questions and final funding outcomes;
- inform feedback to Grow applicant groups;
- provide input on the Grassroots Fund's guiding practices and how we all can further operationalize & center equity and Environmental Justice across the region.
**Currently, all reader activities happen via the Grassroots Fund website and communications are over email. The majority of reader review and orientation activities happen on screen (though the main body of the applications are printable).**
Who?
Anyone interested in Environmental and Social Justice in New England, who is committed to upholding and co-evolving the Grassroots Fund's Guiding Practices. To Shift Power in our own work, we especially encourage applicants and former Grassroots Fund grantees to participate as readers. We have a conflict of interest process that ensures you won't be assigned to review your own application. In other words, you can both apply for a Grow grant AND participate as a Community Grant Reader during the same Grow round.
“As a grant reader who has at the same time an ongoing application, I reflected on my own application and realized that there were some aspects I might have elaborated on, had I known what I know now. It was an opportunity to learn what other groups are involved in in their respective communities. All in all, I was very delighted to provide my constructive and analytical criticism, that I hope will contribute to the tremendous work The Grassroots Fund and applicant organizations are doing.” (Fall '23 Community Grant Reader)
When?
The reader sign up deadline is the third Friday of the month in March and September (March 21 and September 19 for 2025). Readers have ~3 weeks to review and score 4 to 15 applications (depending on availability) as well as share comments and questions. Each application takes an average of 60 min review and complete an online rubric. A Grantmaking Committee, composed of 12-16 members from the New England grassroots community, is then tasked with reviewing reader and staff scores and comments and making final decisions about funding levels.
Why?
The Grassroots Fund transforms the traditional funder-applicant structure in which one person, or a small group of people with money, make all the decisions. We believe in supporting those closest to environmental and social problems to determine their own solutions and including a wide range of knowledge and lived experience leads to more just funding outcomes. We actively work to blur the line between "grantor" and "grantee," inviting the grassroots groups that we fund into the decision-making process to determine where funding should go.
Participating as a reader is about more than decisions on pending Grow applications. We believe the process of application review allows readers to reflect on their own biases and practices towards equity and justice. Those reflections and experiences help us further evolve the Guiding Practices and scoring rubrics used throughout the process.
How?
Click the button below to go to the google form to register as a reader.