Regenerative and Organic Farming
Accelerate the adoption of regenerative farming practices, including organic, climate-resilient, equitable, and agroecological approaches.
Food Production Workers’ Health and Safety
Amplify efforts to secure healthy, safe, just, and empowering working and living conditions for food production workers.
Climate Justice
Expand community-centered solutions to climate change that build resilience and empower those who have been historically marginalized.
Healthy Food Access
Advance food systems’ changes that make healthy and sustainably produced food accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate.
Inclusive Outdoor Access
Catalyze solutions that expand access to safe places to enable healthy physical activity and improve mental health.
Indoors and Outdoors Safe from Pollution
Promote preventative health approaches by identifying and eliminating toxics from our air, water, soil, and human-made materials.
Strategic Priorities
Clif Family Foundation currently offers two types of grants, Open Call and By Invitation Only. Click on the below links to learn more.
Open Call
These grants support general operating cost or specific projects and applicants must be registered as (or fiscally sponsored by) a 501(c)3 organization. The Foundation reviews applications twice a year; the deadlines are March 1 and August 1. Grant announcements occur approximately four months after the deadline. Typical grants range from $5,000 - $50,000 and last for one year.
Helpful Guidelines Below
Helpful Guidelines Below
The Guidelines
Priority is given to applicants that:
- Advance our strategic priorities and align with our values
- Focus their work primarily in the United States and its organized incorporated territories
- Demonstrate strong community ties
- Have operating budgets under $3MM
- Operate at the grassroots level to implement change at the local, state or national stage
- Capital construction (construction, demolition, renovation, or renewal of a public building)
- Deficit funding
- Endowments
- Faith-based or religious organizations
- Fundraising events (e.g., fun run, challenges, annual gala)
- Individuals
- Local and state public sector or government agencies
- Media projects (such as films, books, radio)
- Medical Centers
- Product donations
- Sponsorships
TAKE ME TO THE APPLICATION
By Invitation Only Grants:
Our By Invitation Only (BIO) grants support nonprofit organizations in the U.S. working on critical issues that are aligned with the Clif Family Foundation’s strategic priorities and values. There are two main programs for BIO grants:
1. Food Systems Transformation, focused on:
Ann Thrupp, Senior Program Officer in Food Systems Transformation, Ann[at]cliffamilyfoundation[dot]org
2. Climate Justice, focused on:
Sierra Martinez, Senior Program Officer in Climate Justice, sierra[at]cliffamilyfoundation[dot]org
1. Food Systems Transformation, focused on:
- Farmworker Justice, Health and Safety
- Increased Access to Good Food (i.e., healthy and equitably/regeneratively produced food) for disadvantaged communities
- Organic and Regenerative Farming, emphasizing human/social and equity dimensions
Ann Thrupp, Senior Program Officer in Food Systems Transformation, Ann[at]cliffamilyfoundation[dot]org
2. Climate Justice, focused on:
- A Resilient Built Environment: helping communities secure climate- ready structures—places that are safe, affordable, healthy and carbon positive
- Economic Justice: enabling solutions to come from, benefit, and create jobs in disadvantaged communities including community ownership of energy systems, and community-stewarded lands
- A More Powerful Climate Movement: helping grow from the bottom up a more effective movement that ensures this moment of unprecedented federal climate support reaches disadvantaged communities
Sierra Martinez, Senior Program Officer in Climate Justice, sierra[at]cliffamilyfoundation[dot]org
The Guidelines
Across these programs, Clif Family Foundation aims to support the following pathways:
- Power and movement-building of disadvantaged communities, including organizing, leadership of historically marginalized communities, and healing injustice
- Policy initiatives and advocacy, at local, state or national levels
- Job building, workforce development and/or innovative education/empowerment programs
- Narrative work in service of building movements
- Market transformation efforts or other efforts to advance systemic change
- Deficit funding
- Endowments
- Individuals
- Local government and/or state government agencies
- Biofuels, offsets, hydrogen and/or nuclear
- Food banks and community/school gardens (unless engaged in wider systemic change)
- Direct air capture or carbon capture and sequestration (not including nature-based sequestration solutions like working lands)