Rapid Response Fund - 2026

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Purpose of This Fund

The goal of this fund is to provide one-time funding for a variety of rapid response needs to Black and Native-led organizations serving Black and Native communities in Arizona.

Specifically, funding requests should respond to urgent and/or unanticipated crises or urgent and/or unanticipated opportunities to strengthen the voice and power of Black and Native communities in Arizona. This funding is intended to help achieve a timely and specific outcome or impact within six months.

Overview:

Eligibility. All orgs that meet our eligibility criteria (more below) - Black and Native-led orgs based in Arizona that are predominantly serving Black and Native communities.

Amounts. Gift amounts are up to $15,000 per organization.

Timeline. If an application is selected for an award, total time from when communication was sent confirming application submission to payment of funds is 13-17 days.

We confirm application submissions through email within 48 hours (excluding weekends).
Decisions will be communicated within 3-7 business days after the email confirmation
If funding is approved, funds are available in awardee’s account about 10 business days from the time an application award decision is communicated and assuming all required agreements are signed and ACH info provided in a timely manner.

First come, first served. Funding will be awarded on a first come, first-served basis to applications that are selected as aligning best with our criteria.

Open throughout 2026. We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis throughout 2026. However, the fund will close once our 2026 budget is fully spent, which may happen before the end of the year depending on demand.

One-time awards. These will be considered one-time awards. There will be no renewals or possibility for additional funding.

Award amounts. If your application is selected, that does not mean you will receive your full funding request. The final award amounts for selected applications will be determined by our final application review and deliberation process.

Submission does not mean award. Please note that completing an application submission does guarantee funding. Whether your application gets awarded funding depends on the outcome of our established criteria and decision-making process (more below).

Award publicity. Please note that awardee names and descriptions may be used by AZRJI in public materials to promote transparency and elevate the work of our awardee partners.

Application preview. If you want to preview the application questions, click here.

Learning as we go. We are a small team and this is our first time implementing a fund like this. We acknowledge that things may not operate smoothly at times. We ask for your grace and patience and to provide us direct feedback on how we can improve.

Who is eligible to apply?

This fund is available only to the following organizations:

Black and Native-led: Black and Native-led organizations based in Arizona (75 percent or greater of the organization's leadership identifies as Black and/or native). See below for more info on our definitions.
Black and Native-serving: Organizations whose mission and work predominantly serves Black and Native people and communities in Arizona.

And must be one of the following organizations types:

Tax exempt nonprofit: Organizations that have an active 501(c)(3) IRS status.
Fiscally sponsored organization: Organizations that are fiscally sponsored by 501(c)(3) organizations with an active 501(c)(3) IRS status
Tribal: Tribal governments that have federal documentation of tribal status

If your organization does not meet any of these eligibility criteria, unfortunately we cannot accept your application at this time. If you only have your nonprofit status through the state of Arizona but not through the IRS, you are unfortunately ineligible to apply. Individuals, LLCs, 501(c)(4) orgs, etc. are not eligible to apply.

Funding award amounts

Requests are capped at up to $15,000 for immediate actions (funds to be used within 6 months).

Only one award per organization per calendar year is allowed.

What do we fund?

Awardees may use gift funds to meet following urgent and unanticipated crises or urgent and anticipated opportunities to strengthen the voice and power of Black and/or Native communities such as the following:

Legal services. Legal fees and services that are urgent and/or unanticipated and impact the organization’s ability to effectively carry out its work.

Facilities emergency. Facilities damage or repairs that are urgent and/or unanticipated and impact the organization’s ability to effectively carry out its work.

Examples: damage from extreme weather or targeted vandalism, repairs or replacement of critical equipment like air conditioning systems, remediation of environmental hazards.

Natural disaster aid. The aid effort must be organized by the applicant organization to support Black and/or Native communities impacted by emergency natural disasters (e.g. floods, forest fires, droughts, etc).

Violence response aid. The aid effort must be organized by the applicant organization to support Black and/or Native communities impacted by acts of targeted and/or state violence.

Advocacy opportunity or response. Unanticipated opportunities arise to secure more just and equitable outcomes for Black and Native communities, or an unanticipated situation arises that requires an urgent response to prevent or mitigate harm to Black and Native communities.

Examples: media or policy campaigns to fight against unanticipated legislation/policies/regulations that will negatively impact Black and/or Native communities (to be carried out in compliance with 501(c)(3) tax code).

Community mobilization. Urgent community organizing and/or associated direct actions in response to events impacting Black and Native communities (to be carried out in compliance with 501(c)(3) tax code).

This fund is not designed for:

Cash flow issues,
Sponsorships,
Covering costs for any materials or conducting activities that are not lawful or not in compliance with 501(c)(3) tax code status

Timing of funding award

The estimated timeline to payment, if your application is awarded, is 13-17 days from the date that your application submission was confirmed.

Here is a breakdown of the timeline:

We confirm submission of applications within 48 hours (excluding weekends).
Decisions will be communicated within 3-7 business days after confirmation
If funding is approved, funds are available in awardee’s account about 10 business days from the time an application award decision is communicated and all required agreements are signed and ACH info provided in a timely manner.

How funds will be distributed

Funds will be distributed as a gift through AZRJI’s fiscal sponsor. A gift letter will be shared for awardee’s signature before funds are released.

What are the selection criteria?

In determining which applications will receive funding, AZRJI’s Funding Team will consider the following criteria:

Level of alignment with AZRJI’s racial justice goal
Request is urgent or unanticipated
Impact to the awardee would be meaningful or significant

Since this is the first time we are opening a fund like this, there may be other relevant factors that should be considered. As a result, other relevant factors specific to an application may come up and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

How will we decide who gets funding?

Last year, we collaborated with our 2025 Funding Council to design this fund. Through a co-creation process, they provided input on the “who” and “what” of this fund. This year, we have decided to implement a different decision-making process since applications will be submitted and awarded on an ongoing basis.

To make funding decisions more nimbly and in a faster timeframe than we have in the past, funding decisions will be made by AZRJI’s executive director, Joel Espino, along with AZRJI’s three strategic advisors and implementation support consultants: Sharifa Rowe, Belen Gonzalez, and Liv Knoki. This group, referred to as the “Funding Team,” will review applications using our scoring rubric and deliberate on final decisions on all applications.

Given this is the first time AZRJI is implementing a fund and decision-making process like this, we ask for your grace and patience with any issues that may come up. We are learning as we go and commit to resolving any challenges in the most equitable and fair way possible. At the close of this year, we will solicit feedback and do a full evaluation of our process in order to make improvements and ensure this fund is being as responsive as possible.

Overview of our process

Application opens until funding runs out. We are accepting applications until December 1, 2026 or until 2026 funding runs out, whichever comes first.
Applications are reviewed. AZRJI’s Funding Team will review applications for eligibility and alignment with our criteria.
AZRJI’s Funding Team deliberates and makes final decisions. Once the Funding Team completes reviewing an application, it will be deliberated at the next appropriate meeting and a final decision will be made.
Due diligence process and funding awarded. If an application is awarded, Joel will reach out to grantees and support them in completing the steps required by our fiscal sponsor to receive funding (e.g. gift letters, ACH info, etc.).
Impact and reporting. Awardees will not need to provide formal reports. However, AZRJI staff would welcome hearing from awardees who would like to share how the gift had benefited their work to help inform and improve future efforts.

How to apply

Review guidelines. Review and familiarize yourself with these guidelines.
Review questions. If you want to review application questions before creating a Submittable account and deciding to apply, click here for a Google doc version of the application questions.
Video responses accepted. For some of the questions we are accepting video responses if you prefer . Videos will be limited to 2-5 minutes depending on the question. You will be asked to upload your video in one of these acceptable file types: .3gp, .avi, .flv, .m4v, .mkv, .mov, .mp4, .mpg, .webm, .wmv. If you would rather include a website link to stream the video (e.g. Youtube), please include that link in the written response field. You will get further guidance when you are in the application.
Application assistance. If you need assistance in completing the application, please send your request to: info@azracialjustice.org. We will respond as promptly as possible.
Submit application. If you think you are eligible and want to request funding, please complete and submit an application through this Submittable platform.

How do you define Black-led and Native-led?

An organization is Black-led if 75 percent or greater of the organization's leadership identifies as Black and/or African-American.

An organization is Native-led if 75 percent or greater of the organization's leadership identifies as Native/or Native-American. For the purposes of this funding initiative, we are defining “Native” and “Native-American” as the original inhabitants and caretakers of the land that is now referred to as the United States (Source: IllumiNative). Specifically, this initiative is focused on Native/Native-American communities based in Arizona.

“Leadership” is defined as people in roles that are responsible for setting the direction of the organization and overseeing the daily implementation of the organization’s mission and priorities. Typically, these roles are a board,an advisory council, and executive-level staff, like an executive director and other executive level staff.

For example, group ABC has 5 board members and 3 executive level staff (2 co-executive directors and 1 organizing director). This means that ABC group has 8 people who are considered “leadership.” To be eligible for funding under this initiative, that means 6 out of those 8 folks (75%) would have to identify as Black and/or Native in order to meet the definition of “75 percent or greater” of leadership.

How do we define racial justice?

We use a broad definition of racial justice to guide our work. We’ve been using the following definition to describe what racial justice means to us:

Racial justice work understands that there is a long history of racism in America and that this history is the root cause of current racial inequality and racial violence.

Racial justice efforts work to advance shared, affirmative visions of an inclusive and fair society where racism does not exist. Racial justice work focuses on building community, cultural, and political power to secure transformative solutions that address multiple, interconnected harms (e.g., environmental racism, economic inequality, police brutality, mass incarceration, food injustice, education inequity, etc.)

This definition is adapted from “Grantmaking with a Racial Justice Lens: A Practical Guide,” which was produced by The Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity.