This fund is now closed, and all awards have been committed.
Please see the complete list of grant awards here.
We encourage grant seekers to review the external resources page to explore funding opportunities.
Through So Love Can Win, Akonadi Foundation provides rapid-response general support grants to Oakland’s organizers, storytellers, culture bearers, and healers who seek to ignite and implement a radical collective vision of freedom and justice.
Between April and July 2020, So Love Can Win approved over 90 grants totalling $1.1 million to Oakland healers, journalists, culture-makers and movement organizations.
FUND DETAILS
- Rapid-response grants up to $10,000
- Larger grants may be made on a case-by-case basis
- One-time flexible general support grants on a rolling basis, until the funds are exhausted

WHO CAN APPLY
In order to apply for a 2020 So Love Can Win grant, applicants must:
- Be an organization, group, formation or collective
- Be based in Oakland
- Be committed to dismantling anti-Black racism
- Be led by Black, Indigenous, people of color
- Demonstrate a history of work with Black, Indigenous, people of color in Oakland
- Have 501(c)(3) status or a fiscal sponsor. Akonadi is continuing its partnership with the Social Good Fund, which will waive its normal fiscal sponsorship fees to groups that have been approved for a So Love Can Win grant. If you need a fiscal sponsor, please contact Iris Garcia: Iris [at] akonadi.org to discuss options.
- And employ at least one of the following strategies:
Akonadi Foundation will prioritize grant support to the following:
- Organizations with budgets under $500,000.
- Organizations that advance the leadership of women, trans, queer and non-binary communities; immigrant and undocumented communities; and formerly/currently incarcerated people and their families.
Organizing
Base-building organizations who mobilize, support, develop, and build power with their members.
Culture
Cultural formations that use culture and art as a tool for collective healing, racial justice movement building, and practices of communal joy.
Healing
Healing justice collectives and organizations providing accessible and relevant healing, wellness and self-care practices using an anti-racist political frame.
Voice
Oakland focused journalism with stories that highlight the racial impact of the pandemic and the anti-racist freedom struggle of Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities and use their platform to promote community leadership, mutual aid, and cultural resilience.
APPLICATION PROCESS
- Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis starting July 1, 2020, and ending September 15, 2020, or until funds are exhausted.
- Applicants may apply online or through a scheduled phone interview with Akonadi Foundation program staff. Link below.
- Phone interviews are intended for applicants with accessibility barriers and/or limited technology, as well as applicants who have never applied for a grant.
- No email applications will be accepted.
- Applicants will receive a decision within two weeks of submitting the application.
- Checks or electronic transfers will be sent to approved grantees within five business days of receipt of a signed contract.