The JustPax Fund is providing financial and logistical support to individuals and organizations working for effective change in the realm of gender justice, environmental justice, and/or economic justice.
Through monetary grants, JustPax invests in projects and initiatives that bring innovative and novel approaches to justice advocacy, research, and implementation.
The JustPax Fund welcomes proposals that seek to create space for critical inquiry, generating awareness, and promoting solutions to some of the most complex societal challenges facing the global community. The JustPax Fund seeks to bolster the capacity of passionate and creative agents for change by providing the financial resources necessary for their work.
The JustPax Fund donors are adherents of the Believer’s Church tradition and welcome proposals that address gender, environmental, and economic justice as applicable or relevant to that tradition. Applications stemming from other faith traditions and belief systems are also welcome.
Vision
Molded by the values of the Anabaptist and Believer’s Church Tradition that embrace service, justice, tolerance, mutuality, and religious liberty, the JustPax Fund seeks to catalyze economic, environmental and gender justice:
Economy
JustPax Fund acknowledges that the history of economy is also a history of exploitation, extraction and oppression. While they aspire to the spirit of free exchange to the mutual benefit of all, this has all too rarely been practiced in reality. Those who have been stripped of their agency, their land, their culture or their autonomy cannot be said to be partners in joyous or voluntary exchange. They seek to see and understand the effects of colonialism, racism, violence and commodification in the economic systems.
Environment
If they have silenced the voices of exploited workers, so too have they marginalized and buried the cries of the nonhuman companions. The world warms, species vanish, the soils die and slowly they poison themselves and the neighbors. They have forgotten the role as respectful and reverent stewards and lost the way in an entitled domination and destruction of the only home and once cherished community.
Gender
They have cultivated an unseeing of those from whom they take economically and environmentally, and also of those they claim to most dearly love. Part of any pursuit of justice must be a reconnection with the wholeness of others, of seeing individuals of any gender as the complete and complex individuals they are not simply for the roles (traditional, cultural, or biological) in which they might serve them. Any system that tolerates oppression by gender has learned oppression in its most intimate form, invited it into its most sacred spaces, and will not hesitate to broaden those lessons systematically and violently.
Funding Priorities
Applications for funding received by the JustPax Fund are prioritized according to the Fund’s vision, mission and eligibility criteria. Proposals which achieve the highest rank on the following criteria will be most eligible for a consideration of support:
Breadth: The degree to which the proposal has the potential to stimulate interest in the larger community on the topic.
The Multiplier Effect: The degree to which the proposal has the potential to engage other resources for the wider continuation of the project. What are the projected repercussions of the project? Is the proposed impact of the project clearly outlined and justified?
Relevance: The degree to which the proposal demonstrates relevance to the area of interest (i.e. gender justice, environmental justice, economic justice) and the applicant’s ability to articulate how the project would support innovative and catalytic approaches to the issue.
Dedication: The degree to which the applicant(s) of the proposal show their personal interest and commitment to the issue. What are the past activities, interests, and demonstrated bodies of work of the applicant(s)? Is there a long-term commitment to engage in this project area?
Stewardship and Impact of Investment: The degree to which the project makes efficient and effective use of the requested funds to achieve far-reaching results. Does the proposal and budget demonstrate that it can legitimately support the request?
Funding Information
In 2024, they anticipate awarding a total of up to $500,000 across all JustPax Fund projects.
The JustPax Fund has traditionally awarded grants of up to $25,000/year for gender, environmental, and economic justice projects. They occasionally increase this cap for exceptional projects.
Strategic Approaches
They seek applications that utilize the following strategic approaches to addressing injustice:
Novel and Innovative
Activities must be novel and innovative in nature – creating social space for new conversations, strategies, and partnerships – where proposals are oriented toward new and creative approaches to inquiry, engagement, and action.
Beyond addressing the effects of economic, environmental, and gender injustice, qualifying activities create innovative and replicable initiatives that transform paradigms of oppression. These initiatives provide real-world examples of non-extractive economic activity, environmental systems that harmonize human and non-human activities, and social systems of respect and just governance. Examples of transformative rather than reactive proposals include but are by no means limited to alternative economic systems that reward sustainable rather than extractive practices, community engagement strategies that elevate marginalized groups into leadership roles, and initiatives that transform the participation in systems of oppression or injustice.
Interdisciplinary and Action Oriented
Proposals from applicants across a wide and diverse range of experiences and realities, disciplines and vocations are encouraged. Proposals are encouraged to reflect the importance of interdisciplinary engagement. Proposals should outline the ways in which diverse voices will be identified and included during project implementation. Research and project proposals are encouraged to be oriented towards practical applications, and/or the potential for impact is clearly demonstrated.
Open & Accessible
Grants are open and accessible to all qualifying individuals and organizations including, but not limited to: artists, social entrepreneurs, students, teachers, engineers, pastors, professors, poets, scientists, writers, farmers, economists, activists, dreamers, peacebuilders, and individuals and organizations within universities and colleges, mission societies, professional associations, or church agencies, etc. All individuals who possess a passion for justice and have a plan for confronting the most urgent injustices surrounding gender, the environment, and/or the economy are encouraged to apply. Grant applicants shall not be limited to specific academic disciplines, church and para-church agencies, or their paradigms.
Eligibility Criteria
Fiscal Agency & Tax Exempt Status:
Eligible applicants must be associated with a USA qualified tax exempt organizations under regulations of the United States Internal Revenue Service in order to receive funds. The JustPax Fund cannot provide funding directly to individuals or organizations without USA tax exempt status.
JustPax Without Borders:
Recognizing the potential for funding across national borders, the JustPax Advisory Board may consider grants made to organizations sourced outside the United States, so long as the recipient is associated with a USA tax exempt organization.
The JustPax Fund discourages applications for the following types of needs (the list is meant to be suggestive but not exhaustive):
Funding for operational phases of established programs, salaries or institutional benefits.
Partisan political activities and actions that lobby for specific legislation.
Tuition assistance (i.e. K-13, undergraduate, graduate, or postgraduate studies).
In general, the Just Pax Fund discourages applications that have a budget heavily reliant on air travel.
Annual fundraising drives, endowments, development campaigns, honorary functions, or similar projects.
Projects that do not conform to the general guidelines listed above.
