Connecting, celebrating, and building power together

We are excited to support organizations or projects fiscally sponsored by a nonprofit recognized by the IRS as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) in Washington. We are also excited to sponsor events hosted by sovereign nations and tribal government entities. Your organization must provide documentation of your tax-exempt status or be sponsored by a fiscal agent who has documented tax-exempt status.

When reviewing applications, we pay close attention to:

• Race/Ethnicity - We evaluate how your event reflects the communities you serve and give preference to culturally specific, multiracial, and cross-racial organizations and events.
• Disability/Ability - We prioritize disability-led organizations and disability justice. We also ask nonprofits to share how a sponsored event will be accessible to all people.
• Organization size - We encourage small and mid-size nonprofits to apply and prioritize support for events where sponsorship might have a big impact.
• Geography - We prioritize areas where philanthropic funding is less common, recognizing that the bulk of foundation money is concentrated in Western Washington. We also welcome applications from organizations serving communities along our state’s borders and from tribes for whom Washington is part of their traditional territory.
• Leadership – If senior leadership, including board members, represent the communities they aspire to serve. If a nonprofit does not accurately disclose its racial, ethnic, and gender identities in its application, we will not consider the request.

In alignment with our work and community visions for a more equitable, racially just Washington, we typically do not sponsor the following event types:

• Ongoing, programmatic work. We may sponsor a series of events, but we do not support work that is ongoing. For example, if you are an immigration nonprofit that offers citizenship classes as a core part of your work, we would not sponsor those courses. We do support these types of programmatic work in other funding areas. Please read our grantmaking overview page for more.
• Festivals, such as those for food, film, art, dance, or music that do not have explicit connections to community power building for equity and racial justice.
• Partisan political events. This includes dinners or fundraisers marketed as “bipartisan.”
• Events by legacy institutions and their affiliates, such as museums, universities, hospitals, and their “friends of” groups.
• Scholarships, which may include requests to sponsor attendees at events or traditional education scholarships.
• Fundraisers supporting national associations, including state and local chapters.
• School-based groups, such as booster clubs or parent-teacher associations. We will, however, consider community-based organizations hosting events for education equity.
• Athletic events, such as runs, walks, races, bike rides and sports teams, matches, leagues, or associated booster/fan groups.
• Research and data-gathering projects without community partnership, such as focus groups, town halls, or forums designed to solicit one-way feedback or collective action.
• Scientific, medical, or addiction recovery events and conferences.
• Car washes, bake sales, block parties, farmers markets, neighborhood walks, job fairs, health fairs, and school resource fairs.

We make rare exceptions to the guidelines above. If you believe your request may be an exception, please contact us at sponsorships@inatai.org or 866.389.5532 with an outline of the event and the reason an exception should be made. This must be done 90 days prior to the event. If an exception is approved, you will then submit a full application subject to the deadlines and evaluation outlined above.

Inatai supports cultural celebrations with explicit connections to organizing, political engagement, power-building, and collective action toward equity and racial justice. The primary focus of cultural celebrations is to reflect the traditions, values, history, identity, and political aspirations of specific cultural, ethnic, or racial groups as part of the work to recognize and organize power among overlooked and underfunded communities. We recognize that in some places, a cultural group gathering for an event may be considered a political act, whereas the same gathering in another place would not be eligible for funding from Inatai. In contrast, we do not fund festivals that primarily focus on entertainment, such as food, film, art, dance, or music.

Yes! We encourage organizations we already know to apply.

Organizations may submit one sponsorship application at a time and should not submit multiple requests for the same calendar year simultaneously. Each nonprofit is eligible to receive one sponsorship per calendar year. After receiving a sponsorship award notification, nonprofits are welcome to apply again for an event in the following calendar year, provided they submit their applications up to one year in advance of the planned event.

Organizations may choose to invite our staff, our partners, and other members of our community to participate in sponsored events. You will indicate on the sponsorship application if and how you would like us to participate. While invitations are welcome, please note that attendance is not guaranteed due to availability.

Whether you do or do not want our participation has no effect on your sponsorship request being granted. We ask up front only so we know how we can be most supportive.