Funding | Grantmaking Overview | Transformational Capacity Building
Transformational Capacity Building
Transformational Capacity Building funds supplement our other grants, helping Washington organizations build their knowledge, capacity, and capabilities for building power in their community.
Who Can Apply:Transformational Capacity Building grants are available to reflective, community-led organizations who are engaging in or have a clear path to collective action that addresses systemic inequities.
To stay up to date with our grantmaking:
The joint application for Campaign, Litigation, Issues, and Policy, Infrastructure Opportunities, and Transformational Capacity Building is OPEN.
Applications will be reviewed in two rounds. We will consider the first round of applications received between March 2 – April 7, 2026 and the second round of applications received between July 13 – August 18, 2026.
About Transformational Capacity Building Funds
Organizations have varying needs, depending on where they are in their power-building journeys. Through our Transformational Capacity Building funds, we provide current grantee organizations with one year of funding tailored to to support their capacity-building projects in the areas listed below.
Learning & Leadership Grants
Conferences, workshops, and training programs can be effective ways to strengthen your team’s skills, but they’re often out of reach financially. Our Learning & Leadership grants are designed to help existing grantees bridge this gap. This includes but is not limited to funds to attend conferences, the cost to bring in trainers to deepen your team’s organizing or advocacy skills, leadership coaching support.
Operational Stability
Are you a power-building organization that needs support to strengthen your work? This grant focuses on projects that stabilize organizational operations so that you can begin to visualize and grow your capacity. This can include but is not limited to funds for financial/budget coaching, technology and data needs, fundraising and development support, HR and board governance support, and legal support to explore new or strengthening existing organizational structures.
Change Capital
Whether it’s structural reorganizations, leadership transitions, or redefining strategies, change can be hard. This grant prioritizes organizations engaged in community power building that need support to meet clear goals and take their work to the next level. This includes but is not limited to funds for strategic planning, support for leadership transitions, and other projects that move the organization to a deeper level of their mission and vision during periods of transition or change.
*Due to the short-term duration (1 year) of these grants and the goal of these funds to support capacity projects, T-CAP grants will typically exclude new or ongoing permanent staff positions.
ELIGIBILITY
Transformational Capacity Building grants are available to reflective, community-led organizations who are engaging in or have a clear path to collective action that addresses systemic inequities.
In addition, eligible organizations must be:
-
A nonprofit organization or a named sponsored nonprofit organization project.
-
Led by communities most impacted by structural inequities, including efforts where decision-making power is held by people of color; queer, transgender, and gender-expansive people; D/deaf and disabled people; immigrants; people who are cash poor, and other lived experiences.
-
Able to demonstrate a clear power-building goal, regardless of where they are in their journeys.
Leaders gather to advocate for their communities at WAISN’s 2026 Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Day in Olympia. Photo: John Lok
HOW TO APPLY
The joint application for Campaign, Litigation, Issues, and Policy (CLIP), Infrastructure Opportunities, and Transformational Capacity Building is OPEN.
Applications will be reviewed in two rounds. We will consider the first round of applications received between March 2 – April 7, 2026 and the second round of applications received between July 13 – August 18, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I apply for funding?
To learn more about our process and how to apply, click here.
Can I submit more than one application?
You will only need to submit one application. To learn more about our application process, click here.
Is there an application deadline?
Applications will be reviewed in two rounds. We will consider the first round of applications received between March 2 – April 7, 2026 and the second round of applications received between July 13 – August 18, 2026.
When are TCAP funds awarded?
A variety of factors, including volume of applications, affect the timeline of decisions and our team takes the time to read every application thoroughly, multiple times. We estimate we will send award notifications approximately 90-120 days after each round closes.
What type of work are you most likely to fund?
Through our Transformational Capacity Building funds, we provide organizations with one year of funding tailored to support their capacity-building projects in the three areas; Learning & Leadership Grants, Operational Stability, and Change Capital.
Can you give me examples of what this means?
Though decisions about who is invited to apply often involve various unique factors and circumstances, here are some examples of what could be supported through Transformational Capacity Building:
- Conferences and training
- Political education for team or members
- Financial/budget coaching
- Technology and data needs
- Fundraising and development support
- HR and board governance support
- Legal support for organizational structure
- Strategic planning
- Leadership transitions
Is there anything TCAP funding cannot support?
Transformational Capacity Building funds are restricted and must be used for a specific capacity building project. These grants are short-term in duration with the goal of supporting a specific short-term capacity building project that either strengthens the organization or moves the organization to a next level of power-building. Here are some examples that may not share the strongest alignment for this fund’s priorities:
- Funding for new or ongoing permanent staff positions
- Regranting funds to other community organizations
What other priorities are you considering when making decisions?
Like all our grantmaking, Inatai prioritizes funding community-led organizations that are building power for equity and racial justice. We are particularly interested in supporting work led by people who reflect the communities they are organizing, and are rooted in communities across our state that philanthropy and government have underinvested in.
We are prioritizing applicants from the following geographic areas and/or with the following identities:
- Adams, Wahkiakum, Douglas, Garfield, Lincoln, Skamania, Asotin, Columbia, Cowlitz, Ferry, Franklin, Grant, Island, Jefferson, Kittitas, Mason, Pend Oreille, San Juan, Stevens, and Whitman counties.
- Disability-led or disability-serving organizations working at the intersection of racial justice and disability justice.
- Youth-led and youth-serving organizations focused on racial justice, with an emphasis on those working in smaller, more rural communities.
- Communities facing direct political, legal, or cultural backlash: immigrant justice, queer- and transgender-led, and narrative-change organizations.
I'm still not sure if this is for me. Who do I talk to?
If you’re still unsure if this is the right opportunity for your organization, we encourage you to reach out to your program officer. Since they are the ones most familiar with your organization, they might be able to provide additional insight to help you decide whether you should submit an application.
I still have questions. Who should I contact?
Please email capacity@inatai.org.
ACCESSIBILITY COMMITMENT
We are committed to making the application process available in languages other than English and to people with disabilities. We are also excited to work with organizations that are new to us. To those ends, we provide:
- Interpretation and translation services (including American Sign Language and/or Communication Accessible Realtime Translation).
- Large-print formats of instructions and applications.
- Alternative application methods, including over the phone, by video or voice recording, and on paper.
- Support from professional grant writers.
Please contact us at capacity@inatai.org if you need one of these or another service, and we will do our best to provide it. We know it takes time, trust, and effort to request these services, and thank you for sharing how we can make this process work for you.