Systems, Power & Action
A mural of Benito Juárez in South Park, Seattle.

We made the first Systems, Power, and Action grants in 2020 to strengthen community power-building and create the conditions for transformative change. To date, we have awarded more than 70 organizations each with up to $750,000 in three-year grants.
Our team is not currently accepting applications for this grant. For future grantmaking opportunities, please sign up for our newsletters.
Organizations we are supporting
Funding priorities
This fund is shaped by our commitment to racial justice, reflective leadership, and community-driven solutions. Consistent with our experience that incredible leaders live and work in every corner of Washington, we will support work that has a statewide and/or local impact on institutions, political power, and systems change. These grants prioritize organizations that:
- Are accountable to people who face the greatest inequities — and who therefore have the most to gain or lose through action or inaction. We fund organizations and leaders who have strong mutual relationships with individuals and families in communities where the organization works directly.
- Are founded, led, and governed by the communities and people they serve — with leadership at senior staff and board levels that reflects the community. We believe that people with lived experiences in addressing systemic barriers are best positioned to develop policies and strategies to ensure equitable access to, and distribution of, resources.
- Have demonstrated the ability to change systems at local, regional, or statewide levels. Organizations with a proven ability to make change also show a commitment to the sustained efforts and action necessary to create that change.
- Show alignment to our values and our mission of transforming the balance of power toward equity and racial justice. We look for grantees to name specific ways in which systems affect the people their organization serves and how public institutions can be challenged and changed to support increasingly equitable outcomes.
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 ASL and/or CART),
- 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 grants@inatai.org or 866.389.5532 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.

Photo: Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle