• Alignment means to agree with or to support.

• Anti-racist means actively working to end racism and challenge white supremacy in all its forms.

• Anti-oppression/anti-oppressive means actively working to share power equitably and end practices and systems that harm groups of people. Oppression/oppressive means using power in inequitable ways that harm groups of people. Examples of systems of oppression: are ableism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ageism, and anti-Semitism.

• Communities impacted are the people who your organization, program, or project will support.

• Demographics are the details about a population, such as the age, gender, and income of the people in a community.

• Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity*

  • Diversity means having people with a range of identities and lived experiences in a group, organization, or community. Diversity asks: Who is missing?

  • Inclusion means different people can actively participate in a group, organization, or community. Inclusion asks: Is everyone able to contribute, and what do they need to do so?

  • Equity/equitable means everyone has what they need to thrive. Equity is different from equality. Equality means that everyone receives the same thing. Equity means everyone receives what they need, and it’s just and fair. Equity works to correct power imbalances. Equity asks: How are power and resources distributed within a group, organization or community? And for whose benefit?

• A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that provides financial oversight, management, and other administrative services for a project or program that needs this kind of help.

• Intergenerational poverty is poverty that passes on from one generation to the next.

• Nondiscrimination policy is a policy that says your organization will treat all people fairly.

• Multi-Year funding means grant funds are given to an organization for more than one year at a time. For example: an organization applies for a 3-year, $75,000 grant, and wants the funds to be distributed equally over three years ($25,000/year for 3-years). With SJF grants, organizations can decide how many years of funding they want to apply for at one time.

• Philanthropy means to give away resources (such as money, time, and talents) to different causes.

• A public charity means an organization, usually a nonprofit, that has received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Usually, public charities are organizations doing charitable work, have active programs, and have broad public support. For more information about what organizations are classified as “public charities,” please visit the IRS website.

• Root cause(s) means the main reason(s) why something has happened.

• Systems and structures are things that give us rules to live by and manage recourses necessary for life. Systems and structures are organized for different purposes (for example: education, health, employment, housing, political, legal systems etc). Sometimes systems are designed in ways that are unfair or create inequitable outcomes.

• Systems change means changes to a system or process that will change the outcome and repeat that change.

• Transparency means to be clear and direct.

• Trust-based philanthropy means to give away resources in ways that focus on equity, trust, relationship-building, and power awareness.

• Unrestricted funding means grant funds that an organization can use for any purpose they choose.

*Definitions informed by Bina M. Patel, Anti-Oppression and Equity Facilitator and Coach, Saathi Impact Consulting, LLC.

• Any personal benefit means an individual, and not the grantee or grantor organization, getting paid or some other personal profit or financial advantage that results from a grant.

• Conditional means that a requirement needs to be met before the desired result can occur.

• Discharge of an irrevocable enforceable pledge means the satisfaction or fulfillment of a promise to donate money, if the receipt of the promise could have gone to court to force the person making the pledge to pay the promised donation.

• Influence the outcome means to do something that is meant to affect the creation of a new law, such as trying to promote legislation, change it, or cause it not to pass. This may be done by trying to affect the opinion of the general public about legislation or by trying to communicate with government officials who assist in creating laws.

• Propaganda is information used to promote a political cause or point of view.

• Rescind, modify, or restate means to undo (as if it never happened), change, or replace the entire agreement with a new agreement.