The Fund for Southern Communities (FSC or The Fund) provides the financial resource to help move groups from thought to action. FSC supports small community groups working for environmental justice, anti-racism, women’s rights, youth development, LGBTQ rights, worker’s rights, civil rights and disability rights and other varied issues that address social change through community organizing. Grantees not only benefit from financial support, but they are also given technical assistance.

 

FSC is unusual in that it awards grants to community organizations that are working to address the systems and structures that cause community problems. Often traditional charities and private foundations overlook these organizations because their projects are considered too new, the organization too small, or their objectives are too controversial. The Fund is willing to make grants to these groups and organizations because we believe that communities working on their own behalf are powerful forces for change.

The Fund for Southern Communities (FSC) was established as a tax-exempt public foundation in 1981 by a small group of individuals to fund issues and organizations left void by traditional charities and private foundations. This founding body held a common vision for the South: to build safe, equitable communities that are free of oppression and that embrace and celebrate all people.

 

Today, FSC works with donors to distribute more than a quarter of a million dollars a year to organizations in Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina who are making this vision a reality. Since 1981, the Fund has awarded over 1700 grants totaling nearly $5 million.