Fund Deaf Organizations
Your generosity today helps create accessible funding and resources for deaf nonprofits across the United States.
Consider making it monthly and become a Champion of Deaf Organizations!
This approach to giving sustains our efforts, and ultimately the incomparable work of deaf-centric organizations.
Where does your donation go?
We are committed to providing equitable access to funding and resources.
You can choose to donate specifically to our annual Impact Grant or to our endowment fund. Alternatively, you may leave it up to us to direct your gift where it's needed most today.
Impact Grant
Your donation here is distributed across multiple incredible organizations working with deaf communities nationwide. Choose this if you wish to make an immediate impact on our next round of funding.
Endowment Fund
Your donation here enables us to consistently offer grants, develop resources for deaf-centric organizations, and advocate for accessible grantmaking across the philanthropic sector.
Impact Grant
Your donation here is distributed across multiple incredible organizations working with deaf communities nationwide. Choose this if you wish to make an immediate impact on our next round of funding.
Endowment Fund
Your donation here enables us to consistently offer grants, develop resources for deaf-centric organizations, and advocate for accessible grantmaking across the philanthropic sector.
Monthly Giving
Our goal is to inspire at least 25 people in 2025 to become Champions of Deaf Organizations, giving monthly at a level that is comfortable and meaningful to you.
Monthly giving is one of the simplest, most critical ways to sustain the work of nonprofits, including ours. When you give regularly, you help ensure deaf organizations have access to the resources they need to support our deaf communities.
Sasha is a brown woman with brown wavy hair, wearing glasses and a red shirt with white DOF logo. Avi is a white woman with brown wavy hair, wearing black glasses and a black shirt with teal DOF logo. Dan is a white man with short brown hair wearing a gray shirt with white DOF logo. During the video, each person takes turns signing the text shown on the left side of the screen.
Video opens with a white background with rose pink text: 3 Reasons to Become a Champion of Deaf Organizations! Underneath text is a GIF of coral pink hands on a navy blue circle background. The hands, partly outlined in teal, sign the word “champ” repeatedly, and a row of multicolor all-caps text, “CHAMP!” is next to the hands. As the sign repeats, so do multicolored bursts of dots and whisker lines around the entire graphic.
Intro transitions to half the video being teal background with blue text: “CONTRIBUTION.” Dan on the right signs, “You decide the size of your contribution based on your budget and what makes sense and feels right for you.”
Then the video switches to half rose background with white text: “CONVENIENCE.” Avi on the right signs, “It’s convenient! A lot less work is required of you. Set up your donation once and then forget it - it will recur monthly on its own. If your goals change, you want to increase or decrease the amount, pause, or cancel, you can - we get it!”
The video changes to half navy blue background with white text: “CONNECTION.” Sasha on the right signs, “When comparing people who give monthly with new, one-time donors, most organizations tend to retain the monthly donors and lose touch with the new, one-time donor group. Monthly donors feel much more connected to our work.”
Avi, Dan, and Sasha side by side sign “champ” at the same time.
Video closes with white background with rose pink text: Become a Champion of Deaf Organizations today and be part of history!” The same multicolor bursts of dots and whisker lines appear and flash all around this text as from the beginning of the video.
Other Ways to Support
We love to see your creativity in supporting Deaf Organizations Fund's efforts!
Here are some ideas and resources to do so:
Plan a private fundraising event with your friends and family. Use this toolkit to get started.
Reflections from DOF Grantees
Aracelia is a Latinx woman with long dark curly hair pulled back into a ponytail. She is wearing a velvet short sleeved top that is black with white dots. She is seated in front of a plain white wall.
TRANSCRIPT:
DeafHope is committed to healing communities, ending violence through transformative, community-based strategies. Deaf Organizations Fund is a critical partner in our work.
With a shared language and cultural understanding, they are able to support deaf services in unique ways. They are also implementing innovative, restorative approaches to philanthropy with potential to generate widespread change.
This includes removing barriers to the application process, making it simple and accessible. They make grant reporting about connection and deep understanding of the work they are funding, without putting any burden on us. These strategies allow us to focus on the important work they are funding, rather than the work of grant management.
Deaf Organizations Fund is setting a new standard in philanthropic leadership and we are very grateful for this new approach and change in traditional expectations in funding for organizations.
Diana Pryntz, Executive Director, is a white deaf woman with shoulder length, curly brown with a bit of gray hair, wearing dark purple glasses and a black v-neck blouse. There is a blue wall behind her. She is seated on a chair that is red with black lines partially visible.
TRANSCRIPT:
Deaf Refugee Advocacy (DRA) in Rochester, NY provides services: education and case management for deaf people that settle here from other countries.
As the executive director for DRA, it is my responsibility to seek monies to support our mission. Filling out grant paperwork is a routine task that I must do.
DOF’s application process and requirements is really unique because everything is in ASL, which is really special.
There were two significant benefits from my experiences to applying to DOF.
1 – There was no need to explain the impact of our deafness, language acquisition, or language deprivation. Instead, I was able to focus on our organization’s financial needs.
2- We had direct communication with DOF. There was no need for interpreters and no concern if the ASL interpreter was translating the information properly.
Overall it was a real pleasure to be able to work directly with DOF to obtain the needed funds; I really appreciate that wonderful and unique organization.
Lee Ann Tang (she, her, hers), CEO, is a light-skinned Asian American Deaf woman with long auburn hair wearing a light gray polo shirt with the Asian Signers logo on the top left. She is standing in front of a blue wall with gold border.
Justin Cha (he, him, his), Director of Operations, is a light-skinned Korean deaf male with short black hair, wearing silver-framed glasses and a light gray polo shirt with the Asian Signers logo on the top left. He is standing in front of a black background.
TRANSCRIPT:
Lee Ann: Asian Signers is an Asian-owned and Deaf-led nonprofit organization focusing on education and elevating diverse representations of Asians and Asian Americans in ASL. Asian Signers is based in the United States.
Our organization’s platform includes providing access to signed educational content, such as Asian literature for youth. Our relationship with diverse Asian communities has strengthened the visibility of the Asian Deaf mosaic!
Justin: The DOF grant allowed our organization to continue to be able to work collaboratively using teamwork applications like Slack; to receive professional development training, such as anti-racism; and to obtain necessary tools and software to support creating content in ASL.
Our rapport with DOF has been a blissful experience because they can fully understand Deaf-centric professionals. They’ve also been a great support to organizations of color like us – supporting us in raising the bar, overcoming our invisibility, as well as tapping into our diverse Asian diaspora network.
In addition, their check-ins and interactions with us have been amazing, such as discussing our reports and sharing tips with us.
Lee Ann: The experience and process of receiving a grant from DOF was very smooth. One thing we were impressed with is the language inclusiveness and choices: written English, Spanish, and ASL. We were very surprised and grateful that we were one of the selected grantees. What we liked the most is that we had the opportunity to video meet to be able to discuss the grant agreement and later aspects of the grant. We felt comfortable asking questions without hesitation. The agreement was very clear and transparent.
Justin: We continue to challenge ourselves in learning how to operate, to manage a grant, and to sustain our organization using a healthy approach. With the DOF grant, it opens our eyes to think about what our goals are for the next five years.. Or the next 10 years.”
Let's Chat
Have other questions or feedback?
We’d love to connect with you!
