For the first time ever, Deaf Organizations Fund is awarding unrestricted grants to deaf-centric nonprofits. This is a major part of our effort to move the needle of our grantmaking in alignment with the principles of trust-based philanthropy.
A total of $110,000 has been distributed amongst six deaf-centric organizations, whose work encompasses a wide breadth of service types, geographic areas, and demographics. All share one powerful thread in common: a focus on meeting the needs and dreams of deaf individuals, families, and communities. You will notice each grantee organization’s funded project varies - sometimes significantly! - from one another. These differences are a testament to our goal to support deaf-centric organizations in their areas of greatest need.
We wish to extend tremendous gratitude to our independent grant review committee for their thoughtful review of nearly 70 requests for funding, and for their commitment to our grant application metrics.
Please review our 2024 grantee organizations and their projects below, and celebrate their work by visiting their website, following them on social media, and donating to them directly.
For the first time ever, Deaf Organizations Fund is awarding unrestricted grants to deaf-centric nonprofits. This is a major part of our effort to move the needle of our grantmaking in alignment with the principles of trust-based philanthropy.
A total of $110,000 has been distributed amongst six deaf-centric organizations, whose work encompasses a wide breadth of service types, geographic areas, and demographics. All share one powerful thread in common: a focus on meeting the needs and dreams of deaf individuals, families, and communities. You will notice each grantee organization’s funded project varies - sometimes significantly! - from one another. These differences are a testament to our goal to support deaf-centric organizations in their areas of greatest need.
We wish to extend tremendous gratitude to our independent grant review committee for their thoughtful review of nearly 70 requests for funding, and for their commitment to our grant application metrics.
Please review our 2024 grantee organizations and their projects below, and celebrate their work by visiting their website, following them on social media, and donating to them directly.
As deaf Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-ists and educators, Atomic Hands actively contributes to the deaf community by staying up to date on advances in the STEM fields, education, and language development. Atomic Hands does this by continuously exploring inventive ways to empower language development, expression, and ownership; reshape public perception of the deaf community and American Sign Language (ASL); and develop strategies for universal learning. The translation of knowledge can create paradigm-shifting approaches to STEM learning and communication.
With limited ASL STEM resources available, many deaf students and professionals don’t know where to go to comprehend STEM topics fully. Furthermore, deaf STEMists traditionally have been disempowered in the authoring of their own language. Atomic Hands strives to mitigate these issues by centralizing and producing ASL STEM resources and encouraging deaf STEMists to contribute to language and content development. They will expand their existing resources by using the Impact Grant to create five Mini STEM courses and five ASL Storybooks.
Deaf Equity advances equity and access for diverse communities within the Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard-of-Hearing communities in Minnesota. They collectively support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Indigenous, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and/or gender expansive, queer and/or questioning, intersex, asexual, and two-spirits (LGBTQIA2S) individuals by providing support, resources, networking opportunities, and access. In doing so, they seek to foster and strengthen community connections.
Deaf Equity will use the Impact Grant to expand their community-based efforts such as offering multiple workshops, community engagement events, multicultural education, and a tactile immersion experience to foster connections between the DeafBlind and DHH communities.
DEAF, Inc., located in St. Louis, Missouri, helps their community with support, education, and advocacy. They have four main services: Access Services, Education, Community Programs, and Outreach.
Cancer is a disease that can affect anyone, and everyone should have access to important information about cancer. But for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or DeafBlind, it can be difficult to understand medical language, make good choices, and get the right care. With limited access or awareness, this may cause individuals to postpone going to the doctors for regular care. This leads to their not finding out about their cancer early on and possibly going through treatment that could have been avoided if caught earlier. This is a big concern for the deaf community.
One special program DEAF, Inc. has is Pink Wings of Hope. This program started in 2009 and helps deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind individuals dealing with cancer. They provide support, education, and advocacy. In 2021, Pink Wings of Hope started “The Cocoon,” a video series in sign language about cancer. The Impact Grant will help DEAF, Inc. make six (6) videos about cancer. These videos are accessible, with sign language, captioning, and transcription, and will teach different things about cancer and help deaf people get the information they need. The goal is to make sure everyone can learn and make good choices about their health.
Deaf Spotlight emerged from the first Seattle Deaf Film Festival in 2012, created by community members in response to the cultural debt in entertainment in the Pacific Northwest. Programming has since expanded to include theater productions, curated visual art exhibitions, and workshops for Deaf, DeafBlind, Deaf Disabled and Hard of Hearing (DDBDDHH) artists. Deaf Spotlight is a nationally recognized leader in Deaf arts whose events feature both local and national artists who tell original stories about the Deaf experience.
The Impact Grant will expand the organization’s internal operations with a new part-time Operations Manager. This position will build out a sustainable, multi-year operations plan; fine-tune accessibility resources for hybrid programming; support the implementation of an artist-in-residency program for artists and creatives; and help coordinate the collaborative work with local and out-of-state Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Deaf-led artists and arts organizations.
HEARD is a collective of deaf and disabled people who support deaf/disabled currently and formerly incarcerated people. HEARD believes that jails and prisons should be abolished, even as they fight for the freedom and dignity of their community members who are impacted by policing and carceral systems.
A step towards their increasing collective capacity includes using the Impact Grant to hire a contracted frontline position to correspond with and gather data from deaf/disabled incarcerated people. This position will help HEARD remain accountable to and in relationship with the multiply-marginalized deaf/disabled incarcerated people they support.
Off-The-Grid Missions (OTG) provides Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, DeafBlind, and DeafDisabled (DHHDBDD) families with critical life-saving resources in high-risk and disaster-stricken regions around the world. At the heart of their work, OTG recognizes that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) DHHDBDD individuals face heightened vulnerability to the devastating impacts of climate change, disasters, conflicts, war, and genocide. This understanding is not just a theoretical concept; it’s deeply embedded in the experiences of their team members, many of whom have lived through these challenges themselves.
Funding from the Impact Grant will allow OTG to scale up its capacity, including expanding outreach, preparedness and deployment training, disseminating accessible real-time information, humanitarian aid, life-saving medical care, continued advocacy and collaboration, provision of dignified burials for DHHDBDD people who die without family, and expansion of their operational efforts.