Grassroots Action Project

As our founding program, Grassroots Action Project was established to support the development of organizations by providing coaching to their leaders and staff in fundraising, finance, organizational design, program evaluation, and leadership. Building upon the tradition of fiscal sponsorship as a resource mobilization strategy used by Civil Rights-era movement organizations, GAP aims to help emerging organizations grow into centers of institutional strength within marginalized communities. ABC believes that institution building is a critical component of social change since institutions last far beyond the lifetime of individual leaders and become hubs of creativity to reimagine systems of labor, capital, leadership, and policy.

GAP assists nascent businesses and movement organizations in developing the necessary organizational capabilities to eventually spin off as independent entities or long-term semi-independent partners. We have graduated 7 small businesses and 5 nonprofits and raised $18.5 million for them since 2020. Fiscal Sponsorship is not required for program participation, and partners can join as Fellows.