Workforce Equity Fund Now Accepting 2022 Proposals

The Fund for Work­force Equi­ty — a part­ner­ship between the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion and 14 oth­er fun­ders — is accept­ing pro­pos­als for work­force devel­op­ment efforts through July 31, 2022.

About the Fund for Work­force Equity

Launched by Work­force Mat­ters in 2021, the Fund for Work­force Equi­ty is a pooled fund cre­at­ed to spark inno­v­a­tive strate­gies for meet­ing the needs of work­ers and stu­dents of col­or, doc­u­ment lessons and ele­vate promis­ing prac­tices for fun­ders, prac­ti­tion­ers, advo­cates and researchers.

The Fund will pro­vide awardees with fund­ing, tech­ni­cal assis­tance and the abil­i­ty to par­tic­i­pate in a learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty to work­force devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tions seek­ing to pilot, adopt and learn from new strate­gies as well as advance or extend exist­ing strate­gies that:

• respect, val­ue, hon­or and com­pen­sate work­ers, stu­dents and job can­di­dates at all career and edu­ca­tion lev­els for the skills and per­spec­tives that they bring to design­ing and imple­ment­ing work­force pro­grams and poli­cies; and
• cre­ate spaces for peo­ple of col­or to devel­op work­force pro­grams, poli­cies and evidence-building.

In addi­tion, the Fund for Work­force Equi­ty will help orga­ni­za­tions imple­ment and develop:

• a learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty for grantees;
• tech­ni­cal assis­tance that pro­vides grantees access to exper­tise and resources on human-cen­tered design and oth­er best prac­tices for includ­ing the voic­es of work­ers and stu­dents; and
• eval­u­a­tion and learn­ing efforts that share lessons from the ini­tia­tive with grantees and the broad­er work­force field while sup­port­ing fun­ders in deter­min­ing best prac­tices among their grantees.

The Fund builds on rec­om­men­da­tions from the Racial Equi­ty Frame­work for Work­force Devel­op­ment Fun­ders released in 2021, which iden­ti­fied how fun­ders can ensure the field bet­ter serves work­ers and stu­dents of col­or with a vari­ety of back­grounds and expe­ri­ences, includ­ing engag­ing them in the devel­op­ment of strate­gies and solu­tions that meet their needs.

Appli­ca­tion Infor­ma­tion and Resources

For full details and to apply, please review the Fund’s request for pro­pos­als. Com­plet­ed appli­ca­tions must be sub­mit­ted by July 31, 2022. Incom­plete sub­mis­sions will not be considered.