Cutting through the red tape and getting to the heart of the matter may as well be Collective 365’s motto. Serving the Washington DC-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) area, Collective 365 is a giving circle that is called to empower their community by awarding trust-based grants to Black and Brown people and organizations who see a need in their community, and utilize their resources to meet it.

It’s that simple.

Keeping the people they serve in mind, Fatima Smith and her giving circle co-founders made “loosely written” bylaws, and an application process that is straightforward and intentionally uncomplicated in order to maximize impact.

This approach allows them to create low barriers of entry for otherwise under-funded and unrepresented grantee candidates. It also allows Collective 365 to be flexible with the communities they serve when necessary.

Much like the intended diversity makes up its founding members, Collective 365 serves Black, Indigenous and people of color to empower them and improve social equity.

A few ways they do that are by grant awards and supporting other nonprofits with similar goals for a broader reach as well as assisting in providing capacity-building needs.

In 2023, Collective 365 received more than 150 applications and awarded a total amount of $20,000 in grants to three organizations: $10,000 to ScholarCHIPS and $5,000 each to Glean, LLC and the Good News Community Kitchen.

Below are a few nonprofits in the DMV area that connected with Collective 365 in their most recent grant cycle. These organizations leverage the transformative powers of social justice and equity by highlighting the importance of access to resources through socioeconomic networking, transparency, and facing systemic gate-keeping head-on.

Stay up to date with Collective 365 by visiting their website and social pages: Instagram, LinkedIn.

1441, Incorporated

1441 is a human-centered organization supporting boys and men who were affected by the criminal justice system. It works with homeless, youth, and re-entry populations, providing services related to food insecurity, workforce development, substance abuse recovery, mental health, housing stabilization, and mentorship. Learn More

The 200 Men Plus Foundation, Inc.

The 200 Men Plus Foundation works on a myriad of topics and with numerous organizations driven by their mission to advocate for issues that helps the Black community. Learn More

A Better Day Than Yesterday Initiative Program

A Better Day Than Yesterday Initiative Program empowers families affected by divorce, incarceration, the criminal justice system and military deployment with the education and skills to overcome adversities, promoting their success of community reintegration. Learn More

The ACE Project

What started as a tennis camp in Illinois has blossomed into a program that provides homework assistance, mentorship, academic enrichment, and social-emotional skill building in Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit schools. The ACE Project’s goal is to build character, competency, and confidence in its students while advancing social and economic justice in the community.  Learn More

Black and Missing Foundation, Incorporated (BAMFI)

BAMFI represents and amplifies a group too often ignored by media, law enforcement and its own community: missing people of color. Founded in 2008 by two professionals from law enforcement and public relations, the organization works to educate communities and family members who have a loved one missing. They provide vital tools and resources on personal safety and a platform for getting the word out if a loved one goes missing.  Learn More

Black Doula Project

The Black Doula Project is on a mission to close the gap on healthcare and reduce health inequities for Black parents in the DC and Baltimore communities. It provides funds that subsidize the costs for pregnancy and postpartum doula services to ensure a safe and nurturing birthing experience. Learn More

Black Girls Run! Foundation

Black Girls Run! was founded in 2009 to combat the obesity epidemic in the Black community and denounce the misconception that Black women don’t run. Since then it has evolved, but its mission remains the same: encouraging Black women to get active and develop healthy lifestyle habits, so the overwhelming negative stats on Black women’s health is significantly reduced. Learn More

Boyd BHG Foundation

Boyd BHG Foundation provides children with educational and social development skills in smaller classrooms that center their needs while building children who can function confidently, independently, and efficiently. Learn More

Broccoli City, Inc.

Broccoli City’s simple mission is to make the world a better place through small acts that deliver a big impact. It does this by fostering community and creativity at the intersection of technology, music, art, and social impact. For 10 years, it has mobilized more than 20 million young people, and holds an annual music festival as one of its major events. Learn More

Canary Academy Online, Inc.

Described as a new way to homeschool, Canary Academy offers a simplified approach to homeschooling and curriculum that lets parents decide what their students learn without the overwhelm of doing it alone. Learn More

CareerCatchers

Promoting upward mobility and self-sufficiency to low-income local residents, CareerCatchers delivers one-on-one counseling and training for job skills with the intent to secure stable employment and a long-term career. Learn More

Carson Youth Empowerment Center (CYEC)

CYEC is an after school program for the Carson/Dinwiddie area that aims to inspire youth ages K-8 with opportunities in homework assistance,mentoring, STEM activities, and teambuilding skills to make a positive impact on their lives. Learn More

Circles RVA

Circles RVA’s mission is to end poverty by equipping people to thrive. Their innovative approach to break barriers of systemic oppression include connecting people across networks of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.. Learn More

Coach G Academy, Inc.

Coach G Academy is a mentoring organization that focuses on personal development for the whole child. The nonprofit provides educational programming, leadership skills, and mentorship based on physical and mental health, academic success, workforce training, community service, and life skills. Learn More

Community Advocates 4You Incorporated

Working to alleviate the frustration and difficulty of accessing complex medical and educational systems, Community Advocates for 4You acts as a conduit between people and those caring for people with disabilities, and needed resources and information. The organization operates on client-driven results and fosters self-advocacy. Learn More

Competitive by Nature

Competitive by Nature is on a mission to inspire southeast DC to be more fit and practice healthy lifestyles. Founded by three college friends who love high-intensity workouts, they create a sense of togetherness in the community through free fitness classes twice a week, acts of service, and social events. Learn More

Connect & Serve

Connect & Serve takes a holistic approach to addressing the varying causations of poverty through programs and mentorship for families and individuals to change the trajectory of their lives and promote a more robust quality of life. Learn More

DC Fiscal Policy Institute

The Fiscal Policy Institute works to dismantle racist systems and policies that keep oppressed populations at a disadvantage, while simultaneously working to build more equitable futures that allows everyone to thrive. Their mission is to shape racially-just tax, budget, and policy decisions with antiracism advancements that center Black and brown communities. Learn More

Elijah’s Purpose

Elijah’s Purpose supports families who experience the loss of an infant or pregnancy with resources, care, and burial assistance, with many of the services at no cost. Learn More

Fair Budget Coalition

Committed to making DC more just and inclusive, the Fair Budget Coalition works with social justice professionals and community members in BIPOC communities to advocate for budget and policies that center human needs. It does so with strategic planning and programming on advocacy, capacity building, constituent engagement, and information sharing. Learn More

Fair Chance

With a focus on the outcome to ensure that “every child succeeds,” Fair Chance identifies small, community-based, BIPOC-let nonprofits for its annual training program. These cohorts learn about capacity building and how to strengthen organizational infrastructure for sustainability, so that they’re able to provide more opportunities for children living in poverty. Learn More

Faithwalkers, Inc.

This faith-based organization works to reduce recidivism in youth and adults with biblical education, entrepreneurial training, and financial literacy. Learn More

FLIPP, Inc.

FLIPP believes that building people builds strong communities, so their work focuses on reducing employment barriers with entrepreneurial development training for low-income communities and underrepresented individuals.. Learn More

Fountain of Life Development, Inc.

Self-described as a community-based ministry, the Fountain of Life Development uses non-traditional methods to instill traditional values  to “the lost and broken” and provides training in resistance skills for resistance to negative pressures and behavior. Learn More

Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop

Free Minds helps incarcerated youth rewrite their own narratives by giving them a safe space to express themselves and transformative tools to set and achieve new life goals for their next chapter. Learn More

Fresh Start 4U (FS4U) – Life Renovation Services

FS4U helps women navigate through their trauma by providing life skills, emotional healing, and housing placement resources and services. The nonprofit supports women with traumatic experiences from rejection, loneliness, depression, sexual abuse, molestation, rape, domestic violence, or low self-esteem, giving them a fresh start at for success. Learn More

Girls for a Change

Girls for a Change is a youth development nonprofit on a mission to prepare Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls by helping them realize and visualize their potential through discovery and social change in their communities. Learn More

Girls Like Me

Girls Like Me is a mentorship organization that promotes high self-esteem and self-efficacy in young girls with enrichment programs and workshops that build physical, emotional and mental well-being. Learn More

The Good News Community Kitchen (TGNCK)

Fighting hunger one meal at a time, TGNCK aims to eradicate the root causes of food insecurity while positively influencing affected communities with hunger relief, hygiene essentials, and workforce development. TGNCK serves Veterans, students, senior citizens, survivors of domestic violence, and families in the Northern Virginia and the DC areas. Learn More

Groundwork RVA

Groundwork RVA is cultivating the next generation of urban conservationists by teaching youth to turn blighted or contaminated sites in their community into neighborhood assets by facilitating environmental, economic, and social well-being. Learn More

Hebron VA, Inc.

Hebron, which stands for “heroines evolving beyond rejection obstacles and negativity,” educates young women of all backgrounds in self-love and etiquette in order to avoid the risk of negative paths, such as academic failure, crime, teen pregnancy and school drop-outs. Learn More

Helping Ourselves to Transform (HOTT)

Working to transform mass incarceration into mass liberation, HOTT works with those formerly incarcerated to lead a better life. Using the “each one, reach one, teach one” model, HOTT provides tools, resources, and education to empower the recently released success in family, community, housing, voting, jobs and knowing their rights. Learn More

Kenneth Dorsey, Jr. Foundation

What started as an afterschool program to give back to the community that raised him, founder and namesake of the Kenneth Dorsey,Jr. Foundation has evolved into the current establishment, but its mission remains to provide students with tools for success, including early career exploration, mentorship, and tutoring. Learn More

Majani Project

The Majani Project encourages and teaches BIPOC students to discover, share, and connect to their family culture and genealogy to help explore aspects of their identity. They meet monthly to record their findings, and each month, one student is selected to present what they’ve learned. Learn More

Maryland Community Connection

The Maryland Community Connection is a community-based organization that addresses the individual needs of people with disabilities. It works toward social and economic independence for those with a disability with the end goal of community integration for them to live, work, and play like everyone else. Learn More

Mentoring Mentors, Inc.

Mentoring Mentors gives students ages 11 to 18 the tools to fulfill their dreams and nurture leadership within themselves and their community with an intergenerational, near-to-peer model that cultivates confidence, academic success and social-emotional well-being. Learn More

Minority Christian Women Entrepreneurs Network (MCWEN)

MCWEN is a membership-based organization that promotes entrepreneurship and business ownership for Christian women. It aims to change the economic disparities among Black-owned businesses and support women to become impactful and positively influential in their homes, community, and at work Learn More

Mission Launch Inc.

Mission Launch Inc.’s focus is to improve the economic health of those with criminal records. It pledges to champion those individuals, accelerate self-sufficiency, and inspire them to pursue financial freedom through alternative paths, such as entrepreneurship, by piloting and pivoting until they discover the right “product market fit” for them. Learn More

The MusicianShip

Using the transformative power of music to uplift and empower youth and budding musicians, the MuscianShip offers musical lessons, experiences and opportunities to those from marginalized communities. Learn More

My Brother’s Keeper of Greater Richmond

My Brother’s Keeper of Greater Richmond empowers fathers to become more engaged in their children’s lives to positively impact their futures. The organization offers evidence-based programming, training, and relationship skills, so that every child has an involved, responsible, and committed father in their lives. Learn More

My Sister’s Place, Inc.

As one of DC’s oldest running women’s shelters, My Sister’s Place has been giving survivors of domestic abuse a place to rest, recover and reset with education and leadership development for more than 40 years. Learn More

New Hill Development Corporation

Honoring the legacy of the Vinegar Hill community, New Hill Development Corporation establishes avenues for financial mobility within the once-vibrant neighborhood with three pillars: financial capability, economic development and affordable housing. Learn More

New Horizons Supported Services

New Horizons empowers individuals with disabilities by helping them attain skills and resources for independence, community inclusion, and equal opportunities for education and employment. Learn More

Next One Up

Next One Up provides year-round programming to help transform the lives of young men for the better and to give them a life vision to positively contribute to their community. This is done through mentoring guided by three main pillars: developing a growth mindset, teaching them to “pay it forward” and cultivating leadership to inspire the next generation. Learn More

No Boundaries Coalition

No Boundaries Coalition uses civic engagement, youth leadership and food justice to empower and transform lives and communities while breaking down the physical and imagined barriers that exist for those living, working, or worshiping in Central West Baltimore. Learn More

Nurturing Amenities

Nurturing Amenities provides mothers and caregivers with one-on-one consultations, workshops, and other resources to empower them to thrive and fulfill their potential. Learn More

OAR of Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church (OAR)

OAR believes in second chances. Its work includes dismantling institutionalized racism responsible for mass incarceration while supporting an individual’s successful re-entry to society. OAR works with those impacted by the legal system, and helps them to avoid traumas of incarceration with the goal of breaking the cycle of recidivism. Learn More

Peachtree Foundation, Inc.

Peachtree Foundation works to leverage fairness and equity within the wealth and economic gap for urban and rural residents. It provides Real Estate Literacy classes, Youth Mentoring programs, and Training for Creatives in order to foster empowerment while lessening poverty, crime and human degradation. Learn More

Play and Thrive DC

Play and Thrive is addressing the play inequity in DC for children years five and under living East of the River. Provides sensory-driven play in response to the growing number of membership-based and parent-run playgroups in the district that often leave out marginalized families of different socio-economic backgrounds. Learn More

The Ragbaby Exchange

Advocates of self-love and self-care, the Ragbaby Exchange offer programs in doll-making using art therapy to instill self-worth and self-love to BIPOC girls and women. This is done with their two signature workshops, Your Inner Doll and Raising A Superhero, as well as international outreach programs to AfroLatinas. Learn More

Reality Check Mentoring, Inc.

Mentors at Reality Check Mentoring works as change agents for young males of color, ages 10 to 17, to help them to believe in themselves as valuable assets to society with the training on character development, social awareness, conflict resolution, and critical thinking. Learn More

Reggie Prostate Cancer Foundation

Inspired by his father’s death from prostate cancer, founding Chairman and CEO Reginald Nwaike, started Reggie Prostate Cancer Foundation to assist with better access to information and resources to those suffering from prostate cancer as well as support them in living longer, healthier lives. Learn More

Richmond Urban Collective (RUC)

RUC is a college and career preparatory charter school for young Black urban youth with a mission to develop them to be successful academically and global citizens making meaningful contributions to their community. Learn More

ScholarCHIPS, Inc.

ScholarCHIPS is breaking down the stigma of college-bound students with incarcerated parents, and providing them with support systems (college scholarships, mentoring, mental health support, and a peer support network) that help the start and finish a college education. Learn More

The SEED School of Maryland

Establishing a college education as the norm, not the exception, the SEED School of Maryland aims to teach motivated child’s how to excel. They provide a positive academic and on-campus experience, and teach social skills and critical thinking skills to be successful in high school, college, and beyond. Learn More

Serenity Solidarity

Focusing on building economic equity and working towards racial justice through collective communal living projects, activism and community service, Serenity Solidarity’s vision is to promote radical inclusion and increase land-ownership among BIPOC families, refugees, and formerly homeless individuals. Learn More

Serve Your City / Ward 6 Mutual Aid

SYC serves at-risk youth by providing life-changing enrichment, experiences, and opportunities. In response the the COVID-19 pandemic, SYC has served as an infrastructure hub since March 2020 to local Black- and brown-led groups to share resources and ensure safety. Learn More

Shepherd’s Clinic

Located in North Baltimore and operated by volunteers, Shepherd’s Clinic fills the gap by providing quality healthcare to the uninsured – those who can’t afford commercial insurance and don’t qualify for government insurance. Although health services are free, the clinic suggests patients donate a minimum of $3 to $9 per visit. Learn More

Sin Barreras / Without Barriers

With a focus on the Hispanic immigrant population, while still serving both Spanish- and English-speaking communities, Sin Barreras empowers underserved communities of the Greater Charlottesville area with advocacy, legal services, workshops and cultural events. Learn More

St. Luke Legacy Center Foundation, Inc.

St. Luke Legacy Center Foundation is committed to bridging the gap in order to build stronger legacies and improve the quality of life for BIPOC individuals and communities through their own advancement. Built on the legacy of Maggie L. Walker, an early advocate for generational wealth, St. Luke’s Legacy Center uses the holistic wrap-around approach that addresses needs from birth to death with the intent to inspire and positively impact future generations.  Learn More

Take Creative Control

Promoting and advocating for the fair treatment, compensation, and value of creators of color, Take Creative Control helps break down barriers to building wealth, social justice, and social equity. Learn More

Teaching Rambunctious Adolescents Peaceful Positude (TRAPP Stars, Inc)

TRAPP teaches youth how to make healthy choices and successfully navigate adolescents in order to live to their full potential. They offer youth a safe environment to learn and grow while focusing on community-building and positive self-esteem. Learn More

TechByTech

TechByTech mission is to condition digital consumers to embrace technology and “ride its wave” with a positive mindset. It teaches students how to be critical thinkers and creative problem-solvers by leveraging technology through the exploration and education in fascinating subjects such as coding languages, popular art forms, robotics, gaming, and urban-farming. Learn More

Think First Global

Think First models their mission after three principles: think before you act, to learn how to recover from a mistake or failure is more important than success alone, and to go for what you want in life. Think First teaches elementary-aged youth life skills and resilience through interactive, in-person workshops. Learn More

Turner’s Boxing Club and Youth Development

Turner’s Boxing Club and Youth Development helps those young and old with personal development, and fitness of the body, mind and emotions through boxing drills and techniques. They do this with one-on-one, group, and coaching classes. Their youth development targets and mentors at-risk youth on anger management, anti-bullying and professional excellence. Learn More

Universal Wig Solutions 

Created by a certified hair loss specialist, Universal Wig Solutions helps to restore hope and confidence in women, of all ages, experiencing hair loss with wigs designed for black women. Universal Wig Solutions provide options that reflect their culture, style and natural hair pattern. Learn More

Urban Ed, Inc.

Urban Ed works with children and adults to create sustainable life goals through skills development, workforce development, and entrepreneurship by using technology as tools and resources for their growth. Learn More

VilDon Edutainment, Inc.

VilDon’s mission is to enrich the lives of school-aged children living in rural counties by using creative arts as a basis for programs in entrepreneurship, cultural exploration, financial literacy and leadership development. Learn More

Virginia Black Business Directory

Virginia Black Business Directory helps to support and promote Black business owners, creating a pipeline for consumers to support local, Black-owned businesses. Additionally, it offers educational programs, assists with business development, and provides resources for businesses to grow and thrive. Learn More

Virginia Community Voice

Virginia Community Voice uses two signature programs to strengthen underserved communities: one is a neighbor-center training for leadership and decision-making and the other trains institutions how to effectively and equitably respond to marginalized communities. Learn More

Virginia Voice, Inc.

Virginia Voice is an audio platform for the blind and vision-impaired that depicts magazines, newspapers, and cultural event reviews representing the “voices” within the community. Learn More

Waymakers Foundation

Waymakers is a culturally-responsive nonprofit that works with immigrant families providing them with an array of resources to address their needs financially as well as in education, healthy living, and arts and culture activities. Learn More

World Academic Sports Team, Inc. (WAST)

WAST promotes brighter futures for at-risk youth and student athletes by focusing on excelling in academics first and sports second, with the objective of scoring college scholarships. Learn More

Young Investors Group

Young Investors Group is on a mission to change the trajectory of poverty, violence, and self-harm by teaching youth from disadvantaged communities to invest in themselves, their community and the economy for better, more sustainable growth, personally and professionally. Learn More