Youth Fund for Social Change

The Youth Fund for Social Change is a grantmaking initiative of Crossroads Fund that supports youth advocacy, organizing, activism, and social change projects in the Chicago area and Northwestern Indiana. The initiative was formed after Crossroads Fund received a legacy grant from the Girls Best Friend Foundation in 2007. The fund provides resources to young people working on social justice issues in their communities, particularly youth activists seeking to change or challenge policies and organized structures that prevent communities from achieving equality. Awards range from $5,000 to $15,000, with the amount depending on the size of the project and what the funding will cover. Supported projects may address a broad range of social justice issues, including community equality, education and schools, health, environment, incarceration, violence, media, racism, discrimination, and voting. Examples include organizing for access to education, health care, jobs, and political power; alternatives to detention and incarceration; restorative justice in schools; school board representation; reproductive health and comprehensive sex education; environmental cleanup and pollution issues; cleaner transit; alternatives to the criminal justice system; reduction of police harassment; neighborhood public safety; and efforts to hold corporate media accountable. Crossroads Fund supports social services when those services are linked to activism and include a social change component. Eligible applicants include organizations, groups, and coalitions with budgets of less than $1,000,000 that meet Crossroads Fund's funding criteria. The Youth Fund is intended for youth up to age 30 who have an existing project or a concrete new social change idea, as well as youth organizations with youth-led social change projects. Youth must be decision-makers in creating and carrying out the project. Special funding is reserved for youth working together across neighborhoods and differences including race, class, education, ability, sexual orientation, and gender. Projects must operate in the Chicago metropolitan area, including the City of Chicago and suburbs, or Northwestern Indiana, defined as the area between the Illinois-Indiana state border and Gary, Indiana. Projects must be connected to a nonprofit organization with 501(c)(3) status, have a fiscal sponsor, or have an organizational bank account. Individuals cannot be funded directly. Crossroads Fund also supports nonprofit organizations without 501(c)(3) status, provided groups without a fiscal sponsor have an organizational bank account, and it considers 501(c)(4) organizations on a limited basis. Applications must be submitted through Crossroads Fund's online grant portal; mailed applications are not accepted. Applicants must create an account or log in to the portal, select APPLY from the upper menu, locate the Youth Fund application, and select Apply to begin. Applicants are also instructed to complete the Youth Fund Budget Form and Youth Fund Demographics Form. Crossroads Fund requires applicants to use its online application process. Applicants seeking proposal feedback may share a draft or one-pager with Joanna Preston at least one week before the grant deadline. Applications are initially screened by Crossroads Fund staff to determine whether the group's work meets the funder's Funding Criteria. Applications that meet the criteria are reviewed by the Youth Fund Grantmaking Committee, which includes Crossroads Fund board members, staff, youth organizers, and young people working with youth organizations. Selected applicants receive a site visit conducted by the committee. The committee then makes funding recommendations to the Crossroads Fund Board of Directors, which provides final approval. All applicants are notified of the final funding decision within one week of the Board's decision. The application opens August 6, 2026, and the application deadline is September 7, 2026. The announced award decision timing for this cycle is January 2027, while the grantmaking process information states that final decisions are generally communicated by early February. The application deadline varies from year to year but generally falls in the fall or winter, indicating that the program operates in recurring cycles rather than under a permanently rolling deadline. Questions about the geographic catchment area and proposal feedback may be directed to Joanna Preston at joanna@crossroadsfund.org. Crossroads Fund's general office phone number is 773-227-7676.

Center the proposal on youth leadership and decision-making, social change organizing, and efforts to change policies or organized structures that prevent equality. Clearly demonstrate that the work is rooted in the eligible geographic area and is connected to an eligible organization, fiscal sponsor, or organizational bank account. Direct or social services should be linked to activism and a social change component. Show that the project is a campaign or ongoing effort, whether established or newly started, with the intention that it will continue. Applicants seeking feedback may send Joanna Preston a draft or one-pager at least one week before the grant deadline.