About

Who We Are

Groundswell Fund is a national intermediary funder that distributes resources to 501(c)(3) grassroots organizations working at the intersection of bodily autonomy and democracy.

Across the South, Midwest, Southwest, and occupied U.S. Territories, local leaders are building movements that protect people’s ability to make decisions about their bodies, families, communities, and futures while strengthening democratic participation in neighborhoods.

Groundswell works in partnership with these organizations by directing resources to the places where organizing is most needed and by strengthening the broader ecosystem of movements working for long-term change.

Our Approach

Groundswell’s work is anchored in the knowledge that the solutions we seek must be imagined and led by the communities closest to the pain of injustice, not those with power and privilege

We redistribute wealth and partner with grassroots organizations working in their communities, and support the leadership, infrastructure, and relationships that allow movements to grow and sustain their work.

By connecting movement organizations, donors, and allies, we help strengthen the networks and resources movements need to defend rights today and build a more just future.

Care-Based Power

Groundswell believes movements are strongest when organizations and leaders have the stability, support, and resources needed to sustain their work over time.

Care-based power centers the well-being of organizers and communities while strengthening the leadership and infrastructure that movements need to grow. It recognizes how building durable movements requires not only organizing and advocacy, but also community-led systems of care, collaboration, and shared responsibility.

This approach allows movements to respond to immediate challenges while building the long-term power needed to shape the future.

*Groundswell’s definition of care-based power: Groundswell grantees understand that a core component of building community power is the process of supporting communities that are the most impacted to take care of each other while surviving systems that are bent on harm. Movement organizations help to build care-based power by supporting impacted communities to foster resilience and collective well-being through social support, shared resources, and mutual aid.

Our Role

Groundswell serves as a bridge between grassroots movements and donors who want to invest in lasting social change.

We move resources to community-led organizations, support shared learning and collaboration across movements, and help amplify movement strategies and leadership..

Together with our partners, we are strengthening movements working to defend bodily autonomy, expand democratic participation, and build the world we deserve.

Images courtesy of Birthmark Doula Collective, Transgender Education Network of Texas, and My Sistah’s House Memphis.