Congratulations to our 2022 MRS Civic Ignition Grantees! We received 8 submissions with a total financial ask of $11,100. These grants were discussed in a consensus-based workshop with 16 participant leaders from the Northern California and Nevada region of the United States.

photo by Douglas Hooper

We are also thrilled to announce that an additional $2,000 was generated from within the local community. With $1500 from Burners Without Borders and a total of $3,500 in funds to allocate, we are hugely excited to congratulate the four newest Civic Ignition Grantees:

Sacramento Valley Spark with Tutu’s for Pride
(Sacramento, California USA)
Sacramento Pride
These funds will provide tulle and ribbon for Sacramento Valley Spark volunteers to host an interactive tutu-making station at Sacramento Pride March & Festival 2022.  Burning Man’s Tutu Tuesday inspired a local volunteer to bring the tutu-making experience to Sacramento Pride 2022.  She appreciated that tutu-making and gifting are inclusive, accessible, fun ways to welcome people to brighten their outfits, create a safe way to start positive conversations, and inspire creative community-making for all.  Taking a fun spin on the traditional waist tutu, these will be also fun to wear on other parts of the body as desired by participants.  The SVS booth will help bring people together through hope and a visual representation of fun and creativity for all.  Additionally, participants can learn about the Burning Man 10 Principles including the Leave No Trace with Matter Out of Place (MOOP) concepts of making community clean-up fun. The activity will be free and for all ages.

Jessi Sprocket Janusee’s The Immigrant Aid Print Project
(Reno, Nevada USA)
https://jessisprocket.com/iapp
The Immigrant Aid Print Project creates clothing and accessories that reflect specific immigrant populations. Our mission is to increase awareness about immigrant and refugee stories & to support these populations monetarily. The crux of the project centers on creating hand-dyed, block printed clothing and accessories that feature iconography and florals which highlight specific world cultures. We sell these items at local markets and online to raise funds for immigrants world-wide. 

Doris Romero Baccala’s Community Support Project
(BWB Sacramento Region and community of Perquin, El Salvador)
https://www.facebook.com/DreamersofCA/
Ongoing Crowdfunding for this project
The schools in Perquín are located in a unique location and an especially unique situation. The lands they inhabit were overtaken by Honduras after the Salvadoran Civil War. This left the Salvadoran people in a peculiar circumstance because they identified as Salvadoran but are no longer protected by their birth nation nor were they accepted by the Honduran government which they were usurped upon. As a result, typical public amenities like schools began to slowly deteriorate and children, in particular, began lacking more and more resources over time.

For the past two years, Burners Without Borders Sacramento Region, Connected By Our Humanity, and California Dreamers have been slowly restoring two Perquin schools. In May of 2021 we were able to raise over $4,000 to help build desks for all students, repaint the walls, rebuild the school fence, and many other smaller projects. These $1,000 will be used to purchase school supplies such as whiteboards, markers, notebooks, pens, pencils, scissors, and reading books. As well as science equipment, first aid kits for the classrooms, and if funding allows, age-appropriate educational games for the classrooms.

Eric Semukula & Issac Mutalimundesi’s  Lambano Project
(Mt Elgon Uganda and Bean Grounded  Placer County Project)
https://connectedbyourhumanity.com/mt-elgon-uganda-lambano-group-project/
The Lambano Project’s objective is to recover and take back the ownership of coffee farming for the Budduda community in the Mt. Elgon region of Uganda. Budduda community is located along with the Mountain ranges of Mt.Elgon, a sub-region in Eastern Uganda. It is blessed with fertile volcanic soils and altitudes that favor the growth of Arabica coffee. The recovery of coffee farming will provide a sustainable economic and social benefit to the Bududa Uganda community. 

This project is supported by the guests and staff of Placer county’s homeless shelters and featured as part of the Bean Grounded coffee service project with Burners Without Borders Sacramento Region.

What is the Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant?
A program aimed at funding innovative community & civic projects within the greater Northern California & Nevada (specifically but not limited to the Reno, Tahoe, and Sacramento regions).  We are interested in programs that create collaborations, produce direct actions, utilize several of the 10 Burning Man Principles, are reproducible, and creatively tackle local social problems. This grant gives anyone the opportunity to submit a collaborative, creative, and principle-focused project with a chance to win up to a $1,500 grant.

Timeline:
–  Grant Opportunity is announced on April 8th, 2022
–  Deadline for grant submissions is May 9th (Midnight)
–  Workshop Participants will review the grant proposals at the 2022 Multi-Regional Summit in  (tentatively) Scotts Flat Lake, CA (May 20-22, 2022)
–  Winner(s) will be announced Sunday afternoon at the Multi-Regional Summit  (May 22, 2022)

Apply here: https://forms.gle/VJyWqhPVPSWJPyoq7

What’s special about the Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant?
Submissions to the 2022 Multi-Regional Civic Ignition grant cycle will be workshopped and judged by a group of participants and community leaders that attend this year’s Multi-Regional Summit Civic Ignition Grant Workshop. This group will be using the submissions as material to review and workshop while learning how to administer their own civic grant programs.

Who is eligible to apply?
Individuals, Groups, and Not-for-Profits are all eligible to apply.  We encourage projects to be endorsed by a local Burning Man Regional Contact.  The RC does not need to be a project lead, or heavily involved with the process, rather they are simply endorsing the project and the leaders who are submitting.  We recognize not all regions have local RC’s and we encourage you to apply even if no RC is able to endorse.

How much can you ask for?
The maximum grant that may be awarded is $1,500.  We encourage your project’s viability to not be solely dependent on this grant.  Think about other sources of funding that might be available.  Grants awarded could be less than the full amount.

What types of proposals will likely not get funded by this program?
Programs that are solely based on artistic endeavors and do not have a community or civic aspect will most likely not be considered for funding.  Funds should not be used for direct fundraising, chapter promotion efforts, or for paying people for their work.

What follow-up will be expected by grant recipients?
All recipients will be expected to submit written reports on what they have accomplished and learned in the course of their projects, along with accompanying visual media.  This media will be hosted on the Burners Without Borders website.

Suggestions for a quality grant proposal:
– Look at the BWB Grant Impact & Criteria Document to see how we think about grants.
– Reach out to your local Burning Man Regional Contact and ask if they might be an advisor.
– Watch our video “How to write Quality Grants: Burning Man 101”(Starts rough but gets going at (9:00 in)
– Listen to our podcast  “Targeted Grant Writing: with Meta-Regional Jacqui Latendresse” (currently unavailable)

Who won the Civic Ignition Grant in the past?
See all our past Civic Ignition rounds and read updates from grant recipients here.

Privacy Statement:

Your privacy and trust are important to us. Burners Without Borders strives to follow the best practices for data and protection and privacy. We do not share the information you share with us beyond our internal systems, which may include your local regional contact in order to further connect you into the Burning Man Network.

> How to create a Project

> How to create a Project.