Frontline Justice Fund

The Frontline Justice Fund is a Tides Foundation environmental grantmaking initiative that equips communities impacted by climate environmental hazards with the critical resources they need to take on big polluters in the courtroom and beyond.

Youth organizer Miracle Boyd with Good Kids Mad City co-MCed the event and lifted up the voices of Chicago’s future. Photo Credit: Grassroots Collaborative, a Tides Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee, photographer: Aaron Cynic A group of people from Concerned Citizens of Cook County protesting pollution in their town at City Hall. Photo credit: Concerned Citizens of Cook County, a Frontline Justice Fund grantee Katherine Egland, co-founder of the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization. Photo credit: Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee
Youth organizer Miracle Boyd with Good Kids Mad City co-MCed the event and lifted up the voices of Chicago’s future. Photo Credit: Grassroots Collaborative, a Tides Women’s Environmental Leadership Fund grantee, photographer: Aaron Cynic A group of people from Concerned Citizens of Cook County protesting pollution in their town at City Hall. Photo credit: Concerned Citizens of Cook County, a Frontline Justice Fund grantee Katherine Egland, co-founder of the Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization. Photo credit: Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee

Request for Proposals

The FJF Fall 2024 RFP is closed

Fuel the Fight Against Big Polluters

Tides’ Frontline Justice Fund directly supports organizations pushing back against the fallout from climate disasters and protecting their communities from the looming threat of new and expanding oil pipelines, mines, and other dangerous and destructive projects.

Support Environmental Justice
A University of Texas student calls on the EPA to cut methane pollution from oil and gas. Photo credit: Environment Texas Research and Policy Center Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee

Our Impact

We stand with community leaders working for environmental and climate justice by helping to sustain their environmental litigation and advocacy efforts through grantmaking.

49 Grantee Organizations

A march against the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Photo credit: Protect our Water, Heritage, and Rights, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee
27 States and Puerto Rico
 Represented
A group of Latine people painting a community mural together. Photo credit: Comite Dialogo Ambiental, Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee
$4.25M Awarded
State Rep. Erin Zwiener joined with Environment Texas Research and Policy Center to call on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to hold law breaking polluters accountable. Photo credit: Environment Texas Research and Policy Center Inc, a Frontline Justice Fund grantee
Read the Frontline Justice Fund Annual Report

Funding Priorities

Tides’ Frontline Justice Fund uses environmental grantmaking to support communities who are engaged in environmental litigation and/or regulatory advocacy to secure their communities’ health for generations to come.

  • A group of four Latine organizers with Comite Dialogo Ambiental in front of the U.S. Capitol Building. Photo credit: Comite Dialogo Ambiental, Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee

    Pursuing Legal Action

    Our grants power long-term support systems specifically for groups engaged in, or that anticipate engaging in, protracted environmental litigation, or regulatory actions to advance climate and environmental justice.

  • A group of Black organizers with Memphis Community Against Pollution, a few of which are wearing t-shirts that say 'No Oil in our Soil.' Photo credit: Memphis Community Against Pollution Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee

    Impacted Communities

    Tides prioritizes environmental grantmaking efforts that center groups representing communities that have faced systemic barriers to power and other impacted communities on the frontlines of environmental injustice.

  • An Indigenous person in traditional dress waving a red scarf in front of the white house at a demonstration. Photo Credit: Protect our Water, Heritage, and Rights, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee, photographer: Matthew Pickett

    Frontline Leaders

    The communities most impacted by environmental harms are also the most closely familiar with the solutions needed to put a stop to them. Tides’ Frontline Justice Fund prioritizes communities where resources will have a direct impact on the frontlines and have broader implications in the fight for environmental justice and power building.

  • A multi-racial and multi-generational group of people gathered in a community garden. Photo credit: PUSH Buffalo, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee

    Non-Legal Costs

    Tides remains nimble, funding those who require rapid-response or multiyear funding to cover legal fees and non-legal costs that come with mounting and sustaining successful environmental litigation or regulatory advocacy campaigns, including organizing, communications, technical expertise, and capacity building.

Meet the Independent Advisory Committee

The Frontline Justice Fund is a Tides collective action fund led by an independent advisory committee (IAC) with members deeply rooted in both the environmental justice movement and community-based work. 

Their voices are essential to a participatory grantmaking process that prioritizes accessibility, transparency, and responsiveness.

Movement Leaders

  • Angela Mahecha headshot

    Angela Mahecha

    Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship at the Tishman Environment and Design Center

  • Douglas Cox headshot

    Douglas Cox

    Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin

  • Jacqueline Patterson headshot

    Jacqueline Patterson

    Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership

  • Maria Lopez-Nuñez headshot

    Maria Lopez-Nuñez

    Ironbound Community Corporation

Funders

  • Ash McNeely headshot

    Ash McNeely

    Pacific Foundation Services

  • Peter Martin headshot

    Peter Martin

    Tides Foundation

Grantee Stories

Justin J. Pearson, an organizer with Memphis Community Against Pollution, wearing a t-shirt that says 'No Oil in our Soil' speaking at a podium. Photo credit: Memphis Community Against Pollution Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee Ms. Scottie Fitzgerald, a Black property owner, speaking at a podium. Photo credit: Memphis Community Against Pollution Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund
Justin J. Pearson, an organizer with Memphis Community Against Pollution, wearing a t-shirt that says 'No Oil in our Soil' speaking at a podium. Photo credit: Memphis Community Against Pollution Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund grantee Ms. Scottie Fitzgerald, a Black property owner, speaking at a podium. Photo credit: Memphis Community Against Pollution Inc, a Tides Frontline Justice Fund

Memphis Against the Pipeline united in 2020 to reject a planned crude oil pipeline that would have run beneath South Memphis’s Black neighborhoods. After successfully defeating the pipeline, that effort became the broader Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP). Today, MCAP employs attorneys and collaborates with other environmental lawyers to push back not only against nearby polluters — including a sterilizer facility releasing ethylene oxide into the air — but also against the harmful belief that communities historically denied power are acceptable locations for pollution-heavy industries.

Meet More Grantees

Help Tides Power Environmental Justice Through Litigation

For Funders

Our goal is to raise at least $5 million per year, which will bring critical and sustaining resources to the forefront of environmental justice. Help environmental champions win important victories for their communities and ignite important conversations at the state, regional, and national levels.

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For Grant Seekers

Tides Frontline Justice Fund is currently accepting proposals for our Fall grantmaking cycle. Submit your proposal by September 26, 2024, 9pm ET.

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