St. Louis, MO

Frequently Asked Questions

The Sow Joy Peoples Fund (SJP Fund) is a community-centered and led funding initiative supporting Black, Indigenous, people of color-led environmental justice grassroots organizations working on the frontlines in the St. Louis Metro and Metro East areas. The fund was initiated by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (FSM), a congregation dedicated to community service. Through their vision, this fund was created to foster a just culture of giving and shift power to frontline

The SJP Fund promotes environmental justice by centering frontline voices, community ownership and stewardship of resources, fostering trust, and empowering communities to drive systemic change.

The Community Board (CB) is made up of community members from St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and the Metro East who oversee the fund’s investments. Members of the CB are individuals with lived experience of being directly impacted by environmental racism. The CB reviews and selects applications for funding, shapes investment priorities based on community knowledge, and helps refine the fund’s focus through ongoing community feedback.

The SJP Fund prefers to fund grassroots, community-based organizations that meet the following criteria:

  • Center Just Culture: Applicants must demonstrate a commitment to Just Culture, defined as a workplace where all workers have access to fair compensation, benefits, pathways for shared decision-making, professional growth opportunities, and the ability to work in a safe, welcoming, and healthy environment.
    A Just Culture can include:
    • Decentralizing decision-making and allowing space for individual autonomy.
    • Using alternative leadership structures that are non-hierarchical and centered on collective knowledge.
    • Offering compensation that allows individuals to thrive beyond a basic living wage.
    • Supporting individual well-being with sick/mental health days without penalty.
    • Using transformative justice models around harm and repair when conflict arises.
    • Respecting the many roles an individual fulfills outside the workplace.
    • Honoring experiences of all individuals in the workplace.
    • Co-creating a space of mutual harmony and trust.
    • Recognizing that formal education is not the only path to growth and continued learning.
  • Led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in the St. Louis Metro or Metro East area:
    Eligible areas include:
    • Louis City
    • Louis County
    • Metro East: Southern Illinois, Cahokia Heights, East St. Louis, Madison County, and St. Clair County.
  • Focused on environmental justice work that addresses any of the following principles:
    • Affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity, and the interdependence of all species.
    • Establishes the fundamental right to clean air, water, land, food, education, and shelter.
    • Centers mutual harmony over individual autonomy in potentially harmful situations.
    • Recognizes the deep connection between relationships with each other and with the natural world.
    • Centers rematriation, a return to Mother Earth, and Co-Creation through the revitalization of Indigenous education, culture, language, stories, and songs.
    • Recognizes collective kinship rights, including protection of human, more-than-human, water, air, and land rights.
    • Ensures that those directly impacted by environmental degradation participate as equal partners in decision-making.
    • Affirms the right for all workers to a safe and healthy work environment, without forcing them to choose between livelihood and unsafe conditions.
    • Centers the voices of the most impacted communities, particularly people of color and low-income communities, who are disproportionately exposed to pollution and industrial practices.
    • Recognizes Indigenous Sovereignty and Treaty Rights.
    • Requires consent before testing or altering bodies, including land, more-than-human kin, and human kin.
    • Emphasizes a reciprocal relationship of care with first foods and medicines.

There is no one way to heal the ills of the land and oppressive systems. Therefore, the Fund welcomes projects of arts, culture, healing, advocacy, conservation, organizing and much more. However, initiatives should align with environmental justice principles and uplift Just Culture practices. Projects should center community solutions, rematriation, co-creation, and the rights of communities disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation.

Yes, The fund’s formation was initiated by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary (FSM), a congregation of Roman Catholic women religious. Because of FSM’s relationship within the Roman Catholic Church, organizations working to promote issues that are in direct conflict with Catholic moral principles will not be eligible for funding. As articulated in the Socially Responsible Investment Guidelines for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops dated November 2021, these issues currently include abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, in vitro fertilization, embryonic stem cell and fetal tissue research, human cloning, and artificial contraceptive. Universities, individuals, for-profit entities, municipal governments, public agencies, and any other non-grassroots organizations will not be considered for funding.

The application will open for submissions on TBD and is structured in two parts. To begin, you will be asked a series of eligibility questions. If your organization does not meet the eligibility criteria, the application will end at that stage. If eligible, you will proceed to complete the second part of the application. For the second part, we accept submissions in video, audio, or written formats.

  • Details for Fall 2026 Cycle coming soon!

The SJP Fund provides general operating support grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000. Applicants will be asked to indicate the amount of funding they need within that range.

SJP Fund is committed to the long-term sustainability of grantee organizations and seeks to be in authentic relationships. Understanding that addressing environmental injustices will take time. Therefore, this grant is a renewable two-year commitment (upon annual review), with the opportunity for an additional two more years of funding pending a review–totaling 4 years of funding.

Funding decisions are made by a participatory board consisting of frontline community stakeholders. Each application will be scored on a 0-5 scale on multiple factors including just culture, community restoration, collaboration, systems change and sustainability (please refer to our glossary for a definition of these terms). Multiple board members will read each application to ensure a fair and transparent review process.

If any board members are part of an organization applying for funds, they must have someone else write the grant on behalf of the organization. Additionally, they will need to step away from any decisions related to their organization’s application.

Yes, non-501(c)(3) / unincorporated organizations can apply. We accept both fiscally sponsored and non-fiscally sponsored entities. If you are not fiscally sponsored, you will receive funds under a W-9 and be considered a contractor responsible for any applicable taxes. This will be considered when determining the total grant amount awarded.

Yes, given that the fund has been established with finite resources and anticipates sunsetting, sustainability will be a key consideration in the application process. Applicants will be asked to describe how they plan to leverage the funding and sustain their work after the grant concludes.

Glossary of Terms

BIPOC
Definition: An acronym for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, recognizing the unique experiences of these groups in navigating systemic racism.

COLLABORATION
Definition: Partnerships between individuals, organizations, or communities to achieve shared goals, emphasizing mutual benefit and shared responsibility.
Example: Partnering with local health organizations to create a community healing network.

COMMUNITY RESTORATION
Definition: The process of repairing and revitalizing communities impacted by trauma, violence, or displacement by centering the leadership of those most affected. This approach focuses on healing, resilience, and empowerment, ensuring that the community members themselves lead efforts to rebuild, reclaim resources, and restore trust and cohesion.
Example: Initiatives where residents of neighborhoods fractured by systemic violence or gentrification lead efforts to rebuild their community, foster healing, and strengthen resilience through local decision-making and support networks.

CO-CREATION
Definition: Collaborative process where diverse stakeholders work together to create solutions or initiatives, sharing responsibility and innovation equally.
Example: Involving community members and healers in developing a healing curriculum, ensuring their input shapes the final outcome.

CONSENT
Definition: Permission granted with full understanding and without coercion, respecting the autonomy of the individual or group.
Example: Obtaining clear agreement from community members before implementing any programs or initiatives that will affect them.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Definition: Environmental justice acknowledges the legacy of systemic racial discrimination and settler colonialism that has disproportionately harmed Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. These communities face higher exposure to environmental hazards, resulting in negative health outcomes. Environmental justice seeks to address these inequities by empowering affected communities to lead solutions. It also recognizes that different communities may experience environmental harm in unique ways, ensuring all voices are central to the movement for justice.
Example: North County, St. Louis community’s fight against the proposed expansion of the Whelan, Inc. toxic waste dump. The predominantly Black neighborhoods near the site have long struggled with pollution and environmental hazards, including high levels of lead exposure. Residents and local organizations organized to oppose the expansion of the landfill.

JUST CULTURE
Definition: Internal practice focusing on fostering fairness, transparency, and accountability within an organization. It centers on learning from mistakes and supporting individuals rather than blaming them.
Example: When addressing errors in the workplace, using them as opportunities for growth and improvement, rather than assigning blame.

KINSHIP RIGHTS
Definition: The protection and care of everything that is connected through a web of relationships—this includes not just people, but also animals, plants, water, air, and the land. These rights recognize that all living things and natural resources are interconnected and depend on one another. Kinship Rights also shape how we manage land, share resources, and sustain cultural traditions. They highlight the responsibility to care for the environment and community as a whole, ensuring balance and respect for both people and nature, so that everyone and everything can thrive together.
Example: In a forested Tribal area, Kinship Rights guide the community’s approach to land and resource use. They see the trees, animals, and rivers as part of their extended family. As part of these rights, they harvest timber sustainably, only taking what’s needed and replanting to ensure the forest continues to thrive. By protecting the water sources and maintaining balance with nature, they honor their responsibility to care for the land and all living things that depend on it.

MUTUAL HARMONY
Definition: Acting in a way that considers the well-being and balance of the collective.
Example: Instead of staying up late with a loud television that wakes others, choosing to go to bed earlier so that everyone in the household can rest and wake up refreshed.

REMATRIATION
Definition: The process of returning land and cultural heritage to Indigenous peoples, restoring their relationship with the land, traditions, and sovereignty.
Example: Efforts that focus on land return to Indigenous communities as part of reparative justice.

SETTLER COLONIALISM
Definition: Settler colonialism happens when people from one country move to another land, take it over, and settle there, often forcing the original people off their land and ignoring their rights. It’s not just about taking resources, but about replacing the original culture with their own.
Example: A clear example of settler colonialism is when European settlers came to North America, took land from Native American tribes, and forced them to move. Even today, Native communities often fight to protect their land from being taken for pipelines and other developments without their permission.

SUSTAINABILITY
Definition: The capacity to maintain programs, practices, or initiatives over the long term, ensuring they continue to benefit the community without depleting resources.
Example: Developing funding models that support healing programs beyond the initial grant period.

SYSTEM CHANGE
Definition: External, large-scale transformations in societal or institutional structures aimed at addressing root causes of inequality or injustice.
Example: Efforts to reform policies that perpetuate environmental degradation in marginalized communities.