The U.S. Human Rights Fund is primarily interested in supporting U.S. social justice groups that frame and carry out their domestic work in human rights terms and their relationship to the U.S. rights community more generally. Rather than focusing on particular issue areas, we concentrate on the development of the U.S. human rights movement as a whole. More than anything else, the Fund is a field building initiative that focuses on the following core capacity areas:

• Human Rights Training and Education: Grants in this area aim to increase the quality and effectiveness of U.S. human rights law and advocacy work. Examples of support are: increased organizational knowledge of human rights law and advocacy or peer-to-peer training in the application of human rights law and advocacy to particular issue areas and/or strategies (e.g. organizing, fact-finding, or the use of regional or international fora).

• Regional and National Networks: Under this priority area, the Fund seeks to increase the inclusiveness and cohesion of the U.S. human rights movement and to promote the transfer of skills and experience between the wide range of groups operating in this field. Examples of support are plans for developing the mission or strategic plan of a given network or sustaining it over time, issue or strategy specific convenings, and collaborative initiatives between social justice groups.

• Coordinated communications and shared messaging work: Grants in this area aim to increase knowledge about and awareness of human rights for the purpose of increasing adherence to human rights in the United States. Examples of support include communications strategies associated with core US human rights themes or specific U.S. human rights projects, the development of messaging related to the same, case studies of successful human rights campaigns or initiatives, and the use of alternate and popular communication tools to reach broader audiences.

• Strategic Thinking and Advocacy: The Fund will consider proposals that aim to increase the applied use of human rights principles and standards to assess and influence domestic law and policy. Examples of support include thoughtful application of a human rights analysis to key US domestic policy or legal issues or the integral use of human rights standards and strategies to affect a targeted policy/legal change.