About Peace First Mini-Grants

What Peace First grants can, and can’t, pay for: 

Peace First provides Mini-grants of up to $250 to eligible youth-led projects. We encourage you to request only the funds you truly need to carry out the project. Requesting only the funds you need allows us to distribute more mini-grants to young people’s peacemaking projects.

Consider what resources you can get discounted or for free from community partners. Often, community organizations or supporters will be willing to offer free meeting space, printing, and other resources. 

Requesting a smaller mini-grant, or no mini-grant at all, won’t impact your eligibility for our Accelerator program.

Areas of prohibited spending:

  • Payments to project creators/leaders 
  • Alcohol
  • Any drugs or illicit substances
  • Purchases of technology. Peace First grants cannot be used to purchase cameras, phones, computers, or other pieces of expensive technology. We encourage project creators to consider the resources at their disposal and ask friends or community partners to allow their use of their tech equipment. Under certain circumstances and only when necessary, we will pay for rented equipment.  

Areas of spending to limit:

  • Printing. While we recognize printed materials are often necessary, we generally won’t approve printing expenses that are more than 25% of a project’s budget. Consider whether printing (as opposed to hosting and sharing documents online) is necessary for your work. Ask community partners or other organizations to print small batches of documents for you.
  • Space rental. Many non-profit organizations and community partners will provide use of their space to youth-led projects for free, or for a very small fee. You might also consider meeting in public spaces. While Peace First grants may be used for space rental when no other options are available, we will not fund excessive rental fees.
  • Branded t-shirts, banners, and other items. Consider whether branded items such as t-shirts, banners, and other materials are necessary for your project to have the impact intended.  We rarely approve funds for branded materials for one-time events.
  • Food and beverages. Consider whether offering food and beverages at your meetings is important and if so, whether a community partner can provide these for free or a reduced cost. We generally approve limited food and beverage expenses.
  • In general, please limit the supplies requested for your project to what is necessary, and consider what you can ask for or borrow from community partners.