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COMMUNITY SUSTAINING FUND
of Thurston County

building community one grant at a time

“Your grant galvanized this project!”
– Thurston Housing Land Trust &
Community Farms Land Trust, 2023

News about CSF’s Spring’26 Grant Cycle

To Our Community of Activists and Contributors
From the CSF Board

The Community Sustaining Fund (CSF) has for almost 40 years been responsible
for distributing funds raised by Olympia Food Co-op members participating in the
Co-op’s “Round-up” program. In recent years, these small individual
contributions have added up to about $8,000-$10,000 annually in funds to
support progressive change throughout Thurston County.

Twice each year, CSF evaluates applications and awards grants to local groups and
individuals engaged in social justice, environmental protection and community
building projects. The original purpose for the CSF was to award funds to projects
aiming for social change, and to new groups with ideas that challenged the status
quo – project ideas that might otherwise go unfunded.
In recent years we have seen more applications from established groups, and
fewer from groups or individuals who reflect the original (and continuing) mission
and intent of the CSF.

After a period of reflection on these realities, our Board has decided that it’s time
to review our outreach, funding criteria and grant-review practices and to update
them where needed. We came to this decision using the same cautious
deliberation and consensus-based approach that we employ in making our grant
awards.

Therefore, we will not schedule a Spring 2026 grant cycle in order to complete
our review and to circulate updated materials to the community. The next
opportunity to apply for a Community Sustaining Fund Grant will be in the Fall of 2026 Check our website (ThurstonCSF.org) as we make progress on our review
and create opportunities for input from Co-op and community members. We will
post an announcement in September of specific dates for the Fall grant cycle.

Our story

The Community Sustaining Fund (CSF) of Thurston County is a local, grassroots grant fund. It was birthed in 1987 by an innovative group of Olympia Food Co-op members responding to a lack of funding to develop social change projects in Thurston County.  CSF began active grant-giving in 1989. Since then, the CSF has awarded many thousands of dollars for projects that range across social justice, environmental sustainability, and community activism, with a particular interest in grassroot start-ups. 
 
Community reinvestment
With our semi-annual grant cycle, we aim to create a more democratic, equitable, nonviolent, and ecologically sound society. CSF takes a particular interest in awarding costs for start-ups that might go unfunded, but with the expectation that these projects will become self-sustaining. Over almost 40 years, CSF has seeded the start-up and continuation of many projects that moved the needle for positive change in our communities
 
Groups such as Thurston Housing Land Trust, Strengthening Sanctuary, “suləx: Gifts of the Land Ethnobotanical Garden,” Bowl of Hope, Terra Commons, Stonewall Youth, South Sound Estuary, Veterans for Peace are just a small sample of the hundreds of organizations and individuals who received CSF grants.

The Next Grant Cycle will be Fall 2026.

The next opportunity to apply is for the Fall 2026 Grant Cycle. Date will be announced in September.

Grant Cycle opens: 
October date TBD
Application deadline: 
Oct. or Nov. (Mon.) 11:59 pm

.

Grants Committee meets: 
Nov. date TBD
Applicant interviews: 
Nov. date TBD (Sat.)

Volunteer powered
The fund is powered by donations from community members and Olympia Food Co-op members. Co-op shoppers who ask to “Round-Up” for CSF provide most of the funds, but individual donations and fundraisers also help.​ A board of local volunteers sows 100% of those donations back into the community through a twice-yearly cycle of grants.

If you would like to contribute, here are some ways:

  • Ask to Round-Up your purchases for the Community Sustaining Fund at one of the Olympia Food Co-op locations.
  • For Co-op members, ask to be reminded to “Round-Up” at the cash register.
  • Sign up with CSF to receive Grant Round announcements (at Contact page)
  • Share CSF Grant Round announcements and other news on your social media.
  • Share by word of mouth
  • Send a contribution to: CSF, 2103 Harrison Ave NW, #2715, Olympia, WA 98502
  • Apply for CSF funding for your own project!