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From eviction defense to immigrant community protection, the first four cycles of the Rapid Response Fund show how organizations across the state are responding to a rapidly changing political landscape. 

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In August 2025, Headwaters launched our Rapid Response Fund to move resources quickly to community organizations responding to unexpected events and urgent political moments. 

Six months later, the requests we’ve received offer a powerful snapshot of organizing across Minnesota. From immigration enforcement to housing instability to threats facing reproductive justice organizations, community groups are adapting quickly to a rapidly changing political landscape. 

What we are seeing is both sobering and inspiring: the scale of need is immense, and so is the leadership emerging across the state. 

Demand Far Exceeds Available Funding 

One of the clearest takeaways from the first four cycles of the Rapid Response Fund is the sheer volume of requests. 

In those four cycles, we received 330 inquiries totaling $8.25 million in funding requests. About half of these organizations had never previously received a Headwaters grant, making the fund a powerful entry point to connect with new organizing efforts across our ecosystem. 

When we launched the fund, we budgeted $600,000 for the year, intending to award $75,000 across eight cycles. The pace of inquiries far exceeded what we anticipated. 

What this tells us is clear: there is a tremendous amount of urgent, BIPOC-led organizing responding to this moment, all of it worthy of support. One of the hardest parts of running a rapid response fund is how much critical work we simply cannot say yes to funding each cycle. 

Communities Navigating Cascading Crises 

The proposals we’ve received map the overlapping crises communities are navigating. 

Throughout the fall, organizations requested support to respond to the termination of housing stabilization services by expanding eviction protection efforts. Others addressed safety concerns for reproductive justice organizations following the murders of Melissa and Doug Hortman. We saw proposals responding to the Annunciation School shooting and the urgent need for gun violence prevention advocacy, as well as proposals addressing looming cuts to SNAP benefits that placed additional strain on food shelves. 

Immigration enforcement has been a consistent thread since the fund launched. In our very first cycle, organizations were already ramping up campaigns to keep ICE out of courthouses and dramatically expand know-your-rights education. 

By Cycle 4, which opened January 4, we received 118 inquiries – every one of them addressing the impact of ICE on the organization’s work. Many of these groups do not primarily identify as immigrant rights organizations, yet mobilized quickly to support impacted community members. 

Requests included support for mutual aid, culturally specific know-your-rights education, trauma support for families, legal strategies to prevent deportations, direct action campaigns, cultural healing work, and organizing efforts challenging corporate practices and evictions. 

Organizing Across Greater Minnesota 

Between 15–20% of proposals each cycle come from organizations based in Greater Minnesota, which underscores both the successful organizing efforts throughout the state, and the need to move resources outside of the Twin Cities. We hope to grow this number as we deepen relationships with organizing efforts outside the Twin Cities metro. 

A consistent theme from rural organizations is the rise of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. Several counties have entered into new 287(g) agreements, which deputize local law enforcement to carry out federal immigration enforcement. These agreements are increasing pressure on communities to protect one another against an expanding carceral state. 

Organizations across rural Minnesota are responding by organizing know-your-rights trainings, civic engagement efforts, and community defense strategies. At the same time, many report growing strain on families due to cuts to federal programs that support rural communities.  

Additionally, ninety-five percent of inquiries have come from BIPOC-led organizations, reflecting the depth of community leadership responding to this moment. No one should suggest that powerful multiracial organizing isn’t happening across Minnesota, especially in greater Minnesota. Our experience shows the opposite. 

Rapid Response Infrastructure Must Exist Before Crisis 

Rapid response is not new. Community organizations are constantly adapting to shifting policy environments, environmental crises, safety threats, and political moments. 

The purpose of this fund is to ensure resources can move quickly when those pivots happen. 

We did not create the Rapid Response Fund in response to the ICE occupation in Minnesota, but because the fund already existed, we were able to support organizations as they mobilized quickly to meet community needs and organize resistance. 

This experience has reinforced a core lesson: rapid response infrastructure must exist before crisis hits. 

Growing the Rapid Response Fund 

In the second half of the year – Cycles 4 through 8 – we have increased our grantmaking budget thanks to new donor support. This has allowed us to increase the minimum number of grants per cycle from three to five, resourcing more urgent work across the state. 

The first six months of the Rapid Response Fund have made one thing clear: when crisis hits, community organizations are the first to respond. They organize neighbors, protect families, and build collective solutions – often with very limited resources. 

With your support, we can move more funding to the leaders doing this work on the ground. As the political landscape continues to shift, rapid response funding will remain a critical tool for helping communities act quickly when it matters most. 

We invite you to support the Rapid Response Fund. Your donation helps ensure that when the next urgent moment arrives, the people closest to the work have the resources they need to respond. 

Rapid Response Fund: Cycles 1–4 

Inquiries received: 330 
Funding requested: $8,250,000 
Organizations invited to apply: 150 
Grants awarded: 15 
Amount awarded to date: $375,000 

Organizations funded through the Rapid Response Fund in the first four cycles: 

In greater Minnesota 

• Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County supporting immigrant families preparing for possible enforcement actions. 
• Seeds Worth Sowing expanding housing stabilization efforts to prevent evictions. 
• Fe y Justicia strengthening a local ICE rapid response network. 
• Pamoja Women organizing cultural healing and community support in response to immigration enforcement. 
• Restorative and Mediation Practices (RAMP) expanding eviction protection work. 

In the Twin Cities metro 

• Believe in What’s Possible mobilizing youth in political organizing. 
• Foster Advocates supporting organizational healing during a period of major transition. 
• Black Liberation Archiving and Conservation Center (BLACC) preserving movement history and cultural memory. 
• Sex Worker Organizing Project (SWOP) supporting internal healing and resilience within organizing spaces. 
• African Career, Education & Resources Inc. (ACER) expanding eviction protection efforts. 
• Indigenous Roots supporting community response networks addressing immigration enforcement. 
• Mixed Blood Theater leading cultural organizing for immigrant rights. 
• Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL) organizing businesses around 4^th amendment rights and an end to the ICE occupation of MN. 
• Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment (RISE) strengthening organizational safety and security. 
• Transforming Generations organizing community defense in response to ICE.