The fund for strengthening diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community worldwide has doubled this year!

The Call for Applications and Form are also available in:

• French
• Spanish
• Portuguese

We are very excited to announce the 4th annual Pushing Against Racism (PAR) Fund, which aims to financially support and strengthen diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community worldwide.

A total of $30,000 in grants in 2025 will be awarded to nonprofits worldwide, with input from an international expert jury. The Pushing Against Racism Fund is being organized by the Goodpush Alliance and a coalition of skateboarding-focused organizations around the world, who previously launched the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding in May 2021.

With funding for non-profits and inclusion-focused work being threatened around the world in 2025, we are excited that this year’s PAR Fund has doubled from $15,000 last year to $30,000, allowing us to increase the size and number of grants that we are offering.

The Fund is now open for new applications! Keep reading to find out more and how to apply.

Why Does this Fund Exist?

Access to funds is one of the top issues facing social skateboarding projects worldwide, particularly for smaller projects in low and middle income countries (LMICs) or poorer communities. 

For example, in many countries, there is no access to online fundraising tools like GoFundMe or PayPal. On top of this, nonprofit organizations around the world continue to prop up institutional and structural racism. The leadership of many social skateboarding projects is mostly white — mirroring a trend in the international nonprofit sector that has historically relied on unfair practices such as unpaid interns, and paid/leadership positions being based in Global North countries.

To respond to these challenges, the Pushing Against Racism Working Group created a fund in 2022 to financially support greater diversity and inclusion within the social skateboarding community. 

About the Fund

The Pushing Against Racism Fund will distribute a total of $30,000 USD in grants to support social skateboarding projects worldwide. We will select at least one project per continent to receive $2500 each, as well as up to 10 smaller projects around the world to receive $1000 each. 

The funds will be granted to support projects led by people of color or from disenfranchised communities, and/or to support increased diversity and inclusion within social skateboarding. Funded activities could be skate programs, events, or paid positions/internships for youth from communities affected by racism. The hope is that the Fund will help to direct more money, profile, and resources to support more diverse leadership within social skateboarding in coming years.

Some examples of past grantee projects include:

• Construction of wooden skate ramps and skate equipment for running regular skateboard sessions for children in Mbale, Uganda by Dream House Uganda
   
• A skate tour introducing skateboarding to underdeveloped areas and hosting events related to fighting caste discrimination in multiple cities in Nepal by Yuwa for Change
   
• An event celebrating Indigenous People’s Day and Go Skateboarding Day by Nations Skate Youth Society in Canada.
   
• Employment of the first coaches from the local community by Skateboarding Papua New Guinea and Timor Skate.
   
• Women and queer-led skate meet-ups hosted by Dencity.ng in four cities in Nigeria with skate lessons provided for beginners.
   

Projects will be supported across two funding categories:

• “Continent grants” of $2500 – for larger, more established organizations (at least one project selected per continent with two additional ‘wildcard’ grants distributed based on the quality and geography of applications)
• “Community grants” of $1000 – for smaller or new projects (no geographic limitation – an estimated 10 community grants will be distributed)
   

Essential Criteria:

• Geography – You can be based anywhere! You will just need to tell us which continent you are working in. 
  • ​​Africa
  • Asia
  • Oceania
  • Europe
  • Americas (note: 2 “Continent grants” will be allocated to the Americas – one in North America and one South/Central America)
• Commitment – Applicants must have signed on to the Commitment to Anti-Racism in Skateboarding.
• Concept – Must show a strong project concept involving skateboarding and the ability to carry it out between July 2025 - June 2026.

Guiding Criteria (what we are looking for in applications):

• Our priority is to support projects with leadership by people of color or other racially/ethnically disenfranchised groups.
• We will prioritize projects serving people of color, marginalized ethnic groups, and under-served communities (such as economically disadvantaged, immigrants, refugees), as well as those addressing intersectionality (gender, sexuality, race).
• One-off events (ie. public skatepark ‘takeovers’ or contests/festivals) AND programs running as long as 12 months are all eligible. We will prioritize sustainable projects that have potential to continue.
• We are open to applicants who are new to skateboarding or who have less experience creating or running projects, but all project ideas need to be well thought-out and show commitment and knowledge of the local skateboarding context to be considered.
• The aim of the project should include one of the following goals:
  • Improve physical and mental well-being of disenfranchised communities
  • Promote greater racial equity in skateboarding
  • Provide access to skateboarding in underserved communities
  • Additional social elements (like connecting participants to greater art/educational/leadership opportunities through skateboarding) are encouraged but this is not essential.

Guiding principles/sensitivity check:

• While you can use AI tools to help you write your application, please DO NOT useAI/ChatGPT to design your entire project. We will look for specific details on how you will carry out your project in your specific context.

• If English is not your first language, feel free to use Google Translate / DeepL to help you apply. We will assess and choose winners based on the information you give, not your grammar or spelling. 

• If you are doing work to stand up for the rights of particular groups or communities that you aren't a part of, please check in with someone who has lived experience and expertise of that group. We can all accidentally reproduce racism and racist practices even if we are from another marginalized/minority group ourselves.

• We recommend doing a sensitivity check if you plan to work with multiracial and multiethnic participants outside of your own community in order to understand how to work within that culture effectively.

• Be transparent about your intentions and goals for your project and work closely and collaboratively with individuals and communities you plan to work with, to ensure that their voices and perspectives are heard and valued.

 Selection Process and Jury Members:

The Pushing Against Racism Working Group will shortlist the applications. The group will then share the shortlisted applications with a jury of representatives from each global region for their input before the final selection. We are honored to have the following jury members on board: 

• Africa: Johnny Kalenga – Founder of WeSkate Mongu social skate project and skatepark in Mongu, Zambia.

• Americas: 

  • Alberto Santos – One of the pioneers in the development of clinical psychology and sports psychology for the skateboarding community in Brazil. He also works with the NGO Love CT Inclusão e Resgate in São Paulo.

  • Kyoko Hicks – Hosts Japanese skateboard exchange students in California, USA, where she’s now based and started skateboarding in her 50s. 

• Asia: Kyunglyun Lee – Co-founder of Skate Unnies skate club, hosting free monthly skate lessons for girls/women, custom art workshops, and queer-friendly events. She is based in Daejeon, South Korea.

• Europe: Raquel Pérez – Founder and director of the "Skatezuela" skateboarding platform in Caracas, Venezuela, promoting skating culture since 2008. Skate Ambassador for Poseiden Fundation, skateboarding talent for Agencia River, and skate coach for Almas Libres. Currently based in Barcelona, Spain. 

• Oceania: Dr. Indigo Willing – Indigo is a co-chair of Skateistan's International Advisory Board and co-founder of Respect is Rad, SSHRED and We Skate QLD. Her research includes for the Australian Human Rights Commission Anti-racism National Framework.

How to Apply

Simply fill out this application form. If you are not comfortable writing in English, you are welcome to use Google Translate/DeepL to translate your application, or you can submit in your own language and we will translate it into English on our side. 

Alternatively, you can submit a video/audio application – instructions here (in English only)

On April 8th at 5pm CET (11am EST / 8am PST), we will host an Application Support Webinar to help guide you through the application process and answer any questions you may have. Sign up here.

The deadline to apply is 30 April, 2025. 

The Pushing Against Racism Fund is supported by Skateistan.