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Labor union grants are normally granted to provide apprenticeship programs, employment opportunities, job training, workforce development, health and safety programs, youth programs, worker justice and human rights projects. Between the past few years nearly 500 labor union grants were awarded by foundations such as the California Endowment, Chicago Community Trust, John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, Broad Foundation, Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Surdna Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, Verizon Foundation, Open Society Institute, William Randolph Heart Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation and others.

A few of the organizations that have received labor union grants over the past five years include Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, Chicago Teachers Union, National Farm Workers Services Center, California Teachers Association, American Productivity and Quality Center, AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, SEIU Education and Support Fund, National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights.

Last year the Ford Foundation awarded two labor union grants to The National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice in Chicago, Illinois and Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights in Greenville, Mississippi. The purpose of these labor union grants were 1) to plan Religious Perspectives on Work to strengthen religion scholarship, teaching and leadership related to work justice and 2) to develop a resource clearinghouse and listserv, to convene the Fifth biennial Southern Human Rights Organizer’s Conference, and to provide media/online services. The combined awards for these grants totaled $5,000,000.