About

Freedonia is a non-profit organization rooted in and committed to furthering anarchist principles and practices. It is run by an all-volunteer Board of Directors who are responsible for managing the affairs of the organization, as well as making funding decisions. Freedonia has no paid staff, and the Board of Directors utilize consensus decision-making wherever possible. 

Freedonia provides material support to grassroots movements fighting to make the world a better place and bring about radical social change. We care about social, economic, and environmental justice, and strive to contribute (however modestly) to revolutionary imaginings; anti-colonial projects; queer and feminist struggles; initiatives to end white supremacy; undertakings that challenge capitalism; anti-fascist groups; abolitionist campaigns; and much more! 

Our Board of Directors is composed of longtime activists and organizers who have been involved in a wide range of social movements and community initiatives.  We currently have board members based in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec, and we hope to expand this list in the future.

Freedonia provides small and large grants on an annual basis to projects that reflect anarchist and anti-authoritarian values, and are based in so-called Canada. We are less concerned with labels than we are with the substance of the work being done. 

Every year Freedonia announces the opening of a new funding round, outlines funding priorities for the year, and invites interested groups to apply. Each new funding round is typically announced early in the year, with a spring deadline for applications, and with funds administered in mid to late summer. 

We support projects that are non-hierarchical in nature and oriented towards forms of struggle that do not rely on petitioning those in power – projects that seek to directly challenge systems of oppression and exploitation, and/or build liberatory alternatives to the status quo. We prioritize funding projects that are committed to taking action, and unlikely to get funding elsewhere.

Freedonia was founded in 1997 by Gary Moffatt as an expression of his enduring commitment to anarchism and his dedication to supporting social and economic alternatives to capitalism. A lifelong activist, Gary believed in building radical community and sharing his financial resources with social movements. He was generous in life as in death – while alive he acted as Freedonia’s primary benefactor and upon his death in 2001 endowed Freedonia with a sizable portion of his estate. It is this endowment that allows us to do the work that we do. 

For close to 30 years,  Freedonia has awarded small and medium sized short-term grants to projects located in Ontario and British Columbia (the two provinces where Gary historically spent his time). Our main grants provided funding of up to $5,000, and our secondary grants provided funding of $1,000 or less. More recently, we offered a limited number of long-term grants that provided funding to select projects for three consecutive years. While this model has served Freedonia well, we are ready to try something new.

Coming out of the 2024 Freedonia Board Retreat (the first in close to a decade!), the decision was made to revamp our granting structure and extend our reach. Starting with the 2025 Funding Round, we are increasing the amount of funding that we provide and expanding the eligibility criteria of who can apply. We will now offer a small number of larger-sized grants of up to $20,000, and will accept applications for projects based anywhere in Canada.*

* We acknowledge the inherent shortcomings to this framing. We are against states (settler-colonial or otherwise), and we dream of a world without borders.