Side Project

To promote social justice and social change by incubating and developing grassroots projects. To promote social justice and social change by incubating and developing grassroots projects. We are a nonprofit incubator and social change accelerator. We believe in the power of grassroots community organizations and work with new projects and initiatives to help them determine their best path forward. Side Project oversees new and innovative projects focused on progressive social change. In 2022, we worked alongside several initiatives focused on creating more inclusive and welcoming communities, including those who were implementing new programs, collaborating across sectors on issues, and testing out new approaches to social change. Our projects span many fields in the nonprofit sector and have strong, capable leadership with a variety of small to large operations. Some of our projects are as follows: pittsburgh center for autistic advocacy (pcaa) works to improve the lives of autistic people and seeks to advance the equity of autistic people in all realms of life. They believe that all autistic people and disabled people have the right to follow their dreams and be fully involved in decisions that affect their lives. Pcaa also believes in inclusive education and empowering autistic leaders in their community using principles from the disability rights movement and intersectional feminism. In 2022, pcaa reached around 1000 individuals and provided nearly 100 hours of peer support. In 2022, the black women's policy agenda established the black women's policy center, an in-person and virtual space where black women can build on the collective power of black women in the community and the organizations and initiatives that serve them. The center advocates and shifts systems change work to focusing on the intersectionality of race and gender. They are moving the dial and changing conditions so that black women and girls go from surviving to thriving. Getting ahead beaver county was established in 2022, with a focus on depleting beaver county of poverty one person at a time. They accomplish this through getting ahead workshops, the staying ahead network, and on the ground networking in beaver county. In 2022, they recruited 16 participants for their inaugural cohort and worked with them on personal, life, social, and networking skills. Through our program lawyers for nonprofits, Side Project Inc provides training and technical assistance focused on helping the community understand state and federal laws that impact social justice-themed projects. Side Project's training and technical assistance team also assists community-based leaders in understanding nonprofit management and strategic planning techniques. In 2022, Side Project delivered both in- person and online-based education and technical assistance. Lawyers for nonprofits provided information and guidance to nonprofits and grassroots projects on corporate, tax, and compliance issues. This included corporate governance issues, charitable registration compliance issues, tax-exempt issues, including executive compensation, private inurement, excess benefit, and the restrictions on lobbying and political activity. In 2022, Side Project provided nearly 1000 hours of pro bono and low bono one-on-one support to hundreds of nonprofits and would-be nonprofit organizations (with budgets less than 2,000,000) in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Oregon. Additionally, we provided on-going low bono and pro bono legal, community organizing, and operational support to more than 25 small, grassroots nonprofits focused on social justice issues. Lawyers for nonprofits also hosts a free nonprofit legal hotline that assists dozens of grassroots groups, assisting them with a variety of general counsel legal services. In Florida, we hosted nonprofit legal clinic workshops in partnership with nonprofit first and the center for social change on legal and compliance issues for small nonprofits. In Pennsylvania, we also hosted webinars on fiscal sponsorship in partnership with the Pennsylvania association of nonprofit organizations and nonprofit issues.