GXF prioritizes grants to small community-based groups seeking to meet face-to-face with other grassroots organizations, to build collaborative campaigns, and to benefit from technical assistance opportunities.

GXF awards grants averaging $300-$800 to approximately sixty organizations per year to cover training, travel, or conference expenses. The fund typically makes grants to grassroots community-based organizations working on economic, environmental, and social-justice initiatives that give voice to the needs of low-income people, women, youth, and people of color.

Current criteria for GXF grants include the urgency of the action, strategy session, or conference to the overall work of the applicant organization; the extent to which a small grant from GXF would make a significant impact; the extent to which the applicant meets core Common Counsel criteria — membership-led groups organizing for social, economic, or environmental change.