The Peace Development Fund aims to make grants to community-based organizations working for social justice, emphasizing the need for systemic social change rooted in local communities. It believes in mobilizing young people as a vital force in societal transformation, stressing that lasting peace relies on justice, diversity, and equitable relationships among humans and with the natural environment.
The grant program focuses on supporting groups that engage in organizing to shift power by holding leaders accountable, empowering communities in decision-making, and ensuring leadership reflects those most affected by issues. It encourages building movements that connect local issues to systemic change, promote political analysis alongside action, and forge strategic alliances across diverse groups for long-term social change goals. The program supports efforts in dismantling oppression by addressing privilege and systemic structures reinforcing oppression, and it advocates for creating alternative, bottom-up, democratic, and sustainable community structures. It differentiates between general support for missions aligned with its principles and project support for specific initiatives of organizations with broader missions.