We entered 2022 with a renewed understanding of the importance of providing reliable long-term flexible support as pandemic-era government spending began to wind down. Based on that declining source of funding, sustained elevated need from families, and survey results from our grantee partners, we directed ~$4.6M in responsive funding to address urgent eviction prevention, direct cash assistance to families, and diaper and food distribution. As was the case last year, the relatively large number of these responsive grants resulted in one-time shifts to the number of one-year grants versus multi-year grants and lowered the average grant amount for the year.

We also sought to understand the longer-term impact on nonprofits facing a higher number of clients seeking support, rising costs, and myriad operational challenges to plan for ways to increase our grantmaking support in the years ahead. Finally, we began updating some of our approaches to prioritizing capacity building requests and considering increases to general operating support grants based on what we learned from grantee partners as well as principles of racial equity from our team’s ongoing learning journey.