Strategy & Budget

Each year, our team engages in a planning process to reflect on what we have learned, reaffirm our mission and values, set goals for our strategy and approaches, and establish a grantmaking budget.

 

2023 Strategic Direction

As we all adapt to a changing landscape brought about by COVID-19, we will transition our responsive grantmaking related to the pandemic to refocus on and strengthen our core grantmaking. This includes augmenting general operating grants for several long-term partners and honing our capacity building support to address a range of organizational and programmatic priorities. After taking some initial yet fruitful steps to more explicitly incorporate racial equity into our work, we will continue to do so by examining how to elevate our commitment across each of our program areas and strategies. Finally, we will continue learning through grantmaking with our existing initiatives and chart a course for exploring new areas of focus.


 

Past Years' Reports

In the first part of the year, we spent time learning more about the ten counties in our geographic focus area. This time in the field — meeting with nonprofits and public and private funding partners — gave us insights into the needs and opportunities in each community. These insights, along with new research that mapped local variation in child poverty, informed our grantmaking approach for the year. We refined our Safe Spaces strategy to place greater emphasis on supporting community-based spaces that promote engagement, connection, and safety. This shift means that we’ve expanded the portfolio to include outdoor spaces, trusted community hubs, and early care/learning centers. Finally, we explored policy and advocacy opportunities across the portfolio. Given the foundation’s focus on safety net services, changing policies and funding cuts out of Washington (both real and threatened) made for a particularly challenging year for our partners and the families they serve. These uncertain times only reinforce our commitment to our communities and the providers serving them.

2017 Grant Data

Grants Paid
266

Unique Grantees
228

Payment Range
$2,000-$500,000

Average Grant Payment
$88,777

Grant Payments
$23,614,650

Payments